Frequently Asked Questions Q1. Why doesn't iChurch use a totally browser-based solution? Q2. How can you run iChurch on a Mac? Q3. How is iChurch kept up to date? Q1. Why doesn't iChurch use a totally browser-based solution? A1. The iChurch product family is made up of the iChurch program and the miChurch portal. iChurch provides the super-responsive feature-rich graphical environment required for day-in, day-out users and miChurch provides accessibility to everyone in the church. iChurch is a program which runs on your computer which communicates to a central database using the internet. Examples of other programs which use a similar design are: Apple iTunes Microsoft Xbox Live Microsoft CRM Google Earth Most instant messenger programs E-mail clients such as Outlook, Eudora, etc The miChurch portal enables access to the common iChurch database via the internet. This enables members to update their details or print their giving statement, group leaders to grab their bible study and record attendance and team members to see when they are rostered on next. This differs from totally browser-based programs ("all on the cloud") which run only in a web browser. These programs are perfect for simple applications which have a limited number of functions and are used for only a few minutes per day. Internet banking is a perfect example of such an application. However, a church management system will become one of the primary applications run on a church staffer's computer (along with their e-mail client). For this reason, it needs to be feature rich, quick to respond and a pleasure to use. Browser-based applications lack in these areas. For example, virtually every time you click a button in a browser-based application, a new page request is sent to the web server. The server must work out what to do, create the new page and then send the entire page back to your browser. A web server may receive many thousands of these requests per hour. Meanwhile, you wait..... In iChurch, the server only has to send data not the entire user interface. This reduces the volume of data that is sent as well as the amount of processing that is done on the server. Your computer's power and memory are used for most of the calculations and for storing multiple pages of information. The result is response times that some people find difficult to believe, especially those who have used browser-based applications previously. According to Ian Moulster, Product Manager for .NET Platform, Developer & Platform Evangelism, Microsoft UK in BitWise Magazine, the design used by iChurch is one which we will see more and more of and could be seen as the next logical step after entirely web-based solutions. If you would like to read the full article, please click here. Another more recent validation of this approach can be found here. Q2. How can you run iChurch on a Mac? A2. iChurch is a program that only runs on the Windows platform. However, you can run Windows inside your Mac. In fact, Apple makes this so simple that they even provide the program to do it. It is called "Boot Camp". Using this program, you can start your Mac as you normally do or you can run your Mac entirely as Windows machine (as long as you have a windows licence). Unfortunately, this is an all or nothing solution but you do get the best performance. You can also run iChurch in a "virtual machine" or "Windows in a window". You get to use your Mac as normal but in one application window you have a session of windows running (again, you need a windows licence). To do this, you would use a program like VMWare or Parallels. SmartDox is looking to port iChurch to Mac if the demand is there so, if you are interested, let us know! Q3. How is iChurch kept up to date? A3. The iChurch application uses Daily Fresh technology to make sure you are always running the latest version of iChurch. Daily Fresh Technology is a combination of modular program design methodologies, which breaks up the program into small chunks, standard software libraries and an automatic update system. To read more about Daily Fresh technology please click here here.