Good morning,
I have following scenario: I have solution with two projects - first project is MVC WebClient and second one is WCF Service. I want open Windows explorer on specific location, probably through WCF. I know that it is not possible from pure client so I was thinking if WCF can does it.
Full scenario is: User clicks on button and then windows explorer will be opened.
I have tried do it on my local computer
Process.Start(path);
and it works, but what if I will host it on IIS?
Will it works?
Will it open client's explorer or server's explorer?
If first two steps will work, will I need host WCF service on IIS too or MVC client with service reference is enough?
And if this scenario won't work, can anyone help with some solution for this problem (if is any)?
Many thanks
The only way I could think of doing this purely with a browser would be to require the client to use IE and then embed an ActiveX control. The page would have to run with the highest security privileges so the ActiveX could run unimpeded. The nice thing about this is it would not require much (if any) server-side support. It would all be handled by Javascript.
Otherwise, to make it browser agnostic, you would have to have a listener app running on the client machine, probably as a service or set to start on machine boot (good candidate for the notification area on the taskbar). The listener app on the client machine could establish a connection to the server using WCF, Sockets (whatever you want really) and then when the user presses the button on the WEB application a message is sent from the web server to the client-side listening application. This of course could trigger anything you want on the client-side.
I see several complications with this as well:
1) How do you get the listener installed on the client machine?
If it's really simple you could just send the exe over with instructions where to copy.
You could build an installer or use ClickOnce to deploy it right from the website: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973805.aspx
2) Your web application now needs to communicate with a server-side component that is connected to the client-side listener. If you are already using WCF on the server this might not be too bad. If the client-side listener connects to the same web application the user is using it probably wouldn't be too difficult either (use long-polling or web sockets, etc)
3) How do you secure the client-side listener and connect the client-side "session" to the web "session" such that the user clicking on the button in his web browser sends a message to his instance of the client-side listener and not another user's listener.
These are all doable. I wrote an app that worked sort of like this several years ago. There were definitely challenges but we got it working and it has been stable for several years now. We used WCF.
Related
I've scenario to create an application(Windows service , Winforms app) which runs twice every day automatically on users PC. These Users are internal employees in the same network. So at morning and evening this application has to run. But it doesn't need to show any window or information saying its running. Its good to have a simple notification in system tray that its started execution.
My experience in with web application development. So I got a little stucked with these such application on deciding which is best.What my understandings are if its a standalone exe, we could ask all users to download the exe and install.
If its a windows service we may depend up on instalutil to install the service.
So I really needs an advice on this. The application is nothing, just requesting a TFS api and the resulting JSON has to store in Table. So the JSOn will be based on each user using their windows authentication.
Please suggest a good solution to achieve its the best,secure and easiest way even for non tech savvy users.
Instead of all user communicating to TFS server twice a day i guess better way is to install a service in one centralized machine which will run a window service twice a day and that machine will host that service using WCF so that other user will communicate with machine this will help you to distribute the load of tfs api. i used the same approach in my case where one machine talk to ALM and other talk to that machine to get the files.
Creating a window service is pretty simple and straight forward.
Follow the link to make one:
https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/naresh.avari/develop-and-install-a-windows-service-in-C-Sharp/
You can host the service in WCF using IIS, TCP, Webservice, Console application its upto you. Follow this link
https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/550796/A-Beginners-Tutorial-on-How-to-Host-a-WCF-Service
I guess i helped you :)
My company has several desktop applications that needs to be launched from an ASP.Net Core web application. Also the applications are going to be updated if there is a newer version. The web application would be working offline (only accessible to a specific LAN), and all the applications and clients would be in the same network. So basically, I am trying to create a Launcher/Updater Web Application.
The problem here is, web browsers are not capable manipulating (installing, launching or updating) applications that are on the client machine in a direct manner. We already checked Microsoft`s ClickOnce solution on updating applications but there are some reasons why we do not want to use it.
My question is, if there is any way to read, write and edit client side data, with or without an extra client side application from a Web application?
I had a similar problem. There is no way to update client without using an additional program (at least in my experience). You won't be able to delete and replace libs and executable when the files are in use (read the software is running).
I wrote a small application to handle restart, update, and monitoring of the main application.
If you need more info about the approach I used let me know.
I'm looking for a way to establish a simple communication between a c# web application and the operating system.
Since i'm working on Silverlight, i get everything i need to create files into any folder on the C:/ Disk. The problem is that we're going to migrate from Silverlight to Html 5 / C#
So i'd need a way to create files FROM any browser to any OS : Windows,Mac,Linux ..
I thought about using Microsoft Active X but that's not cross platforms.
I'm simply looking for a technology/plugin/software or anything that would allow me to do that, the less client interaction would be the best.
I think your need is in conflict with any common sense about security. If there was a simple way to create any file on any computer that loads your web app, just imagine how quickly all sorts of malware would spread.
But going back to your question - I think it will not be simple (btw. was it really simple in silverlight?). What I can imagine is to have some kind of service running on a client PC (the user would have to install it, or it could be corporate policy if your web app is targeted at corporate solutions). Then the service would listen on some TCP port and your web app could send requests to that port with the intent to create particular file with particular content. All the security concerns would be then implemented in mentioned service so that it doesn't get abused by hostile web apps
I'm trying to create a client-server app where the server runs on the user's machine. I'm looking into either using WCF or Sockets but I have a couple of questions.
I'd like to use WCF but it seems that the user needs admin rights in order to launch the service. Would the user need admin rights if the WCF service was running within a managed application (e.g. a Windows Service)? With sockets it seems that admin rights isn't required to open the relevant port.
How would HTTPS security work in WCF? Since this is a LAN program (user talking from client to their own machine), do I need to purchase a certificate and install it on their machines? I'd rather avoid this if possible as the data being transferred isn't sensitive. Would this be the same if I use SSLStream for sockets?
There are a lot of questions, :), so very short answer on part of them:
You can host WCF even in console application. Windows Services may not require admin properties to be installed on pc.
For HTTPS - you does not have to buy certificate, you can crate your own - there are a lot of examples in the net. But - if your data is not sensitive - you can probably use simple http.
I am writing a Windows application using C#. I am planning on later to allow it to be controlled over the intranet using browser also. So in future we should be able to control it both using the local interface or over the intranet from the browser.
Is there any pre-defined architecture which will allow me to do this? What are the methods of achieving this? I am new to C#/.Net.
EDIT:
The windows application needs to access the communication ports extensively, and needs to be pretty stable and would probably run for some days together.
Thanks...
I can't tell you if a specific package exists that would ease the development. But, if I were to attempt it, after Googling and not finding something already available and meeting my needs, I would likely make my application a WCF host. Create service entry points to accept control messages remotely. You would also need some well-know location where to register your application so the remote system could find it. You should be sure to provide the user with a way of disabling the application remote control feature.
Your host interface will need to run on its own thread to remain performant. Since you are new to C#, and presumably windows forms application development, you will need to read up on how to properly talk to the GUI controls from a non-GUI thread.
Alternatively, you may want to implement your application as two distinct units, one with a GUI that does all the user interaction. It would form service requests to send to the host portion (with no GUI). Your app could then operate locally or be controlled remotely.
One solution I have used in a similar situation has three parts :-
1) Win32 (local) Service
Manages the COM ports and does whatever is necessary with the attached hardware
2) WinForms/Console Application
Runs on the local machine and communicates with the local service via named pipes or TCP.
3) Web Server + Web App
Runs on local or remote machine & communicates with local service.
The local user can shut the WinForms application down and log-off without affecting the service or remote users.
The newest version of Silverlight (the version that ships with Visual Studio 2010) allows what Microsoft terms the "Out Of Browser Experience" (OOB for short).
This allows the user to set up the Silverlight application as a desktop application as well as running through a browser.
Rudi Grobbler has just blogged about how he went about setting this up on his PC.