At work, we're currently discussing the eventuality that our product needs to be a web application, mostly due to ease of distribution (e.g. getting servers set up by the IT departments of our customers).
Our desktop application is heavily reliant on user input, it has lots of forms and hundreds of controls which are shown and hidden based on others.
My question is, is there a NICE/EASY way - without having to remodel the entire product, which is our current solution - to make this easy for web development?
Thanks in advance.
If ease of distribution is the primary concern then maybe using a Windows Forms ClickOnce might be a viable option as you can publish your application on a webpage and users can run the application from that webpage, but it runs as a local windows forms application - and if you don't need to make any changes to the local registry or other elevated rights operations then all you need on that machine is the correct .NET Framework for it to run.
Related
I have some background in ASP.NET applications, and I am also using Webforms, MVC and WinForms.
But right now I need to develop a WinForms Desktop application in .NET to run only to the computer which is currently installed not on a shared environment.
It needs to have and support all create, read, edit, delete functions, but without a database like SQL or any other RDBMS/DBMS, since I want to avoid having to install it separately.
The application should store user information in other types of files like XML or something like that.
I want to ask weather if there is a way or not. Which best practice technology should I need to follow?
Yes it is Possible to have data store to be used with Windows Form
Applications.
You have multiple options here.
Sql server compact edition
Microsoft Access
Sql Lite
Though you have to install SSCE,SqlLite separately in user PC.
But Microsoft Access comes in package with Microsoft office.
As a web developer, when I have multiple sites that are related by a common theme or common department, I have a home page that has links to the different sites. For example, there may be a site for reports (output to pdf or excel), another for inputting and editing sales data, and yet another for real-time tracking. Normally these links are in a header or sidebar which is static and can be accessed by all associated apps.
I'm reading about Metro/Modern apps now. I'll be trying to make my first Metro app soon. However, I'm wondering if it's possible to have (at least the illusion) of accessing 3 different apps through 1 app. So the user, just as in the web app, goes to one place.
If so, does anyone have any resources they can share?
To include multiple apps in the same frame they would need to all be part of the same app.
If you want links to jump between apps then you can create a protocol association to launch into the apps. This can include an arbitrary string so you can deep link rather than going just to the opening page.
On Windows 8.1 this connection is one-way: launching the protocol is fire-and-forget. The launching app doesn't get any feedback or results from the launched app.
Windows 10 adds the ability to return results to use the app as a service. I think this sounds more like what you are looking for.
See Auto-launching with file and URI associations on MSDN and the Build session App-to-App Communication: Building a Web of Apps
actually in Windows Universal app it's the same Approach. You got your app, and different pages where you could navigate back and forth... each page with it's unique look depending on your Need.
The user will open one app to Access all...
searching a bit in the net will Show you a lot of examples... Topic: Navigation, LiveCylcles, ...
I've written an application in C# that I would now like to host within an ASP.NET website (MVC 2).
The application can become quite resource intensive so I would like to set up the system in such a way that each user downloads the application and runs it locally, but still within the web page that I provide.
My first idea to solve this problem was to host the program within a silverlight application. However, the app I want to host was not compiled for Silverlight, and I would like to use MySQL in it, which also appears to not be possible directly (ie without a web service in between).
The bottom line is that don't have experience with these things directly yet, and I need to research the way to make any solution possible. So I would really appreciate some input to put me in the right direction, and not have to implement 3 wrong options before finding the right one. I would also really like to avoid JavaScript if at all possible.
Thanks in advance.
Update
I probably should have specified to begin with what the application is exactly.
The application as I want to host it on the website is a simple chat program. It needs an input box and text output. The old windows forms application won't have to run in ASP, but I want to use the class library behind it, which is a chatbot engine. That engine is the part that can be rather resource intensive.
So you wrote a "rich client" application and you want to serve it as a web/silverlight application. This is not possible without changing the architecture of your app, as you probably guess, expecially because you have to interface a database. If rewriting the application to support such architecture is not an option, the best in order to me is to use Remote Desktop, but you have to pay for licenses in order to support many connections.
If your application is not a web application then it will not run on the server. The only thing your server does is to provide a download location. For that, you wouldn't need a MVC site - static pages could fit. The programming model between normal applications running on the client and server applications running on IIS is completely different. So in short: you won't be able to host your client application in ASP.NET MVC. If this is a requirement you will end up rewriting the application.
If your application is ASP.NET WebForms and it becomes too resource hungry, then you probably won't solve it by just switching to MVC. You have different options then: more resources on the server side, analyzing what could be done to lower the resources required or moving away from a server based application. This is not a black/white decision, maybe a combination might fit.
I'm looking for a suitable client side architecture that will meet some or all of the following requirements.
I'm thinking primarily about Silverlight (but I would also consider MVC or WPF depending on your suggestions - I can possibly trade some of these requirements off, or find work arounds).
I'm looking for an assessment of Silverlight being able to fully, partially or not able to support, each of the following, with detail around each if possible:
Must be able to reliably upload large (~100MB) binary files via WCF and MTOM
Must be able to support file downloads, preferably in the background (i.e. through 'synching'), though this could simply be supported through a manual URL if necessary
Should have access to some form of local storage - this could be binary or XML for config purposes, but ideally some kind of database (not fussed which, as long as it is part of the install/app)
Should be able to dynamically configure itself depending on user profile. In other words, where a user logs in, the UI and services available are dynamically determined.
Should support some form of client notification (sound and or tray bubble). Ideally this would be supported via WCF duplex, but could be accomplished through polling.
Ideally, should run on multiple platforms (Win / OSX)
Should be easily deployable - if I need to run Silverlight in full-trust mode / OOB - how do users get new versions?
Should be minimisable to the system tray
Any detail or thoughts you can give me on the above would be much appreciated.
Edit - additional questions
Are there any limitations on local storage/access in Silverlight 5 OOB? Or does it behave like a standard WinForms app?
Is it possible to bundle SQL express with a Silverlight OOB .msi?
What is the best option for dynamically configuring a Silverlight app? I've seen MEF mentioned - is this the preferred approach or are there others?
Must be able to reliably upload large (~100MB) binary files via WCF
and MTOM
Should work.
Must be able to support file downloads, preferably in the background
(i.e. through 'synching'), though this could simply be supported
through a manual URL if necessary
Unless you are running OOB with elevated trust (or SL5 in browser elevated) and thus have limited access to the local file system, you would need to ensure sufficient space in Isolated Storage for the downloads.
Should have access to some form of local storage - this could be
binary or XML for config purposes, but ideally some kind of database
(not fussed which, as long as it is part of the install/app)
See above. Regarding local database support there is an SQLite port for Windows Phone 7 which also works in Silverlight (I've recently tested it).
Should support some form of client notification (sound and or tray
bubble). Ideally this would be supported via WCF duplex, but could be
accomplished through polling.
The notification can be done through Silverlight's Notification Window (supported from SL4 and up). The actual server side notification could be done through duplex channels or Kaazing WebSockets Gateway etc.
Should be easily deployable - if I need to run Silverlight in
full-trust mode / OOB - how do users get new versions?
You can install an OOB Client along with the runtime with an MSI installer and still have the Silverlight standard update mechanism work for you (required Authenticode signed XAP). I've done just that a couple weeks ago.
Should be minimisable to the system tray
AFAIK not possible in SL4. Not sure about SL5.
All the points I have not quoted should work.
Having done some Silverlight development I often feel a bit restricted by the possibilities it offers. In my opinion it is meant to be run within a browser, with a web-like interface. From what you describes it is more of a full app you want so I would recommend WPF and click-once deploy that handles updates automatically.
From your requirements I would suggest WPF, full application support, but when it comes to OS X support, then you have a problem, WPF won't work on OS X, only Silverlight will, so I am afraid you have a few requirements that have conflicts with one another.
I'm a beginner in programming. I've just made a program called "Guessing Game". And it seems to work fine. Can I integrate it into a website? The CMS that I'm using is Mambo.
===
additional info's
Thanks for all your suggestions.
I still don't have any background about Silverlight, WPF and Java Script which I think sounds good. I'm using Windows and I programmed my "Guessing Game" from Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and it's using Window application forms.
Yes I guess, for the moment I let it be and start to learn Silverlight or Java Script so that I can integrate it on my website:-)
Thanks for all your input guys:-)
Cheers
A standalone executable cannot be directly integrated into a website. You have a few choices though:
Allow your users to download the executable and run it locally for themselves
Rewrite your program in JavaScript to have it run directly inside of an HTML page, though this could obviously involve a fair amount of reworking
Use Microsoft's Silverlight technology, which allows you to code in C# and produce a web-based frontend similar to Adobe Flash. Your program logic should remain the same and you should only have to change the UI code. In fact if you're already using WPF for the front end, the transition will be even easier.
There are several questions that you still need to answer.
What is your server running? If its not Windows, your exe will not run at all unless it is compatible with Mono or a similar framework for your server's operating system.
How does your "Guessing game" interact with the user? If it is through a WinForms GUI, it will you will not be able to use that GUI on the web. If your game is a WPF application your easiest route may be to port it to Silverlight and serve it up on a web page.
It is typically not trivial to make a regular windows application run in a web environment since on on the web you are really running in the browser, not on Windows.
Yes - in general, when you're talking about software, anything is possible. The question is, how difficult will it be?
To understand that, you have to give us more details about "Guessing Game" including how it is designed, what it's interfaces are, how readily extensible it is, and how prepared you are to change or extend it.
For example, if it is a Windows Forms GUI app, then it will be diifficult to integrate into a web app. If it is a console app, then it will be a little easier. If you can modify it to run as a Windows Service, then a little easier. If you can modify it to accept input from the network (as opposed to getting input solely from the keyboard + mouse), still easier.
You may be able to use reflection to load your assembly into the web application, but most likely, the answer is no.
Your best solution is probably to re-write the game in javascript.
The short answer to your question is now. I'm presuming that since you're running Mambo you're web environment is a LAMP stack. However, you're "Guessing Game" is most likely a Windows application from the sound of it. For a beginner in programming, there is no integration path you're going to be able to take that will allow you to have your game running on your website.
However, here are avenues you can take, which will require a significant amount of time to learn. I'm not saying you shouldn't take time to learn, by all means you should! I'm simply trying to illustrate the fact that this is not something that is going to be doable in a couple of hours.
Silverlight - allows you to run C# code with a WPF like interface on your client's browser and can integrate with your web site through javascript.
Let your client download it from your website and run it off of their PC. This would actually be fairly trivial and would be your quickest option, but it sounds like it's not the kind of integration you were looking for.