I want my web app (running in a browser) to, at some point, communicate (bidirectionally) with a desktop app (in Windows), the client has installed in its computer.
What's an elegant and modular and simple way of doing this (with Java and C#)?
Not much information will be passed between the web app and the desktop app. Just something like "I was here", "Pick this from this point", etc.
I solved that problem by using a database on the network.
All communications where made trough the database.
Website -> DB -> User logged in <- DB <- Desktop
However, if no trusted information needs to be shared, you could consider just posting and reading some http headers to a common website, or a simple log file.
Greetings
I suggest you to use the backend part of your webapp, assuming that your app is based on some backend services.
You have two options:
Your desktop apps use the same services of your web app. You must use a class that mimic a web-browser to give the data (curl, ie). If your web app is based on AJAX push ( APE Server i.e ) use library that is able to run some javascript
Use a REST protocol, with a JSON format in your backend services. It's easy to manage and is supported by many client-side languages (java/c#/python....)
Use a specialized endpoint only for your desktop app,for C#, you can use WCF, that allow you, in one of his forms bidirectional communications. For JAVA, there are WSDL, DWR
My preferred solution is to decouple the web app in a front-end side and a backend side, that expose the services as REST that are used by the web app via AJAX.
If I need true bidirectional communication with other desktop app, I'll create a separate service / endpoint for it. (APE , WCF, ..)
I see several options to achieve part of what you are asking:
Besically you expose the relevant parts of your apps (web and desktop) via some sort of API and use that for the communication - for example DB and/or WCF (SOAP/REST/whatever).
BEWARE:
If you are after some sort of direct/interactive communication between both apps on the same computer then this won't be possible - at least not without some security related issues.
The browser executes your web app in a sandbox which doesn't allow for direct communication between the web app and the desktop... there are technologies which can help circumvent that (ActiveX, signed Java applets, some Flash technology called AIR etc.)... or you could host some webbrowser/control in your desktop app which in turn runs the web app... BUT basically I would recommend against using any such measures...
IF you really want to go this route then please describe your environment and goal with much more detail.
Related
I have a desktop app with WinForms.
Now I need to create an app that could collect data from my desktop app via internet. I mean that it is shuld be hosted somewhere in inetrnet
For example data is: is app online/ofline, and some information about computer where desktop client is launched.
And also I will need to develop a site where I can look throught this data.(think it will be ASP.NET)
I'm going to use WCF.
Is it good idea?
Maybe there are some other technologes?
WCF is good idea. but if your application will use only http protocol then you should gave preference to web api.
I have a web-based application developed in ASP.NET. It is a business application and people do regular deals & transactions from this portal.
The application has two types of user:
1) Front-office User - who makes the deal
2) Back-office User - who look at all accounting & voucher generation work for the deal
The current problem is, to check a new deal created by a front-office user, the back-office user needs to refresh the web page every few minutes, which is very time-consuming.
I want to develop a small windows-based notification service through which I can show them notifications without going to the browser. It will be in the same manner as the Gtalk desktop tool, which notifies us of newly-received mail.
So to achieve the above thing what should I use and how to use & implement the solution ?
I need to develop the solution using .Net framework
I would look into SignalR and use that to keep a persistent connection open to your server and notify the client when new data is available. If you use SignalR, you don't even need a windows application, you can use their javascript client and show the notifications directly in the browser (you can of course still go the Windows Application route as well).
If you are in a cloud hosting environment, your cloud provider should have a service of use for you as well.
I am trying to architect a system that will have a website and an iphone app that will be driven off the same data. I understand how I would create and architect the website, but when it comes to adding the iphone app I am unsure on how it will apply.
My considerations for design:
-Using C#, SQL Server, asp.net for the website (would try to get most of my data using web services where I could)
-Using Objective-C, x-code, etc for the iphone app development
1.) Will I need to expose a web service for the iphone to interact with? If so, would that be considered a seperate web app from the actual website? Or would the webservice be built in with the website and then the iphone would interact with that web service as well?
2.) What do I need to consider, security wise, when it comes to exposing a web service?
3.) Any other architecture advice for building a system such as this? Maybe personal experiences with doing a website/iphone app that runs off the same database.
Yes you will need to expose a webservice for the application to bind/talk to. I would suggest that the service be run as a separate site (such as data.yourdomain.com, where as the site would run on yourdomain.com) which the website also uses for it's data. That way you share the same architecture for both your "end points" (site and app).
Ensuring that you webservice takes a authentication token (username/password or oauth/etc) with each call will help to prevent any unauthorised calls to the service/database. Also ensuing that your service is exposed via a valid HTTPS connection (and only https) will prevent sniffing of the data to get passwords.
As I said in point 1, build the service in such a way that it does not matter what "end point" is accessing it. That way should you add an android app or windows phone app (or even a second website) you will not need to make a fresh service. Perhaps tie each applications "account" to a "end point type" (such as Android/iPhone/WinPhone/WebSite) that will allow you to customise the data objects that you return if needed.
Will I need to expose a web service for the iphone to interact with?
If so, would that be considered a seperate web app from the actual
website? Or would the webservice be built in with the website and then
the iphone would interact with that web service as well?
It depends, if you want a native application, then you would expose the service, else you can develop an iPhone web app
What do I need to consider, security wise, when it comes to exposing a
web service?
Normal security consideration as if you would develop a web service to a windows desktop application
Any other architecture advice for building a system such as this?
Maybe personal experiences with doing a website/iphone app that runs
off the same database.
Try to make the web service as clear and light as you can
At first use use just one data source for all your projects. Expose the database with webservices. User authentication to invoke webservice procedures for security.
We are in process of re designing an old windows client server based application to web based application.
This application is built in C# using Remoting and WCF. On client side its Windows and WPF.
My Queries
What all concepts should be taken care when we make this application web based?
What design patterns should be followed for Web Based Architecture?
In WCF part we are using Net TCP Binding which can be easily migrated to HttpBinding, but I am more concern over Remoting, will it able to Serve the purpose, means can Remoting serve the purpose when Http calls are being made?
I would probably merge "remoting" with wcf and use httpbinding endpoint. font-end you could decide to use MVC pattern which will give you a better performance.
Sorry to answer your question with a question but: From an architecture or business point of view, why would you want to do this?
Your original application uses Remoting, which does not work over the Internet, therefore I am assuming that this is an internal application.
A web application would have the following tiers:
The presentation which runs on the browser
The Web Server which sends the pages to the browser
The application server which would host your WCF services
The database server
As you see the web application in the browser does not call the services directly (unless you use REST based services)
I am thinking about writing an application that will monitor IIS Service with iPhone, and send notification, perform resets if an IIS goes down.
I dont want to create a web service to do that but rather connect to a machine, specifying credentials and then get data from the IIS Service state.
Is it even possible?
Is it possible with iPhone?
I need to make this app generic enough for people to use with their hosted web sites and monitor their health and being able to reset it and/or recycle AppPools. I cant implement a service for any hosted environment. I need to be able to give the iPhone users an ability to connect to their host and once you are connected to the machine and authenticated to perform WMIs the phone users can mess with the iis. Is it possible?
I see your point not wanting to use web service because you want to monitor and reset IIS service, while web service is based on IIS. How about RestFul service? I have created RestFul service based on OWIN (Open Web Interface for .Net) and Kayak. Kayak may have some examples there.
The cool thing about those tools or lib is that the framework is very simple and does not rely on IIS. You can provide two URLs, one for get and one for post. The former is to get status of IIS server and post is to reset IIS. Those services can be just XML of JSON based objects and it will be up to the the OWIN service to do the job on the back end. Another great feature of this is that you can even create the service in a console app or any other ways (Windows service or Window Form in system tray) on WindowsXP or Home version. The app will provide RestFul service based on HTTP with specific port.
RestFul service is available for variety of platforms, including iPhone.
Although IIS supports remote administration I doubt there's a way to implement it on the iPhone easily.
You could write an actual Windows Server (not a web service) you could connect to with a socket which can do all the monitoring instead though.