Hi i have a C# WinForms app. I wrote essential methods on C#. But I need a login form and its not safe since apps like dotpeek can inspect the source code and hack it. Can i communicate with another application that is written in another language (java,c,python etc). I need to send input data from WinForms C# to another app then it should connect to database and check if login succesfull then return a value back to C# WinForms app. Is that possible, how can i implement that? I dont want to write all application in another language since C# has good methods to process images/pixels and gui support with very small memory usage.
I got the point you are trying to make.
One thing to admit is that you can't completely avoid decompiling of apps. C# or C++, no matter anything can be reverse engineered.
If you still need it, a comparatively safer approach is to not put the checking app at the client's machine. Create an API and host the database on a server.
Then initiate just an Http Request to the server from your Windows Forms app.
Then you have the full control of Login API and database. Many applications use OAuth similar to this. Another examples are apps verify it's license using an online API.
You can get a LightSail Windows server in around $10 a month if you want to setup. Try exploring
Your concern is not baseless. C#, or for that matter, any .net language running on the CLR, will be easier to inspect than a language like C or C++.
Having said that, no app will be completely secure, and communicating between apps has its own problems. How does one app verify the other? etc. You can create a web service that would communicate with the database (and communicate with the web service using HTTP or WCF) which would mean your app wouldn't have direct access to the database, but that would only protect the database from your app, it would still allow someone to inspect your app and use the web service, impersonating your app. Also, you would need to host the web service on some web hosting service, and then you would have to trust that service to not inspect your app...
You can reduce the problem by storing the password etc. as byte arrays, but regardless of what you do, I don't know of a way to completely safeguard your app. If a malicious app/actor is on your computer they can inspect your app.
As for your question itself - look into WCF or named pipes (includes a simple example).
I don't know where to start, so let's start by saying what I want.
An application on my Phone which would control/send commands to my PC
I am not asking how to code it, I want to get a brief idea on what I need in order to do it. I had thought of using ASP .NET Core Web Application, but I am not sure if that's what I need, I need a server to be running on the PC, so that the phone will connect to and send commands to the PC Client from the Mobile Client.
Also, It needs to be C# since its the only language I am fluent in.
Which library should I use on the PC and the Mobile?
You can use ASP.NET Core to create a web service that is hosted on your PC. The application on your phone could send commands by sending HTTP requests to the web service.
For example, the web service could react to a request like:
POST http://localhost:8080/do-stuff
But the web service method is not the most performant one. If you put a priority on performance, you should rather work with sockets. You can use the .NET classes like in this example or use a library.
If you want to develop everything with C#, I would recommend using Xamarin for developing the mobile app.
What is the best approach to communicate between UWP app (client app) installed on phone and WPF app itself installed on local machine if they are connected to the same router? Files should sync from client to server and vice versa.
As I investigated before there are WCF, Sockets, and Web. So what is the best one to use to create such functionality?
It does not matter if the app is WPF or UWP. To choose framework like WCF or Sockets you need to know how complex your scenario is. If it is rather simple, I would advice agains WCF. It can be unnecessary complicated for basic usage. You can try web api - lite system using JSON. Generally speaking, I do recommend the framework enabling http protocol as it is reusable for almost every scenario. But that is not filter that would help you much :D
For UWP that have not allowed calling localhost and you can use it to communicate to local wpf app.
More details here and here.
But you can make the uwp communicate to local wpf app in debug, see Deploying and debugging Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps - UWP app developer | Microsoft Docs
If you want your uwp app can use localhost in release that you should use checknetisolation and you can see some way to use wcf in the article.
In a situation where you have the UI frontend built using the new Metro style of apps for windows 8, and would like it to communicate with a .NET application running on the desktop on the same local machine (e.g. a windows service app).
What forms of interprocess communication are available between the metro app and the desktop app?
Thanks to Pavel Minaev of the Visual Studio team, who has provided some initial info here in a comment, quoted:
According to Martyn Lovell, there isn't any deliberate mechanism for
that, and some that could be used for it are intentionally restricted.
Named pipes aren't there, for example, nor are memory mapped files.
There are sockets (including server sockets), but when connecting to
localhost, you can only connect to the same app. You could use normal
files in one of the shared "known folders" (Documents, Pictures etc),
but that is a fairly crude hack that necessitates polling and is
visible to the user. -- Pavel Minaev commenting on this issue
So failing normal approaches I was thinking of using web services or reading/writing to a database in order to get some form of communication happening, both of which seem like overkill when the processes are running on the same machine.
Is what I'm attempting here making sense? I can see a need for a metro app to be the frontend UI for an existing service which is running on the desktop. Or is it better to just use WPF for the frontend UI running on the desktop (i.e. a non-metro app).
I'm porting my existing project to Win8 right now. It consists of windows service and tray application which are talking to each other via NamedPipes WCF. As you may already know Metro doesn't support named pipes. I ended up using TcpBinding for full duplex connection.
This post describes what functionality is supported.
Sample of my WCF server that Metro client can consume is here.
Also keep in mind that you can't use synchronous WCF in Metro. You'll have to use Task-based wrapper which is only asynchronous.
And thank you for you question. I was good starting point for me :)
There were a number of questions like this at the end of a //build/ session I attended. Aleš Holeček, the exec who did one of the big picture sessions, came up out of the audience to handle them. Even if you're not a C++ developer, download that session and watch the Q & A. http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/TOOL-789C
Metro apps can't count on desktop apps or services being installed on the machine. And desktop apps can't count on Metro apps running since they can be suspended any time. You need to start thinking differently. Listen to Aleš on this one.
Take note that with Windows 8.1 Update, communication between Windows Store apps and desktop components written in C# for .NET 4.5+ is now officially supported for side-loaded applications in Enterprise scenarios:
Brokered Windows Runtime Components for side-loaded Windows Store apps
To quote:
Recognizing that critical business functions and rules are embodied in existing software assets and that enterprises have a wide variety of scenarios for which the new application style will be highly productive, the Windows 8.1 Update includes a new feature called Brokered Windows Runtime Components for side-loaded applications. We use the term IPC (inter-process communication) to describe the ability to run existing desktop software assets in one process (desktop component) while interacting with this code in a Windows Store app. This is a familiar model to enterprise developers as data base applications and applications utilizing NT Services in Windows share a similar multi-process architecture.
Although implementing this approach is a bit on the complicated side initially, it allows for deep integration across Windows Store and desktop components. Just keep in mind that for the time being, it won't pass public Windows Store certification.
There is an article on InfoQ about how to build loosely coupled Metro apps with protocol handlers. This is something which has been supported by Windows for a long time and one could foresee an desktop application register itself as a protocol handler and maybe the metro application can communicate through this mechanism.
I have no idea if this is possible, but it might be interesting to check out.
Christophe Nasarre has blogged about a rather hacky way to do it using local files. The result is communication between desktop app/windows store app (referred to as DA/WSA in the blog), without having to switch between the UI of the two apps. He also blogged about another less hacky technique involving protocol handlers.
Note that having a WSA which communicates with a DA is explicitly forbidden by the store App certification requirements
Windows Store apps must not communicate with local desktop applications or services via local mechanisms, including via files and registry keys.
... but it restricts "local mechanisms" only. So I guess one can build a web service for routing the communications.
If you think that you can make an additional manual cmd operation,
you can try :
X:/> CheckNetIsolation.exe LoopbackExempt –a –n=<packageID>;
CheckNetIsolation.exe is included in winRT install, so there is nothing extra to be installed.
I tried it: it works, even after package updating.
As shown on: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/Hh780593.aspx
Here it is explained how to find out the packageID for your app: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsdesktop/en-US/82bad7d4-d52b-4731-a396-13ab9004c1cc/how-to-get-the-appid-of-a-metro-style-app-
It is possible to communicate on the same machine from Metro app to desktop app using local service.
I've implemented some time ago simple "proof of concept", how to bypass the WinRT sandbox using local service. It still needs some kind of "social engineering" or direct guide for installing the service, but anyway, it is possible.
I'm not sure though about the certification rules about "local service" communication when adding such app to Windows Store.
Sample here
By design Metro application cannot access underlying PC directly, only using WinRT API and available capabilities. But when you create back-end service for accessing the PC and all data there, it's basically no longer running in sandbox.
The only "problem" is that user must manually install this back-end service, but that won't be a problem using some "social engineering":
User downloads "PC browser" Metro app, user can browse all pictures, music and videos, using WinRT API, but the app also shows message at the bottom:
"Download our PC browser powerpack and browse your entire PC, for FREE"
User is redirected to web page, from where user can download classic desktop installer containing "PC browser" back-end service for accessing files on users entire PC. Once this desktop service is installed, the Metro app can detect it and use it for browsing the entire PC. User is happy, but the WinRT sandbox is compromised.
Of course this won't work on Windows 8 ARM tablets. Using this workaround it could be even possible to build Metro app clients for classic desktop apps like antiviruses, torrent/P2P clients, etc.
Maybe I missed the point but when activating the Private networks capability I can connect to a local running (http) server using the local IP address (not localhost). This enables my scenario where a winrt app communicates with a wpf desktop app
I have designed a desktop application in c# and web application in php. my desktop application requests data by calling php file and some portion of desktop application showing web forms using web browser control. both process takes too much time. is there any other method speed up this two processes
I would write your PHP app so that it has a RESTful API available that the C# application can connect to. In this way, you can use a technology like WCF to communicate to your web-based API and use C# in your desktop app to present and work with the data being managed in the PHP app.
You're looking at going back about 15 years to the client-server architectures... not a bad thing, but all of the lessons we learned then are going to be applicable to you now.
You might could implement something with Adobe AIR.
Adobe Air