I currently have an ASP.NET web application written in C#, and I need to be able to communicate with a device that's hooked into a USB port on the client side (reading and writing). I was looking into adding a web service that would work with a Silverlight application that would handle the local hardware communication, but apparently that type of access only works for an "out of browser" SL app.
Are there any other technologies that would integrate nicely into an ASP.NET application that might support this type of thing? I'll need to support Windows XP+ on the client side. I'm really looking for something that's "browser centric" here (avoiding things like sleeper exe's, if possible) and will be easy for the user to install/allow (as I'm sure they'll need to explicitly allow something of that nature being read).
We used to do this with the (old) ActiveX technology (in Internet Explorer only) using an ActiveX Control which the user has to agree to actively (but it's simple).
Java applets are another option. But the scope of ASP.NET definitely has to be left.
Related
Is there any way I use a desktop application based on forms on a server through an asp.net web page client side?
I believe that you will be blocked by antivirus/antimalware solutions (even those from Microsoft).
You could start an aplication from browser IF using a kind of Plug-In, but in the last years that is exactly the way of malwares and viruses to damage computers. And because of it, evey security application (and even UAC and browsers themselves) are not allowing that kind of action.
You may risk put your solution into a plug-in and it be confused with viruses/malwares.
I have a requirement for web application developed in asp.net which allows users to make voice calls among each other from the website.
I have looked at api of skype but it seems more inclined towards desktop application. IS there any api which supports for web application like gtalk etc.
Which technology could be best used for developing such kind of applications? Any input, references would be helpful.
I did read that jabber is underlying technology for gtalk. Does jabber support voice calls, and would it be useful for my situation?
If you can include Flash, it has API for that job, but for client side layer only... probably you can chose java/.net for server side.
The only solution here is flash. Gmail / Gtalk requires the user to download a plugin for it to work, so technically it is a windows application being called from a webpage.
I recommend flash and asp.net for the backend, as said above. Either that or if you are OK with deploying plugins, you could go that route. I wouldn't recommend it unless it is internal only.
Is there a way to make a desktop application easily interfaceable via Web ? Meaning, can you have a way to interface with a single desktop application as if you were remote desktop'd into the machine but not? I am looking at doing this in ASP.NET or Silverlight.
I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for...
If you were able to create your entire application UI in Silverlight and host it properly (in IIS or whatever) it would then be accessible from anywhere on the web. If you needed the perception of a real desktop app when running locally, you could then just make some simple app (WinForms, WPF, whatever) which contains a web browser control that could also load up the hosted Silverlight app (and just be a transparent browser). Depending on what the application is doing, you would obviously need some sort of service layer (probably in WCF) do to all of the heavy lifting and data access.
I guess the main question would be: can you accomplish everything your application needs to do in Silverlight? Since Silverlight is meant to run in a browser, it can be very limiting.
There are many solutions based on plugins. Some of the popular ones:
Citrix
Spoon
If you're ok with plugins, but only if they're common ones (flash, java), there are various solutions:
http://www.wizhelp.com/flashlight-vnc/
http://www.tightvnc.com/doc/java/README.txt (bundled java applet with TightVNC)
If you don't want plugins at all, there's an experimental HTML5/javascript VNC viewer:
http://guacamole.sourceforge.net/
I don't understand the purpose of the WPF browser appliction. Is it simply another way of serving information through a browser, or is it not intended to be used for external deployment?
WPF Browser applications allow you to create very rich, application style UI's deployable via the web, using coding languages windows developers already likely have in their toolset. The downsides are that the users must must have .net installed, and use IE to access the application, considerably limiting the size and scope of your audience. WPF browser applications are very similar to Java applications in that they run in a virtual machine on the client. As it runs on the client, all data access and communication with the server must be done through WCF or web services.
With ASP.NET you have considerably more cross browser compatibility and support, giving you access to a much larger audience, with the possible downside of learning new libraries and the ASP.NET programming model. ASP.NET also provides a rich data access model and data control support. Silverlight is another interesting option based on .NET and WPF, as it is supported by a wide variety of browsers and provides similar rich user interface experiences. It can als be run out of the browser, disconnected if neccesary.
** Update based on Comment Request ***
The big advantage to Silverlight out of browser, is that you get most of the Rich, windows application style functionality, with a web deployable model and tiny install (4-6MB). Silverlight also supports an auto update feature which is VERY nice if you have a large user base.
Microsoft's Official description (propaganda :) )here
Silverlight Out Of Browser
Enables users to place their favorite Silverlight applications directly onto their PC and Mac, with links on the desktop and start menu—all without the need to download an additional runtime or browser plug-in. Further, the new experience enables Silverlight applications to work whether the computer is connected to the Internet or not—a radical improvement to the traditional Web experience. Features include:
Safe and secure. Leveraging the security features of the .NET Framework, Silverlight applications run inside a secure sandbox with persistent isolated storage. These applications have most of the same security restrictions as traditional web apps and so can be trusted without security warnings or prompts, minimizing user interruptions.
Smooth installation. Because Silverlight applications are stored in a local cache and do not require extra privileges to run, the installation process is quick and efficient.
Auto-update. Upon launch, Silverlight applications can check for new versions on the server, and automatically update if one is found.
Internet connectivity detection. Silverlight applications can now detect whether they have Internet connectivity and can react intelligently including caching a users’ data until their connection is restored.
A WPF browser application is a client side technology, rather than ASP(.NET) which is server-side. It is definitely not meant to replace it.
Using a WPF browser application one can provide a rich client inside the browser. However, this will only work when the whole .NET framework is installed. Another similar technology is Silverlight, which uses a very small (the installer about 5-6 MiB) framework, and is available to multiple platforms. It includes a small subset of .NET framework.
You can use it in external deployment considering the above requirements.
The following portion of the above selected comment is wrong:
and use IE to access the application,
considerably limiting the size and
scope of your audience
WPF in the browser (aka XBAP) is works just from FireFox (Mozilla) and Google Chrome. It was true about 2 years ago, but not today.
You could use XAML in silverlight, if thats what you are looking for.
Plus the RIA Application templates makes development quite neat.
I have a need to explore VOIP integration into a .Net application. It would be incredibly helpful if the toolset was usable via ASP.Net (version 2.0 or higher), and provided the developer the option to allow interaction on the client either embedded within the web browser or external to the client web browser. It should be compatible at a minimum with Internet Explorer, but would be better if browser independence were an option.
I don't really understand your question -- what are you trying to DO with VoIP? Since you mentioned ASP.NET I'm guessing you mean some kind of server app? If you explain more about what you want to do, we can give you better advice.
You could check out Microsoft's Speech stuff: http://www.microsoft.com/speech/speech2007/default.mspx. As I understand it, Speech Server was moved into being part of OCS. I remember that it supported using .NET 3.0's Workflow Foundation as well as some multi-modal stuff with ASP.NET.
FreeSWITCH is a flexible VoIP system that works for both large-scale server implementations as well as embedded scenarios (say as an ActiveX softphone). There is full .NET and Mono support via mod_managed. (This allows you to create voice applications in FreeSWITCH using any .NET language.) There's also an XML-based API that allows you to send and receive events to control a remote FS server. You could use this from ASP.NET. FreeSWITCH is very active in #freeswitch#irc.freenode.net so you can get a lot of advice there.