How do I execute a .bat stored on a server via a web interface?

Question

All,

Forgive the lack of sample code here. I have a .bat file which executes a background process that refreshes graphics on a webpage that I am designing. I can run this process automatically using a scheduling application, but I would like to give the user manual control. I want a button on a webpage that the user can click to run a .bat file on the server. I'm coding in html and C# on an aspx file.

What I've tried so far is:

<a href='program.bat'> Refresh </a> 

Obviously this doesn't work: when I click "refresh" on my IE browser and select "run" the file downloads to the temporary files folder on my local drive and tries to execute there.

Answer 1

If you want the batch file to run on the server, then you will have to call it from your C# code, not in the html.

There are many ways to do that. The simplest is to have an aspx page that calls it from OnLoad , let's say update.aspx:

<script runat="server">
    protected override void OnLoad( EventArgs e )
    {
        System.Diagnostics.Process.Start( @"c:\path\to\program.bat" );
    }
</script>

Then your html has a regular <a href="update.aspx"> tag.

Of course it can also be done as a postback on a button press, etc. The point is it's done on the server side, in some codebehind.