How to make Windows Application available on the web?

Question

This might be a silly question..

I created a windows application in C# that works from my computer where SQL server database is residing. In this windows application all i do is fire two events and it give a bit output.

Can i create a simple webpage with two buttons and a text box and allow users on the web start my windows application residing on my desktop and see the result?

Is it possible to invoke a windows application using webserver? This could be absurd as this would be a security issue..but any ideas?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You should really re-architect this with appropriate infrastructure.

One option would be your existing client, with a ClickOnce wrapper, and switching the data-access to use a web-service that you expose (with appropriate security etc) via a web server. However, this limits you to windows clients - as would xbap or WPF (plus xbap/WPF is a UI rewrite).

Silverlight has a little more flexibility but is a complete UI rewrite.

Personally, I think your best option is to bite the bullet and re-engineer it as a web-based application; html, jQuery, etc - and MVC or WebForms, etc (since you're familiar with .NET).

Answer 2

You're using WinForms (standard Windows app), you'd like to use WebForms for a Web application. A Web application sends HTML so you're not likely to use directly what you did, or as Twelve47 says you'll have to use ASP.NET and deploy your app on a IIS server.

The easiest might be (if the users are part of your local network) to share a dedicated folder on your disk with sufficient rights for external people to be able to use your app.