Web based application

[noblemfd]

Please what are the steps and requirements in using vb.net to design a web-based application (I dont mean website). But I mean that any user that have the application deployed on his system can access it any where in the world.

Thanks

[szlamany]

Welcome to the forum!

You actually have several paths you can take to accomplish this.

ASP.Net allows you to build a template for a webpage - that gets mixed with real data from a database, for instance (using code that runs on the web server itself). When the user changes something on the page there is a "postback" of the page to the server and the page gets re-generated - re-merged.

There are ways to have "partial postbacks" so the whole page doesn't re-render. ASP.Net uses ajax (async calls) back to the server to accomplish this.

For simple pages this technique works fine. I've used it in the past for several public facing database-driven web sites.

As your pages get more complicated you will find that the ajax utilized by ASP.Net becomes a burden to debug and work with.

Due to this fact I've started creating web pages that only load once - and then using the jQuery javascript library I "re-draw" the parts of the page based on user interaction. I've created all my own ajax calls back to "web methods" (running on the server) that take the "request" from the page and responds back with a JSON string of data that the jQuery/JS code on my page uses to re-draw whatever parts are affected.

I prefer the control I have over the page using this method. Drawbacks are you need to really know javascript to make this fly.

I'm sure there are other techniques that people will bring to this thread...

[Grimfort]

But I mean that any user that have the application deployed on his system can access it any where in the world.

If the application is deployed on his system, it will be availabile to them. Possibly you mean that this application needs to communicate with data from a central server/database somewhere?

If that is the case, you can use VPNs to save doing anything complicated. You could use a webservice instead to broker your requests and responses through to the server/database. You could even create an offline mirrored database if the structure allows.

[szlamany]

... Possibly you mean that this application needs to communicate with data from a central server/database somewhere?

Wow - I didn't see that - you could be right.

Are we talking about a winform or a webform here?

[noblemfd]

Wow - I didn't see that - you could be right.

Are we talking about a winform or a webform here?

WinForm should be used, but the users should be able to view it either at home or in the office

[Grimfort]

That does not really answer my question. If this is an application like say notepad, then you install it where-ever you need it. What does your application do that it requires the web?

[szlamany]

web form - with web services - runs in a browser - nothing to install

win form - with web services - runs an application that needs to be installed on every machine it runs on

You need to give more basic details about what you are trying to accomplish.

Is there a data store that is remote from the user that you want to talk to over the web?

[ForumAccount]

If you don't want to make a web page or web application, you should use WCF, web services are based off .NET 2.0 and have less features (biggest of those features it lacks is security).

[szlamany]

...I'm sure there are other techniques that people will bring to this thread...

@forumaccount - I knew others would be along...

Tell me - what security is in place in WCF that was an improvement over web services.

[ForumAccount]

There are so many differences, maybe read through these articles if you are interested:

• Differences Between ASMX and WCF Services
• Comparing ASMX and WCF
• A Performance Comparison of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) with Existing Distributed Communication Technologies

[szlamany]

@forumaccount - thanks for those links.

Seems the security is more "comprehensive" and the "throughput" potentially faster with WCF...

I use web methods with asp.net and jquery/ajax from the browser side. Security and packaging the json data is all home-grown - I'm happy with what I've created to work with here - don't see any benefit to moving into wcf.

Thanks again for the info!

[noblemfd]

web form - with web services - runs in a browser - nothing to install

win form - with web services - runs an application that needs to be installed on every machine it runs on

You need to give more basic details about what you are trying to accomplish.

Is there a data store that is remote from the user that you want to talk to over the web?

It is Win Form with web service, and it runs an application that needs to be installed on every machine it runs on. Also, there is a data store(MS SQL SERVER)