I used dilettante's Gossamer Web Server control to make an image viewer. The viewer is actually your browser, so in theory it will deliver anything that your browser will support; pictures, HTML, movies etc.
It is designed to run as a service using the NT Service Control, but will also run as a Desktop application. As provided, it runs as a Desktop application. To create the Service program, change the IsService flag to true and compile. To add it as a service, run the service program from the command prompt with a "/I" argument. If successful, a message "Viewer Service installed successfully." will display. To Uninstall it, use the "/U" argument. The Service Manager (services.msc) can then be used to start or stop the service. If you want to allow access from the Local Area Network (LAN), or the Wide Area Network (WAN), you will have to adjust your Firewall.
The Service logs service related functions to a date named file in the \Windows\System32\Logfiles\Misc directory. You should create this directory to utilize the Service function. Unlike the Desktop version, which logs individual access to the text box, the Service as provided does not log access.
As provided, the program uses a default Web page called "Default.htm" in the same directory as the executable. To access it, direct your browser to "localhost:8080". That web page will list 3 sub directories (HTML PAGES, PNG PICTURES, JPEG PICTURES). Simply click on one of them to access a listing of the available items. Clicking on one of them will display the particular item. To view another one, simply use the "Back" button on your browser.
The viewable items are located in 3 sub directories (\pages, \pngs, & \jpgs). The web page used to access these files is created automatically when it is selected from the default page. You do not have to manually add files to the HTML page. Simply copy your favorite images/pages to the appropriate directory. It is suggested that you change the name of the file to provide some meaning as to it's content, rather than generic names such as "Image(123).png". Web pages are not exactly my forte, so if there is a better way of doing this, I am all ears. I also anticipate that if wide access to these files is to be provided, some sort of limitation on the creation of the HTML pages will have to be provided for. Other than that potential problem, the speed of response on a local network seems very good.
I wanted to store the parameters in the registry, but the socket software is initialized in the User Control, which occurs before the form itself is run. I suppose the registry could be accessed from the User Control, but that will have to wait for a later version.
J.A. Coutts
Edit: The images would not upload. VbForums now says that I have exceeded my limit?
Last edited by couttsj; Sep 18th, 2020 at 10:13 AM.
u should try to make the program without the need of any dependencies. otherwise its quite useless.
a picture viewer can be done very easily already so it need to be something extra to be worth it.
This is not just an image/picture viewer. It is server based, so it can be accessed from multiple locations via LAN/WAN. To quote the original description, "The viewer is actually your browser, so in theory it will deliver anything that your browser will support; pictures, HTML, movies etc.". I have only included support for PNG. JPG, and HTML files, but it can be expanded to suit the need. In reality, it is just a multiuser delivery system.
so the question is, what is NTSVC.ocx and can it be avoided by adding the needed coding directly into your module/class? I believe that will make this "service" worth it.
so the question is, what is NTSVC.ocx and can it be avoided by adding the needed coding directly into your module/class? I believe that will make this "service" worth it.
Desktop work well! but connot registered NTSVC.ocx in my pc
All I have ever done is add it to the Components window using the Browse feature. It then gets registered automatically. The Zip file also contains a help file, which may offer more suggestions.
The main thing I have used Gossamer for was a UI to get to an NT Service, which can't interact with Desktops any more (post-XP).
Those are usually fairly simple UIs, providing a way to tweak options and settings in the running Service. As a bonus it becomes easy to do the tweaking from a box elsewhere on the LAN without RDPing into the server box.
Otherwise I'm not sure when Gossamer makes a lot of sense.
Otherwise I'm not sure when Gossamer makes a lot of sense.
I use it to pass data back and forth via iphone\android apps. It works great because we can include it as part of our normal program updates without making the user install additional files or config a 3rd party webserver. And since it is part of our project, we have access to all of our functions and don't need to rewrite them in another language or break out into dlls. The only thing missing is ssl
Already working on it. But it will only support TLS 1.3 or better. I strongly suspect that all future protocols will only support Forward Secrecy (sometimes called Perfect Forward Secrecy or PFS). That is to say they will use some sort of ECC (Elliptical Curve Cryptography).
very good project.
I've been using Gossamer for a few months now and it's doing quite well for me.
It would be good to implement login or password to access the files.
and put options like ftp to copy, cut, rename, download, upload files etc.
and some formats such as avi video.
Greetings
very good project.
I've been using Gossamer for a few months now and it's doing quite well for me.
It would be good to implement login or password to access the files.
and put options like ftp to copy, cut, rename, download, upload files etc.
and some formats such as avi video.
Greetings
AVI format is a non-issue and basic auth is very simple to implement but ftp support would be like to bring a button and to ask to sew a new coat on it :-))