M
Me
I have many technologies (web pages, Powerbuilder apps, etc.) that I'm
trying to "integrate" with some new Windows Forms smart client apps.
I think a great way to do this would be passing parameters via the
query string as shown in this article:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnforms/html/winforms05152003.asp
Also, I am envisioning a user clicking a web link by a HTML table
record and the smart client automatically opening a windows showing
detailed information about that record. i.e. click on a user's SS# in
a web app and their info is available in the smart client.
A solution I've been tossing around is this: have all html links go
to one place, f.e. driver.exe with parameters for which program to
run, what form to auto-navigate to, and what information to show on
that form. Something like:
http://the.host/driver.exe?prog=UserEditor&Form=Detail&User=101
driver.exe's only job is to start up, see if the program is already
running, if it's not start it and pass the parameters, if it is just
pass the running copy the parameters. So, driver.exe's lifetime would
be very short.
Problems I have so far include how to know if a program is running or
not, how to get the parameters to the program from driver.exe
(remoting?), and if it's actually feasible if I can figure those out.
Anybody have any ideas? Other ideas I've thought about are having the
driver.exe (or any program) write a file and have the program listen
with a file system watcher. Or maybe do the same thing using the
clipboard. I've seen some apps that watch the clipboard. That still
doesn't answer how to tell if an instance is already running.
Thanks for reading my rambling. Any thoughts will be very much
appreciated!
feech
trying to "integrate" with some new Windows Forms smart client apps.
I think a great way to do this would be passing parameters via the
query string as shown in this article:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnforms/html/winforms05152003.asp
Also, I am envisioning a user clicking a web link by a HTML table
record and the smart client automatically opening a windows showing
detailed information about that record. i.e. click on a user's SS# in
a web app and their info is available in the smart client.
A solution I've been tossing around is this: have all html links go
to one place, f.e. driver.exe with parameters for which program to
run, what form to auto-navigate to, and what information to show on
that form. Something like:
http://the.host/driver.exe?prog=UserEditor&Form=Detail&User=101
driver.exe's only job is to start up, see if the program is already
running, if it's not start it and pass the parameters, if it is just
pass the running copy the parameters. So, driver.exe's lifetime would
be very short.
Problems I have so far include how to know if a program is running or
not, how to get the parameters to the program from driver.exe
(remoting?), and if it's actually feasible if I can figure those out.
Anybody have any ideas? Other ideas I've thought about are having the
driver.exe (or any program) write a file and have the program listen
with a file system watcher. Or maybe do the same thing using the
clipboard. I've seen some apps that watch the clipboard. That still
doesn't answer how to tell if an instance is already running.
Thanks for reading my rambling. Any thoughts will be very much
appreciated!
feech