ASP to communicate with Windows based application on server

[DynamoCL]

Hi all,

I have a problem and wonder if anyone can help.

Keeping it short:

Can I make it so that an ASP page can send a message/control an application that runs on the web server?

For example the application contains a list box, everytime a user accesses a certain ASP site (hosted on the server), the data that is gathered in the ASP page is sent to that application.

I have tried using the API calls, FindWindow to get the handle to the application, but to no avial.

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[Sheco]

An easy way might be to write to a database and have the application poll the db periodically.

 

[DynamoCL]

Hi there,

Actually as soon as I posted this message, I did think of this method. I just wanted to prevent excessive polling on the server. I was hoping that the ASP page could send a message to the app telling it to

a) add the new filename in the queue, and
b) start processing the files if not already.

I shall keep looking for something I can use, otherwise I would use the method you spoke of.

Someone has just mentioned "XML Web Services" so I shall have a look at this.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Sheco]

If the app were a singleton ActiveX EXE that exposed a publicly createable class you could do it but it would risk being overwhelmed if a gazillion peeps hit your web page at the same time.

 

[DynamoCL]

Unlikely to be over run, the application is going to be part of an online backup system. The XML data will be packets of files to be stored, so it is not going to be a really busy site.

Thanks for the DB idea.