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Convert VB.net application to web application

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smeyer56

IS-IT--Management
Oct 16, 2002
206
US
We have an application that was created in VB.net 2003. It is basically an estimating program. Now we need it to be a web application pulling data from an XML file. It also needs to be able to be a desktop application. My first thought is to write a Java applet but I don't really want to start from scratch. PS I didn't write this program. How would you go about doing this?
 
You will need to start from scratch. This isn't to say you can't reuse any custom libraries or copy and paste any code. It's just that a Windows Forms application (which I am assuming you have) is meant to execute code on a client's PC on the Windows operating system. A .Net web app executes code on a server and returns HTML documents to the user's web browser--very different things.

An alternative would be something in between. If you have VS 2005 or later, you can look into Click-once deployment apps. This gives you the ability to have a Windows Forms app accessed from a web browser, downloading the program to the client each time the URL is accessed. However, you lose cross platform functionality with this.
 
That's what I was afraid of. I am told that we need to have this program distributable and able to run without the web and they also want it to run on the web. I think I can do this with an applet but .net have anything like this?

Isn't the WPF Browser app supposed to work like this or am I misunderstanding what I read.

Sorry if I sound like a newbie but I haven't done much VB programming since VB6 and I was brought into a project that someone else wrote but had problems with. I fixed the problems so now I get saddled with this. I can learn what I need to do but want to make sure I am starting in the right direction.

Thanks
 
I haven't used WPF yet. Though I believe the underlying technology as far as the delivery method uses the Click-once methodology I mentioned above.

A Java applet would be my last choice since the languages and libraries are totally different.

I think I misunderstood your original post. I was under the impression that you wanted more of a zero-client web application. But it seems you just need the web for the delivery method.

If you have the old code as well as Visual Studio 2005 or later, you could probably get your package into the new dev environment and deploy it to a network or web site to test it out within an hour if it's not complex.
 
Thanks for all your help.
Nope, I don't think you misunderstood.
They would love to see this run solely on the web, not just using the web to deliver it. If that were the case, I think the click once method would be ideal. I believe the will also require at some time it is useable on Blackberrys.

But we have customers who will be using this on laptops on job sites while having no internet access. Thus the need for a standalone application. I am really trying to avoid creating 2 separate apps.
 
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