Moving from WinForm to WebForm

[Victory]

Hi,
Our group has to develop a new UI. We are using a third party and have
them develop this since we don't have a lot of experience in doing this.
We want it to be accessible through the web browser specifically
Internet Explorer on Windows 2003 Server. We want them to initially
build it using WinForm i.e. no browser just a windows application. How
difficult will it be to convert a windows application to a WebForm? Are
there points that we need to keep in mind? Is webform or winform the
right thing to do for this?
thank you in advance for any help here,
Mars

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[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Victory <cs****@devdex.comwrote:

Our group has to develop a new UI. We are using a third party and have
them develop this since we don't have a lot of experience in doing this.
We want it to be accessible through the web browser specifically
Internet Explorer on Windows 2003 Server. We want them to initially
build it using WinForm i.e. no browser just a windows application. How
difficult will it be to convert a windows application to a WebForm? Are
there points that we need to keep in mind? Is webform or winform the
right thing to do for this?

If you believe you want a web app in the end, why would you get them to
develop a Windows Forms to start with? There are many design decisions
which will bite you if you try to just port from a WinForms app to a
web app. Furthermore there are plenty of areas of design and
implementation where you really want web app expertise, but that may
not come with Windows Forms expertise.

I suggest you ask them to build a web app right from the start. That
way they won't be trimming a square peg to fit in a round hole.

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
Web site: http://www.pobox.com/~skeet
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
C# in Depth: http://csharpindepth.com

[Victory]

There are a lot of dependencies with web development like IIS and web
services and database to keep the status updates from components that
will report status back to the UI. Since they are saying web browser
technology does not support Push very well. And so the problem is
resources (lack of head count and may be web programing experience on
both).

Mars

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[Victory]

Any real life experiences you can tell me about or articles you have
read about moving WinForm to WebForm. Or is using WPF for a window
application makes the migration to webform any easier?
Thank you,
Mars

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[Jeff Dillon]

There are a lot of dependencies with web development like IIS and web

services and database to keep the status updates from components that
will report status back to the UI. Since they are saying web browser
technology does not support Push very well. And so the problem is
resources (lack of head count and may be web programing experience on
both).

You should consider Silverlight which solves your problems. Push, elegant
UI, platform independent...

Jeff

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

On Aug 20, 12:05*am, Victory <[e-mail]:

There are a lot of dependencies with web development like IIS and web
services and database to keep the status updates from components that
will report status back to the UI. Since they are saying web browser
technology does not support Push very well. And so the problem is
resources (lack of head count and may be web programing experience on
both).

So perhaps you need to reevaluate whether or not you really need a web
application. You should do that to start with though, rather than
writing a WinForms application as a way to delay doing the hard web
stuff.

Jeff Dillon is right to suggest Silverlight, although you probably
want v2 which isn't out yet. The choice will partly depend on your
time scales, and also how skilled the developers are at picking up new
technologies.

It's true that the web doesn't lend itself to push - but it's clearly
feasible (e.g. using AJAX and/or long-lived requests) and the
existence of various web chat clients proves that. However, this
*will* mean designing the application with the various web constraints
in mind to start with - which is why I don't see significant benefit
in writing a WinForms app to start with.

If the team doesn't have web app experience but you need a web app,
you should perhaps consider using a different team.

Jon

[G.S.]

On Aug 19, 6:35*pm, Victory <[e-mail]:

Hi,
Our group has to develop a new UI. We are using a third party and have
them develop this since we don't have a lot of experience in doing this.
We want it to be accessible through the web browser specifically
Internet Explorer on Windows 2003 Server. We want them to initially
build it using WinForm i.e. no browser just a windows application. How
difficult will it be to convert a windows application to a WebForm? Are
there points that we need to keep in mind? Is webform or winform the
right thing to do for this?
thank you in advance for any help here,
Mars

*** Sent via Developersdexhttp://www.developersdex.com***

While I respect and completely agree with previous answers, a direct
answer to your initial question is yes, WinForms to WebForms is doable
even though challenging!

I recently went through this exercise myself: the project I lead
started as a WinForms app but executive(political) decision was made
to switch to IE-based UI.

It's a large discussion, but in a nutshell, you'd need to (or rather
your contractor will have to) exercise extra caution in architecting
your application. Enforcing the principles of app tiering, separation
of concerns and loose coupling will greatly decrease the amount of
work that will have to be done when you try to put a different UI on
your application. There are application frameworks that can jumpstart
and aid the "correct" architecture, like CAB and Composite Web
Application block from Microsoft and similar from non-MS sources.

[Ignacio Machin ( .NET/ C# MVP )]

On Aug 19, 6:35*pm, Victory <[e-mail]:

Hi,
Our group has to develop a new UI. We are using a third party and have
them develop this since we don't have a lot of experience in doing this.
We want it to be accessible through the web browser specifically
Internet Explorer on Windows 2003 Server. We want them to initially
build it using WinForm i.e. no browser just a windows application. How
difficult will it be to convert a windows application to a WebForm? Are
there points that we need to keep in mind? Is webform or winform the
right thing to do for this?
thank you in advance for any help here,
Mars

*** Sent via Developersdexhttp://www.developersdex.com***

depending of how you build your business logic and interface it can be
moderately difficult to almost impossible.
I advise you to use a MVP design for the interface, in this way the
controls will have minimun functionality and will be easier to move.

IMHO you should plan very carefuly your target platform and just
develop for it

[Victory]

G.S.

Could you please direct me to an article or articulate on the following
statement:

"Enforcing the principles of app tiering, separation
of concerns and loose coupling will greatly decrease the amount of work
that will have to be done when you try to put a different UI on your
application."
I have asked them to develop the UI without any business logic or data
access logic. Is this what you are talking about, Or is there anything
else i need to look into?

Could you please send me a link to where the Composite Web Application
Block is documented? Where do i start if i am a newbee to this?

thank you,
Mars

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[G.S.]

On Aug 20, 1:26*pm, Victory <[e-mail]:

G.S.

Could you please send me a link to where the Composite Web Application
Block is documented? Where do i start if i am a newbee to this?

thank you,
Mars

*** Sent via Developersdexhttp://www.developersdex.com***

WebForms:
Web Client Software Factory (Composite Web App is at the core of this
framework):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb264518.aspx

WinForms:
CAB's home on MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480450.aspx
(you should also look up Smart Client Software Factory)

If you're just starting there might be a steeper learning curve. It
may be too much for your needs as it's aimed at
"composite" (modularized) applications, but you should be able to sift
through it and pick at least the ideas that you need.