c# concept question

[RobKinney1]

Hello, I am a beginner C# programmer for our company. I am rewriting some
of our software written in C++ to C#.

With our new software we are developing, my boss is under the impression
that you can actaully just "change" the .exe file on our servers and everyone
who logs into our webpage to launch the application will automatically
recieve the newest version of software..... can this be done? I have never
heard of such a thing, nor can I find anything to support that. All our
software is about 1 Mb including a .dll for other device interfaces.

Maybe I can make an applet that the log into and it checks to see if they
have the newest version and download it if they don't....?

Should I not use an .exe and somehow program a web interface in C# for our
software? I am very lost... Any input would be greatly appreciated here.

Thanks,

Rob K

[Marina]

Yes, it can be. This is often referred to as 'no touch deployment', and
there are numerous articles and mentions of this on the web. I am surprised
you couldn't find anything.

The problem you are going to have is security. By default, this application
will not have rights to do anything useful (connect to a databse, call a web
service, etc). Users are going to have to configure .NET security on their
machiens to allow it to do anything.

It also means, that users will need to have the .NET framework installed,
which is often not the case. So unless your user base consists of developers
and tech savvy people, this is not going to work. Additionally, this is
right now not the standard way to have application deployed over the web -
maybe if this is only to happen on a local network.

"RobKinney1" <Ro********@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4E**********************************@microsof t.com...

Hello, I am a beginner C# programmer for our company. I am rewriting
some
of our software written in C++ to C#.

With our new software we are developing, my boss is under the impression
that you can actaully just "change" the .exe file on our servers and
everyone
who logs into our webpage to launch the application will automatically
recieve the newest version of software..... can this be done? I have
never
heard of such a thing, nor can I find anything to support that. All our
software is about 1 Mb including a .dll for other device interfaces.

Maybe I can make an applet that the log into and it checks to see if they
have the newest version and download it if they don't....?

Should I not use an .exe and somehow program a web interface in C# for
our
software? I am very lost... Any input would be greatly appreciated here.

Thanks,

Rob K

[thechaosengine]

Hi,

You need to look into the concepts of "No touch deployment" and Smart Clients
using the .net framework. This is what microsoft calls them anyway.

The best place to start is msdn. They have had a few articles on it within
the last few months so you'll definately be able to find some usefull stuff

Kindest Regards

tce

Hello, I am a beginner C# programmer for our company. I am rewriting
some of our software written in C++ to C#.

With our new software we are developing, my boss is under the
impression that you can actaully just "change" the .exe file on our
servers and everyone who logs into our webpage to launch the
application will automatically recieve the newest version of
software..... can this be done? I have never heard of such a thing,
nor can I find anything to support that. All our software is about 1
Mb including a .dll for other device interfaces.

Maybe I can make an applet that the log into and it checks to see if
they have the newest version and download it if they don't....?

Should I not use an .exe and somehow program a web interface in C#
for our software? I am very lost... Any input would be greatly
appreciated here.

Thanks,

Rob K

[RobKinney1]

Ahh... thank you! Now I have something I can go on. Do you know what the
standard is for deploying an application on the web? Perhaps I will find
something on the subject with my new searches.

Most of the users of this program are contractors of ours. We thought that
just having them download the .NET update would get them what they need in
order to run our software. Hopefully there is not any tweaks they have to do
on their system to get our stuff to work.

Thank you so much for replying!

Please forgive my stupidity.

"Marina" wrote:

Yes, it can be. This is often referred to as 'no touch deployment', and
there are numerous articles and mentions of this on the web. I am surprised
you couldn't find anything.

The problem you are going to have is security. By default, this application
will not have rights to do anything useful (connect to a databse, call a web
service, etc). Users are going to have to configure .NET security on their
machiens to allow it to do anything.

It also means, that users will need to have the .NET framework installed,
which is often not the case. So unless your user base consists of developers
and tech savvy people, this is not going to work. Additionally, this is
right now not the standard way to have application deployed over the web -
maybe if this is only to happen on a local network.

[RobKinney1]

Thank you so much. I will look at that right away. You are very kind to
respond.

Rob K

"thechaosengine" wrote:

Hi,

You need to look into the concepts of "No touch deployment" and Smart Clients
using the .net framework. This is what microsoft calls them anyway.

The best place to start is msdn. They have had a few articles on it within
the last few months so you'll definately be able to find some usefull stuff

Kindest Regards

tce

[RobKinney1]

I was reading some information on the security issues and as you stated, you
could not access the disk without making changes on the clients computer. If
I made a program in C++ that were to execute on their machine and have it run
the following command:

caspol -machine -addgroup All_Code -url http://localhost/* FullTrust -n
TaskManagement

.... would that be a security risk? Could other people spoof their address
and make it look like ours and gain control over their system? Perhaps this
is not they way to do it..?

"Marina" wrote:

Yes, it can be. This is often referred to as 'no touch deployment', and
there are numerous articles and mentions of this on the web. I am surprised
you couldn't find anything.

The problem you are going to have is security. By default, this application
will not have rights to do anything useful (connect to a databse, call a web
service, etc). Users are going to have to configure .NET security on their
machiens to allow it to do anything.

It also means, that users will need to have the .NET framework installed,
which is often not the case. So unless your user base consists of developers
and tech savvy people, this is not going to work. Additionally, this is
right now not the standard way to have application deployed over the web -
maybe if this is only to happen on a local network.