R
Rob Ainscough
Guest
I'm in the early specification phase of my project (client side desktop app) that needs to accomplish the following:
1. Communicate with web services hosted on a GoDaddy windows server (most likely WCF, I'll code and deploy in a separate ASP.NET web project which will also do all the back-end SQL DB access)
2. Operate on a client's local files (that can be anywhere on their PC including protected folders) that are used by another client local applications including searching of folders/files in CSIDL_APPDATA, CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA and modifying files in those folder paths.
3. Provide Auto-Update support when newer versions are published
4. Launch applications contained in protected folders like CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES
5. UI works with desktop scaling
6. Can operate with System.Management (i.e. ManagementObjectSearcher with Win32_xxxx parameters)
So my question for the "Client" side application work, which platform is the best option?
UWP works great with item #1, #3 and #5 above when deployed in Windows 10 store, however, when trying to deploy side loaded (even with a valid code signing certificate from GoDaddy) there are potential deployment road blocks and security issues.
Windows Forms app can do item #1, #2, #4, #6 ... and #3 but that requires additional coding work or 3rd party services. But no UI scaling built-in.
Windows WPF app can do item #1, #2, #4, #6 ... and #3 but that requires additional coding work or 3rd party services. But no UI scaling built-in.
Windows Forms and WPF appear to be on life support and Microsoft seem to be moving in a direction of dropping support for those technologies (another Silverlight all over again). UWP doesn't appear to support all the functionality I need. So I'm once again "stuck" with limitations and no "complete" solution from Microsoft.
Any other solutions? I'm even willing to look at desktop solutions that aren't Microsoft based.
Cheers, Rob.
"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
Continue reading...
1. Communicate with web services hosted on a GoDaddy windows server (most likely WCF, I'll code and deploy in a separate ASP.NET web project which will also do all the back-end SQL DB access)
2. Operate on a client's local files (that can be anywhere on their PC including protected folders) that are used by another client local applications including searching of folders/files in CSIDL_APPDATA, CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA and modifying files in those folder paths.
3. Provide Auto-Update support when newer versions are published
4. Launch applications contained in protected folders like CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES
5. UI works with desktop scaling
6. Can operate with System.Management (i.e. ManagementObjectSearcher with Win32_xxxx parameters)
So my question for the "Client" side application work, which platform is the best option?
UWP works great with item #1, #3 and #5 above when deployed in Windows 10 store, however, when trying to deploy side loaded (even with a valid code signing certificate from GoDaddy) there are potential deployment road blocks and security issues.
Windows Forms app can do item #1, #2, #4, #6 ... and #3 but that requires additional coding work or 3rd party services. But no UI scaling built-in.
Windows WPF app can do item #1, #2, #4, #6 ... and #3 but that requires additional coding work or 3rd party services. But no UI scaling built-in.
Windows Forms and WPF appear to be on life support and Microsoft seem to be moving in a direction of dropping support for those technologies (another Silverlight all over again). UWP doesn't appear to support all the functionality I need. So I'm once again "stuck" with limitations and no "complete" solution from Microsoft.
Any other solutions? I'm even willing to look at desktop solutions that aren't Microsoft based.
Cheers, Rob.
"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
Continue reading...