Alternative .NET smart client bootstrapper - LagLoader.NET
- From: "Alec Yu" <alec.yu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 27 Jan 2006 15:42:24 -0800
Hi there.
In last January, My previous employer got a proof-of-concept project
requiring hand drawing on the web; the customer is a fashion design
house. I created a .NET Windows Forms control based smart client,
encapsulating Tablet PC InkPicture. It worked well (at least for demo)
on all my computers.
Since .NET framework runtime is a Windows Update optional install,
and in the impression that everybody should update their operating
systems often with Windows Update, before that project, I got a
wrong image that .NET framework runtime should be available easily
on every Windows XP PC. No, it is not that case. My customer is no
where close to IT industrial; they just made enough bucks, and their
younger new boss (whose university major was computer science)
decided to invest in a design workflow system. Even though every
designer of that customer got a Windows XP PC on each of their
desktops for long, and they do have a MIS group doing Windows
Update time from time, no .NET framework runtime was preinstalled;
they just not awared of that optional install.
We found no way to automatically install .NET framework runtime
in Windows XP machines of my supposed-to-be users, having to
install it one by one, MANUALLY. There were 20+ machines with
no .NET framework runtime preinstalled. Remember, this is a smart
client solution integrated with a back-end workflow web application
solution. It is suppose that no explicit install/setup files should be
run on every possible user's Windows.
Anyway, even though I have best performance over the category of
hand drawing/writting in all competitors, we failed to get that
customer to adopt my solution. .NET framework deployment is
really an issue. No, it should not be an issue.
It was already 1 year ago. Now, .NET 2.0 was released for weeks,
ClickOnce is out there, and I got the image that ClickOnce does
not support .NET 1.x smart clients. So I am still glad to share my
solution to every .NET smart client developer: LagLoader.NET 1.0.
Features of LagLoader.NET 1.0:
+ Detect if the required .NET framework version is installed.
Automatically download and install it if not installed.
+ No code modification is required in existed .NET Windows Forms
controls, only minor change in the OBJECT tags in web pages
needed. Javascript code worked in the same way to script
Windows Forms controls deployed in web pages.
+ In case that some smart clients are not compatible with the latest
version of .NET framework, they may be run fixed to a compatible
version of .NET framework, while others being run with the latest
version of .NET framework, all in the same web page.
+ An optional FULL TRUST mode to run Windows Forms control
based smart client fully trusted. Smart clients run as fully trusted
as their desktop/local peers, but loaded from remote servers.
Sure, the full trust mode may hint a security issue,
but if you have to do so to perform some tasks, then let it be.
The product web page of LagLoader.NET 1.0:
http://en.ezlag.com/site/335/lagloadernet.aspx
.
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