Re: Launching an .exe on intranet

From: Kevin Spencer (kspencer_at_takempis.com)
Date: 08/30/04 

Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 08:01:26 -0400

Hi MK,

It's hard to tell from your description what exactly your business
requirements are. For example, you mentioned that your client wanted to
"replace the functionality of his Excel file... with something else so that
his system would run with no contigency [sic] upon MS Office having to be
installed." This doesn't adequately explain the business requirement. You
haven't mentioned whether or not the requirement is for a desktop (1-user)
application or a client-server app. From your description of having to
install IIS on every machine, it sounds more like a desktop app than a
client-server app. If so, you're using the wrong programming platform. ASP
is a client-server technology, which enables many people to access the same
resources over a TCP/IP network.

In other words, if you want everyone to be able to access the same data and
share access to it, an ASP app is what you want, in which case you only need
ONE web server. If you want a private, one-user app, ASP is definitely NOT
the way to go.

> - Is there ANY way (via a plug-in, etc.) that IIS can be installed on xp
> home? (from most of what I've seen on the web, it looks like the answer is
> no.)

I've heard of people doing it, but WinXP Home is not designed for such use,
and as I mentioned before, this sounds like a bad idea all the way round.

> - I'm just curious, what are the main differences between VB 6.0 and
VB.net?

VB is a language for writing executables. VB.Net is a language for writing
managed executables (executables that run on the .Net platform).

> - What are the main differences between ASP and ASP.net?

Too many to elaborate. ASP is procedural; ASP.Net is object-oriented.
ASP.Net is managed. ASP is scripted; ASP.Net is compiled. ASP is limited.
ASP.Net is not. ASP is easy enough for beginners. ASP.Net is difficult for
experts. And much more.

> - How do you use 'Option Explicit' in html/vbscript? (I tried it and
> it complained)

Option Explicit forces the developer to declare variables rather than just
using them. For example, with Option Explicit OFF, the following is fine:

x = 1

With Option Explicit turned ON, you would get a compile-time error with the
above. You would have to use:

Dim x
x = 1

Option Explicit can prevent many developer errors from occurring. In
addition, it gives a little boost to performance. 

-- 
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
.Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
Big things are made up
of lots of little things.
<MK> wrote in message news:#p$wEVSjEHA.3320@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Hi Kevin,
>
> Thanks for replying.  Sorry I didn't respond sooner.
>
> I guess I should have explained things a little better as I never really
> wanted to run an executable on the client-side within a browser.
>
> The original business requirement he gave me was to replace the
> functionality of his Excel file (doing loan-calcs/amortization, etc.) with
> something else so that his system would run with no contigency upon MS
> Office having to be installed.  I've only just recently (within the past 2
> weeks) begun tackling internet-programming (html, submitting forms, etc.)
so
> please bear with me.  I already came up with a solution a few days ago and
> that was to use ASP to process his input, combined with vbscript and/or
> jscript html tags to do the math and a few other things.  I installed IIS
on
> my pc, made the changes and tested them, leaving most of the original html
> intact while adding a few asp pages with the scripting code.  I tested it
> both locally and from other pcs and I really liked the way it worked.  To
> me, ASP solves his problem. (I just used 'classic' ASP; I don't have
> ASP.net).
>
> He liked it, but unfortunately he said that it was possible that he
> would be distributing this to other offices that had pcs running Windows
XP
> HOME edition; in other words, IIS could not be installed unless they
> upgraded to XP Pro.  So that's why I was considering giving up the ASP
> idea and instead writing a compiled VB (or some other) .exe to replace the
> excel file launched withing the browser.
>
> Questions:
>
> - Is there ANY way (via a plug-in, etc.) that IIS can be installed on xp
> home? (from most of what I've seen on the web, it looks like the answer is
> no.)
> - I'm just curious, what are the main differences between VB 6.0 and
VB.net?
> - What are the main differences between ASP and ASP.net?
> - How do you use 'Option Explicit' in html/vbscript? (I tried it and
> it complained)
>
> thanks again
>
>
> "Kevin Spencer" <kspencer@takempis.com> wrote in message
> news:u7W%23xyGjEHA.3988@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> > Hi MK,
> >
> > First, you need to understand that you are not making changes to an
> > Intranet. An Intranet is a network. You are making changes to a web site
> > that is on an Intranet. It may seem like I'm nitpicking, but
understanding
> > what you're working with is the first step to working effectively with
it.
> >
> > A link to an Excel file may open in your browser if the browser
recognizes
> > the MIME-Type of the document. Assuming that your Intranet users are
using
> > Internet Explorer, that would be why the Excel documents open in
Internet
> > Explorer. It has the capability of displaying Excel documents, as long
as
> > Excel is  installed on the same machine as the browser.
> >
> > Note that an Excel document is NOT an executable file. It is a document,
a
> > file in Excel format. It requires the Excel application (installed on
the
> > client machine) to be viewed. When you open it in Internet Explorer, IE
> > launches an instance of the Excel application, which it hosts. Again,
this
> > is only because IE recognizes the MIME-Type of the document and knows
how
> to
> > display it.
> >
> > An executable, on the other hand, is NOT a document. It is an
application.
> > Internet Explorer cannot run applications (except for Java applets,
SWFs,
> > and ActiveX controls). If you link to an executable, IE will prompt you
as
> > to whether you want to Save it as a file, or open it. If you choose to
> open
> > the executable, here is what happens:
> >
> > The executable file is downloaded by the browser (that's what browsers
> do).
> > It is then loaded into memory and executed. Note that the executable
> running
> > on the client is NOT the executable on the server. It is a downloaded
copy
> > of the .exe file. If the executable has any external dependencies, such
as
> > DLLs, config files, or anything else not on the client, it will not run.
> It
> > doesn't have a connection to the server (unless someone designed it to
> > connect to the server by itself).
> >
> > Finally, chances are, your business requirements don't dictate that you
do
> > this. It isn't very often that they do. If you can tell us what your
> > business requirements are, perhaps we can help come up with a viable
> > solution.
> >
> > -- 
> > HTH,
> > Kevin Spencer
> > .Net Developer
> > Microsoft MVP
> > Big things are made up
> > of lots of little things.
> >
> >
> > <MK> wrote in message news:uGnOlyFjEHA.1712@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> > > Hi.  TIA to whomever replys.
> > >
> > > I've been asked to make programming changes to an already existing
> > intranet
> > > someone designed using FP.  I do not have FP myself, I'm simply making
> the
> > > changes directly to the html.
> > >
> > > I noticed that you can use a link for an Excel file that lauches it
into
> > the
> > > browser itself instead of a stand-alone run of excel.  The link looks
> > > something like <a href="Excell,test1.xls">.  (test1.xls obviously
being
> > the
> > > XL file)
> > >
> > > Can something like this be done if I wanted to run a compiled VB .exe
> file
> > > within the browser also?  When I try running it locally via
> > html/vbscript -
> > > wshl.run I get the usual IE secruty warning msgs, I click YES and it
> > > runs but as a separate process.  I tried running the .exe with the
> > 'Excell'
> > > ref and similar things happen.
> > >
> > > Is there any way to do this?
> > >
> > > thanks
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
>

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