I have made an exe program using vb.net but I want to make a webpage on which that exe is embedded.
Like the way this site has done.
You already have the source code for your VB.NET application, the path of least resistance is to factor out the desired functionality into a library DLL. Your web server presumably runs Windows and so will probably have ASP.NET capability. Just reference the DLL in your ASP.NET project and call into that instead.
My advice is don't make a rod for your own back by creating your own CGI binaries:
With a CGI application you'll have to generate all of the response headers and markup by yourself, you'll also have to parse any inbound headers, cookies etc yourself. It's a lot of work to replicate functionality already present in ASP.NET
Enabling CGI executables on your web server increases the risk of a security compromise, either through a mistake in your VB.NET executable, or because via some other vector an attacker has been able to upload a malicious executable and run that.
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I want to create a small windows 10 application where the user can start and add a single file (f.e. via drag and drop0. This file can then be downloaded in the local network as long as the application remains open.
I am now looking for the best way to do this, without using IIS. I have no idea where to start so I would appreciate any input. As far as I can tell .Net Core with Kestrel is a good way to go.
Since you want to have Drag-and-Drop functionality, you'll either want to accept a file dropped onto an .exe file, or have a Windows Forms or WPF app that can accept a file drop.
Either way, you can start an ASP.NET Core WebHost with Kestrel enabled from within any of these solutions, as long as it is running on a thread separate from the UI thread (the Run() method will block).
I have made a small text based game using VB.NET in a Windows Forms application but it seems that people are a bit hesitent when it comes to downloading exe files. What would an easy way to have it work as a web application without having to rewrite the entire code?
There isn't an "easy" way to turn it into a web application. You can take all of your logic and put it into libraries (Class Library), but you'll need to write new front-end code for both the desktop and web.
If you are wanting the web to accept user input and such without constant reloading, you'll also need to make a web service to talk to using jQuery or the like.
For what it's worth, if anyone is hesitant to download an EXE, then they don't need it. I used to publish installations for VB6 applications on my website years ago, and I had downloads and referrals from all over the place, including educational institutions.
Also, if you are direct linking to an EXE, consider packaging it up in a ZIP along with a readme file.
This question already has answers here:
How to write a browser plugin?
(4 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
In my legacy web application I need to read user system registry from JS and do some other stuff. I cannot not use ActiveX for security reasons so I have written a plugin. My Plugin consists of a DLL file which is a COM component. This COM component exposes few functions which I call from Java Script code.
In IE I package my DLL in a CAB file and install it, say it's test.dll, in the following way:
<object classid="clsid:some class id here" codebase="test.cab" height="0" width="0" onError="testInstalled=false; return true;" id="testComp"></object>
The above HTML tag install the COM component as plugin in IE and Im able to access the exposed functions of the same from my JS code:
var testCompApp = document.testComp;
testCompApp.callSomeFunction();
It works fine in IE. I need the same functionality in other browsers(Chrome,Firefox, Safari)
Can you pls suggest how to develop plugins for other browsers using my DLL file?
Thanks,
I don't get it: First you say "I can't use ActiveX for security reasons", and then you do the same bad things that ActiveX does in all its dangerous glory: a CAB-packaged COM object running unrestricted native Win32.
How does doing that solve your security concerns with ActiveX?
Leaving aside for a minute the question of "security": if you are not doing "ActiveX" already, you're pretty close. I don't remember off the top of my head all the details of what goes into [the-IE-plug-in-architecture-that-shares-with-other-stuff-the-marketing-moniker-of] "ActiveX", but I think all you are missing to be called "ActiveX" is a few interfaces you must implement. I also suspect that by being shy of "ActiveX" you don't even get to sign your CAB with Authenticode, which would provide your users with a modicum of confidence (assuming you maintain proper controls and key management, and that your users trust you enough to allow your native code to run on their computers).
In any case, that DLL you wrote will only ever run in IE. There is no other browser that supports Win32 native COM objects (whether you choose to follow the ActiveX specification to the letter or not). If you want to do the same thing in other browsers, you are going to have to rewrite it with something else.
I think you have (at most) two options for doing what you want to do:
COM/ActiveX: Native Win32 code in a COM object. What you are doing now. This only works on IE and it's extremely dangerous for users, unless it's done in a controlled environment (e.g. if this is a commercial product to be distributed by an enterprise customer's IT department, or if you have an established presence and a reputation, like some large companies do).
Java:. This would run on all browsers assuming your users have the proper runtime installed and enabled. But it will only work for you if Java allows access to the information you seek via a sandbox-authorized method, because you can't call registry API's from the Java sandbox. The same goes for "the other stuff" you need the plug-in to do.
Ok, so you have a third option:
Reimplement the whole thing in something that is not tied to the browser: a native Windows executable; maybe in a downloadable installer or maybe a .NET program deployed via ClickOnce.
You are in a pickle: You are saying "I have security concerns with running ActiveX but I need to do something dangerous". Any piece of code downloadable and runnable by a web browser that is able to access the registry directly is - necessarily - a dangerous piece of code. Any conceivable technology that allows you to run such code from a browser will immediately elicit the very same security concerns that ActiveX elicits.
Indiscriminate access to the registry is out of the question from a modern browser sandboxed environment, so you either have to find a different source for the specific information you want, or you have to use ActiveX/COM running under IE.
I would like to make my AIR desktop browser be the default web browser on a system, how can I go about and do this ?
I would also like to know how I can retrieve the link that has been clicked (in an email for example) to interact with the application.
thanks !
As far as I'm aware this is impossible in AIR. You can associate your app with file types using the air-app.xml descriptor or by calling NativeApplication.setAsDefaultApplication() (Read about it here). Opening files after using either of these methods will trigger your application to launch with an InvokeEvent (Read Here). You can read a good tutorial for this here.
However, if I understand correctly, you also want your app to take over any HTTP requests from inside any other app. To do this you have to override the protocol default application, which requires a registry edit and (I believe) that AIR can't do that. You may be able to write an external script in C or Java to do that for you (This might help with that).
I'm trying to write some web-based automation. The sites I'm hitting aren't on the same domain as my automation, so cross-site scripting issues make it impossible to access the DOM on the target website.
I don't want to use a proxy or deal with proxifying the target websites (like Selenium does, for example). Cross-platform is a nice to have, but isn't a must. I'll go Windows only if I'm forced to.
I realize I could simply write a Windows program that runs a WebBrowser control and my own set of scripts, but I don't want my users having to download an EXE from my webpage, or any registry overrides to disable cross-domain checking. It has to be extremely easy to use, no extra software downloads or anything.
I tried to write an ActiveX control which includes the MS WebBrowser control, so I could have a "browser-in-a-browser", so to speak. This didn't work. I ended up with winocc.cpp assertion failures.
What other options do I have? Would a Java applet work? I'd need a Java-based browser.. would I have to look at using JRex or Lobo?
There has just got to be a better way.
You could use a server-side language to obtain the external page using a screen scrape. I've done this using PHP and also in C#.NET, but you could use pretty much any server side language to make a web request that returns the whole chunk of HTML from the target page.
Once you have the HTML, you can do what you want with it, as it's just a string that you're going to manipulate in some way and then write on your page.