Remotely manipulate program which interfaces with laboratory instruments - apache

I have written an application in VB which reads and displays data from instruments
and change their settings. These instruments are in my lab, but and I want to access them remotely from my room or anywhere outside my campus LAN through a web server. After searching the net I realised the best thing to do would be to use an Apache server.
Should my VB application run within the apache server? Apparently there is something called an application server.
As an alternative approach, should I write an application within the server that takes data from the code I have written and then uses or modifies it?
Or is there any other approach to the problem I am failing to see?

Related

cPanel : Running an application

I am trying to build a middleware application ( you know...retrive data from a webservice and store to db in cPAnel and send the data to the webservice hosted from here)
Is it possible to run an application in cPanel?
If it is possible what is the prefferedlanguage for this purpose and
why?
If I am trying to run an application which has to update this fetch
hourly automatically form code.is it possible.means i want this
application to be in running state for an indefinite time.Is it
possible?
My thoughts are:
1. cPanel is not a jumping off point for applications. It is simply a shared hosting management console. It gives you the ability to do some management. You can fire off applications by making a cronjob.
Generally you have two choices, you can use shell scripting or PHP invoked from a shell.
Now this narrows it down further. PHP is configured to have a maximum execution time to stop people hogging the processors.
If you are going to write some proper middleware, I'd suggest that you either get yourself an Amazon, Jelastic or some other cloud hosting provider. You will get the ability to deploy a real application, on a full operating system - rather than "hacking" a solution.
cPanel based installs are really for those people who just want to put a website, whack up a blog, or do some low bandwidth hosting. Running something constantly is going to have you violate the terms of service on these accounts very quickly.

Deploying an application server to a server

I am building a client-server application, this is all running locally on my computer whilst I am developing the system. However, eventually I would like to deploy the server-side part of the application to a server to run 24/7, enabling client applications to connect and consume the service at will. What I would like to know is, when I come to doing this would I simply just install the server-side application on the server, hit run and that's it? That just seems... well not right (to me), is this the way it is done? or is there a lot more to it? I imagine there is, but I can't seem to find any content on this subject.
FYI - the server is a self hosted WCF application.
You'd want to take your program's executable, support dlls and config files and drop them into a folder. Then create a Windows Service to run the program; if you don't use a Windows Service, the program will only run while you're logged on, which isn't good. As a Windows Service, a reboot of the server will bring the program back online even if you're not logged on.
Here's a knowledge base article from MS on how to make a windows service.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/251192
If you're program is compiled as a DLL, then create a small .exe program to run it (a wrapper) then deploy the program as described in the article.
Good luck.

Is this possible for a Windows based machine to send and receive data to tailor made app on the iPhone?

I am making an app for the iPhone in Xcode which needs to be able to send and receive excel data from a windows based machine. Making the app is no trouble but what would I need from a PC to access the app data?
Firstly, I wouldn't be using Excel as a data storage program. What you really should be using is a database hosted on a web server with a PHP interface etc. If you choose to go the database route, then you can easily use a Windows machine.
Though if you choose to stick with Excel, it would be theoretically be possible given that people have made apps to have full control of a computer remotely via an app. I just think that this approach is going to be very hard to set up, and will be a lot more clunky than any sort of web server set up. Don't forget that you can get free web server services if the data level is low.
As you mentioned, this PC won't have access to the internet. Assuming you aren't willing to fix that, I guess you'd be left with a Bluetooth or local wifi option. Having to plug it in would really defeat the purpose of an app, and I don't think that iPhones can even do that without mad hacks.
An alternative idea is to build an app that links in with some free web server service, then build VBA code to download it to your Excel sheet. When you plug your iPhone into your PC, use the hotspot to get internet access.

Want to Run VB.Net Desktop Application in web Browser as Web Application

I have a Small ERP Financial Software developed in VB.Net and SQL Server consisting on modules
HRM, Accounts, General Ledger etc.
Now i want to run some module on web but Creating all application in asp.net or other web tools is too much time taking.
Is There any way to run this Desktop application on web espacially in Web Browsers. ?
Any Help.
If you don't want to re-write your application you could have a look at Go Global.
I can't vouch for it as I have personally never used it, but I know of people who have.
I have tested that for a proof of concept on the past and it runs great. Called .net zero deployment, you can look it up. The only concern is off you need database access, remember that you are paying through the port 80, so a need for a web service to access database call may be needed. Not sure of I have still the code trial, but I can look.

Online product demo environment for Windows applications

I'm looking for a way to allow potential customers to try my application before they buy it.
The product is a windows forms application that requires an SQL Server database to operate.
Although I have a functional demo that the customer can install on their network, I want to make it easier for them by have them "play" with it at my environment.
I remember Microsoft had (has?) something similar. I was testing Visual Studio a few years ago in a virtual environment where I was connecting to a server at Microsoft.
They setup the environment this way so when a user logs off after using it rollback his actions. Or to explain it better: when a user logins it starts with a new, clean environment.
So any projects I've created testing Visual Studio were lost after I logged off.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Some solutions that come to mind:
Provide remote access
You could provide access to a running instance of your application via some sort of remote connection protocol, e.g. via RDP or via VNC.
For example, there is a Java VNC client which can run as a Java applet; you could put that on a webpage and have it connect to a VNC session you host on your servers.
Or use Windows Terminal Server, and allow connection via RDP.
Both solutions of course have the drawback that people need to open the appropriate ports, if they are behind a firewall. There might be ways around that, however (e.g. you can run VNC over HTTP).
VM image
A completely different solution: Provide a ready-to-run VM image (for VMWare, VirtualBox or similar) of your application, including server and everything. You would need a demo version of your app though, plus getting redistribution rights for all the proprietary components (Windows OS, SQL server) might get hairy.
Offer videos
Often people do not really need to actually use the app; they are mainly interested to see how it works. So maybe it is enough to host videos of the app in operation. That allows you to put in some advertising for your features, and lets you show the users what they might miss when testing on their own.