«

We have an intranet website that currently uses ActiveX but we need to
make it cross-browser compatible and also get around the problems
we've been having with making it work with IE7 and Vista. We decided
to write an external application to do the work from the client side.
We are not sure how the web page can call the app though with
parameters.

For example, we want to do similar to what the MSDN Library and
Audible are doing with their File Transfer Manager and Audible
Download Manager. The user clicks a link on the website which calls
that download program and the program knows what to download.

How does one do this in a .NET app that is cross-browser compatible?
Thanks,
Jeff

"Jeff" <> wrote in message
news: ups.com...

> How does one do this in a .NET app that is cross-browser compatible?

Write a Java applet.


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

On Sep 28, 12:00 pm, "Mark Rae [MVP]" <m...@markNOSPAMrae.net> wrote:
> > How does one do this in a .NET app that is cross-browser compatible?
>
> Write a Java applet.

Is that what those other 2 download programs are written in?
Unfortunately we don't have any Java coders here, just C# .NET ones.
Is there a way to do it in that?
Thanks,
Jeff

"Jeff" <> wrote in message
news: ps.com...

>> Write a Java applet.
>
> Is that what those other 2 download programs are written in?

No idea.

> Unfortunately we don't have any Java coders here, just C# .NET ones.
> Is there a way to do it in that?

No. Java is written in Java.


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

On Sep 28, 1:02 pm, "Mark Rae [MVP]" <m...@markNOSPAMrae.net> wrote:
> > Unfortunately we don't have any Java coders here, just C# .NET ones.
> > Is there a way to do it in that?
>
> No. Java is written in Java.

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. Is there a way to do the communication from
the browser to an external C# .NET application?

"Jeff" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...

> I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. Is there a way to do the communication from
> the browser to an external C# .NET application?

Persuading a browser to launch an application installed on the client
(irrespective of what that app is written in) isn't particularly difficult,
so long as the browser is IE and you don't mind ramping down the security:
http://www.thescripts.com/forum/thread92803.html

However, ActiveX is an IE-only technology so, for cross-browser
compatibility, you need a Java applet.


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

depends on how many browser you need to support.

write the external app in whatever language you want. then for the web
page to start and talk to it you need a browser component. (java applet
will not work due to security).

for IE, you write an active/x control
for firefox, safari and netscape you write a standard netscape plugin
(c/c++).

if you want firefox and safari on the mac, you need to build a universal
image plugin.


-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

Jeff wrote:
> We have an intranet website that currently uses ActiveX but we need to
> make it cross-browser compatible and also get around the problems
> we've been having with making it work with IE7 and Vista. We decided
> to write an external application to do the work from the client side.
> We are not sure how the web page can call the app though with
> parameters.
>
> For example, we want to do similar to what the MSDN Library and
> Audible are doing with their File Transfer Manager and Audible
> Download Manager. The user clicks a link on the website which calls
> that download program and the program knows what to download.
>
> How does one do this in a .NET app that is cross-browser compatible?
> Thanks,
> Jeff
>

If you're AX control is in C++, you could do something like CreateProcessEx
to launch the program. Then you would use some form of interprocess
communication (IPC) to talk between the programs. I recommend TCP/IP or
shared memory. Of course there are other methods, but these are the easiest
IMHO.

"Mark Rae [MVP]" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "Jeff" <> wrote in message
> news: oups.com...
>
>> I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. Is there a way to do the communication from
>> the browser to an external C# .NET application?
>
> Persuading a browser to launch an application installed on the client
> (irrespective of what that app is written in) isn't particularly
> difficult, so long as the browser is IE and you don't mind ramping down
> the security: http://www.thescripts.com/forum/thread92803.html
>
> However, ActiveX is an IE-only technology so, for cross-browser
> compatibility, you need a Java applet.
>
>
> --
> Mark Rae
> ASP.NET MVP
> http://www.markrae.net

As a side note: Last time I checked firefox offers a control for running AX
controls. It has to be downloaded separately. This sounds like an intranet
application so you can pretty much tell them what they need to run. Good
luck.

"Jeff" <> wrote in message
news: ups.com...
> We have an intranet website that currently uses ActiveX but we need to
> make it cross-browser compatible and also get around the problems
> we've been having with making it work with IE7 and Vista. We decided
> to write an external application to do the work from the client side.
> We are not sure how the web page can call the app though with
> parameters.
>
> For example, we want to do similar to what the MSDN Library and
> Audible are doing with their File Transfer Manager and Audible
> Download Manager. The user clicks a link on the website which calls
> that download program and the program knows what to download.
>
> How does one do this in a .NET app that is cross-browser compatible?
> Thanks,
> Jeff
>

"DS2 Systems" <> wrote in message
news:3073D6EA-1560-4CED-A738-...

> This sounds like an intranet application

I wondered about that but was puzzled by the cross-browser compatibility
requirement - that's not a normal requirement for an intranet app...


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net