Can you use a form application and/or libraries on the web?

[zachattack05]

I don't work with ASPX or whatever it is now very much at all. I work with WinForms and DLLs most of the time, but I was asked by a client to make a portion of an application available online so that their clients can access certain information without calling them and asking.

So, my question is, since it is a WinForms application, is it possible to place some of the DLLs and/or executables on a ASPX web server and have the pages access the methods in those or will I need to re-write them for the web?

I've seen some web projects contain class files, but I'm not sure if those are being compiled to a DLL or what? I have no idea how ASPX works really other than it's cool to play with.

I'm attending a Microsoft seminar in Creve Coeur Missouri on the first on Cloud Computing and evidently I'll get time in the cloud for free to play around but I'm worried I'm going to waste my free time there since I really don't know what it can do and thought this might be an opportunity to have something to try.

So anyway, back to the original question, can WinForms DLLs and/or executables be accessed on the web? I mean the methods/properties etc, not necessarily the forms themselves.

[Mike Askew]

You can use the same DLL's as in the windows forms with the web based solution :)

If i remember rightly (not used in about 5 months) its simply a matter of referncing the DLL's and you can use their contents within the c# side of the webpages, therefore allowing use of their methods like in the winforms version :)

[thines01]

1) You can make a WinForms or Console app that communicates across the web
- To a web service
- To a web server
- To another app

2) You can make a WebForms (ASP.NET) app that does the same.
3) You can make a Silverlight app.
4) You can make an ASP.NET/MVC app

All can use DLLs.

The problem comes in with the display technique.
A lot of developers HOOK their functional code in with their display code
- Console.WriteLine
- TextBox, ListBox, ComboBox, etc

...where it would be difficult to just create another output mechanism and just use the functional code.

Learning web techmologies (like ASP.NET) is not hard.
Dealing with multiple venues will make you a better programmer overall.

If your base code is well-written, you will not have much trouble making a different kind of app.

[zachattack05]

It's good to hear that the code could be re-used when in a DLL. Would you say that it is better, then, to completely separate the methods that an application uses and just make the winform application a "shell" of just forms that, by themselves do very little except call methods located in supporting libraries?

That way, since all (or most) of the logic is in the DLLs, very little would have to be re-written, just a new "form" (I guess is what it's called) for the web interface?

[skatamatic]

Depending on how the Dlls are designed, you might need to make some wrapper classes to expose the dll classes in a web-friendly way.