Launching an .exe on intranet

[Guest]

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

 

[Kevin Spencer]

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.

 

[Guest]

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]

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]

Kevin, thanks again for your input.

The system should have the option of (1) client-server/shared data -OR-
(2)
desktop 1-user app/private data.

And to clarify the other: replace the Excel file so that
the system will run on ANY Windows OS (2000 or XP / 'Pro' or 'Home') with no
dependency
upon anything having to be installed except IIS on the server-PC (if the
client-server
option is used). Whatever the Excel-file replacement is, it should function
within
the browser just like the
Excel file would (like a 'document'). The data will be retrieved/stored as
individual filenames instead of in
a DB with key-lookup.

I asked about IIS on XP Home because in a very small office environment it's
POSSIBLE that they
could network 2 or 3 PCs together, all of them using home edition. But at
the main office I
visited they were using XP Pro with client-server access to the system.

Question, and to reiterate what you said earlier: The value 'Excell' in the
following anchor
from the FP-generated html is to tell IE that this is an
MIME-Type DOCUMENT of type 'Excel'? Why does FP generate it with 2 'l's?
<a href="Excell,test1.xls">

Thanks and let me know what you think would be a good solution for
a 1-user / private version of the system.

MK

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.

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

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