I'm creating a C# ASP.NET website and from it I would like to launch the TeamViewer desktop application.
I've read around that there are security implications for this and that browsers may not allow this to prevent websites from taking control of computers (correct me if I'm wrong), however, if I log in to TeamViewer's Management Console, and try to connect to one of my registered devices, the website will try to launch TeamViewer, as seen below:
1.
2.
I'm not looking to launch any features of TeamViewer, only to launch the application and that's it. Is this possible using either C# or JavaScript? I would like this to work cross-platform and cross-browser as well.
Here is a similar question I've came across.
Related
I work developing advanced browser based applications, using technologies like WebGL to create training and simulator tools.
Is it possible for such applications to access and interact with external devices connected to the Windows/Mac? If so what options are there?
A good example is: say we're creating a simulator for a surgical robot which is operated using a special joystick-type control. In a desktop application we could create a controller which has USB (serial port in the old days) and write custom code to interrogate this. But I don't know if browsers have any way to do the same.
In the days of plugins you could write a C++ plugin which acted as a bridge to the browser sandbox but this is not really an option in modern browsers.
What options exist, please? Our target is primarily Chrome though it doesn't have to be.
So not sure if this would be the correct place to ask these but I know I could perhaps get some answers.
I am getting into Meteor and now would like to make some desktop apps. I was going to go the route of just making a native Mac app. But then I found the app wunderlist and its open source making use of the tidesdk.
Anyways I was hoping to get some feedback just in general about these frameworks (pros/cons etc). I don't really have a conceptual understanding of what they do. (or what the main difference between the two is).
I notice you can do routing in them. How is this working exactly? Because there is no URLs or client/server side.
Another thing I was wondering is if it would be possible to use MeteorJS on the desktop in a similar way?
Thanks.
Working with TideSDK is quite easy. We are working to make the experience great for developers. You are essentially just creating an HTML5 app in a special Resources folder. In most cases you can drop an HTML5 app directly into the Resources folder, point to the index.html using TideSDK's configuration and have it running in minutes. TideSDK can be used to run clients, servers, processes, and workers. I tend to work with frameworks such as backbone.js where routing is baked into a single page app.
At the core of TideSDK is WebKit, the core technology that powers the Safari and Chrome web browsers. We use three different ports of WebKit in TideSDK, one to reach each platform (Windows, Mac, Linux). On OSX, we can also use the native WebKit. The APIs of TideSDK provide native UI capabilities (that we are enhancing over time). These include native windows, system trays, menus, and dialogs. You can also interact with the clipboard. We have networking and database capabilities, system notifications, and more. We patch Webkit to allow the interpretation of python, php or ruby in the DOM in script tags and are able to bridge objects between languages. Our API's really allow your to reach the resources of your system including interacting with its filesystem.
It would be fun to run meteor in TideSDK. It is currently possible to run node.js within TideSDK using an appropriate startup process so I cannot see an issue running meteor so that it can run client and server within an app.
If you need your apps to reach Apple's AppStore, TideSDK is the only framework that I am aware of that has this potential. Competitive frameworks use ports of WebKit that are not native to the Mac such as the Chrome port (appjs) or the QT port (Sencha Ion). Apple's scan of an app based on these ports will reveal the use of "private APIs". Therefore, you would could not enter the AppStore marketplace with an app based on these. TideSDK is different and can use the native WebKit implementation on OSX. More about this capability will be revealed in the upcoming TideSDK-1.4.0 release. Our upgraded WebKit will also bring the HTML5 capabilities right up to date with the trunk of WebKit. Many of our users are waiting for this important update.
With WebKit eliminated as a barrier to the AppStore, the last issue facing a developer is Apple's sandboxing and entitlement to the resources of the system. We are looking at possible solutions to aid developers with sandboxing requirements. Some apps will be suitable for sandboxing and others will not. That said, if your goal is AppStore compliance, you will need to work with restrictions Apple has in place. I hope this helps.
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First, I'm not interested in doing this professionally. I am a web developer, a coworker of mine recently left for Spotify and said he will be working mostly in JavaScript for the Spotify Desktop app. He said it uses "Chrome frame" and everything inside is done like a web app (HTML/JS/CSS).
As a web developer who never built anything for Desktop, this is great news. If I can use the technologies I already know and implement them inside some sort of a "frame" and still be able to build a windows or better yet cross platform app.
I know I didn't mention anything about the database, but even a simple hello world desktop app with web technologies would be great to get going.
So how does one go about this? Exactly what do I need/need to know?
You may start with Titanium for desktop dev. Also you may have a look at Chromium Embedded Framework. It's basically a web browser control based on chromium.
It's written in C++ so you can do all the low level OS stuff you want(Growl, tray icons, local file access, com ports, etc) in your container app, and then all the application logic and gui in html/javascript. It allows you to intercept any http request to either serve local resources or perform some custom action. For example, a request to http://localapp.com/SetTrayIconState?state=active could be intercepted by the container and then call the C++ function to update the tray icon.
It also allows you to create functions that can be called directly from JavaScript.
It's very difficult to debug JavaScript directly in CEF. There's no support for anything like Firebug.
You may also try AppJS.com (Helps to build Desktop Applications. for Linux, Windows and Mac using HTML, CSS and JavaScript)
Also, as pointed out by #Clint, the team at brackets.io (Adobe) created an awesome shell using Chromium Embedded Framework that makes it much easier to get started. It is called the brackets shell: github.com/adobe/brackets-shell Find out more about it here: clintberry.com/2013/html5-desktop-apps-with-brackets-shell
NW.js
(Previously known as node-webkit)
I would suggest NW.js if you are familiar with Node or experienced with JavaScript.
NW.js is an app runtime based on Chromium and node.js.
Features
Apps written in modern HTML5, CSS3, JS and WebGL
Complete support for Node.js APIs and all its third party modules.
Good performance: Node and WebKit run in the same thread: Function calls are made straightforward; objects are in the same heap and can just reference each other
Easy to package and distribute apps
Available on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows
You can find the NW.js repo here, and a good introduction to NW.js here. If you fancy learning Node.js I would recommend this SO post with a lot of good links.
Awesomium makes it easy to use HTML UI in your C++ or .NET app
Update
My previous answer is now outdated. These days you would be crazy not to look into using Electron for this. Many popular desktop apps have been developed on top of it.
NOTE: AppJS is deprecated and not recommended anymore.
Take a look at NW.js instead.
It seems the solutions for HTML/JS/CSS desktop apps are in no short supply.
One solution I have just come across is TideSDK: http://www.tidesdk.org/, which seems very promising, looking at the documentation.
You can develop with Python, PHP or Ruby, and package it for Mac, Windows or Linux.
Sorry to burst your bubble but Spotify desktop client is just a Webkit-based browser. Of course it exposes specific additional functionality, but it's only able to run JS and render HTML/CSS because it has a JS engine as well as a Chromium rendering engine. This does not help you with coding a client-side web-app and deploying to multiple platforms.
What you're looking for is similar to Sencha Touch - a framework that allows for HTML5 apps to be natively deployed to iOS, Android and Blackberry devices. It basically acts as an intermediary between certain API calls and device-specific functionality available.
I have no experience with appcelerator, bit it appears to be doing exactly that - and get very favourable reviews online. You should give it a go (unless you wanted to go back to 1999 and roll with MS HTA ;)
I know for there's Fluid and Prism (there are others, that's the one I used to use) that let you load a website into what looks like a standalone app.
In Chrome, you can create desktop shortcuts for websites. (you do that from within Chrome, you can't/shouldn't package that with your app) Chrome Frame is different:
Google Chrome Frame is a plug-in designed for Internet Explorer based
on the open-source Chromium project; it brings Google Chrome's open
web technologies to Internet Explorer.
You'd need to have some sort of wrapper like that for your webapp, and then the rest is the web technologies you're used to. You can use HTML5 local storage to store data while the app is offline. I think you might even be able to work with SQLite.
I don't know how you would go about accessing OS specific features, though. What I described above has the same limitations as any "regular" website. Hopefully this gives you some sort of guidance on where to start.
You can build Javascript apps with Adobe AIR… http://www.adobe.com/products/air.html
CEF offers lot of flexibility and options for customisation. But if the intent is to develop quickly node-webkit is also a good option. Node-web kit also offers ability to call node modules directly from DOM.
If there aren't any native modules to integrate Node-Webkit can offer better mileage. With native modules C/C++ or even C# it is better with CEF.
Is it possible writing a cross-platform desktop application with XHTML (or HTML), CSS and JavaScript?
If the answer is yes, how to run this application? Should I run it with a browser like Firefox?
Note: Currently Windows supports HTML Application.
It seems that what you're looking for is the Open Web Apps
HTA is really Old technology.
Try tools like Titanium (Appcelerator). They are tools, which render HTML content inside an APP. So, from outside, you will be running an executable but inside , it is loading a HTML file.
Same principle is being used in many apps now a days. Facebook for android is a best example
If client-side JavaScript, and/or HTML/CSS hackery accomplishes the task you wish it to, yes, and with a user agent like Firefox, indeed.
Yes. With HTML5.
The other answer's solutions are great, but generally they assume that the user is connected to the internet to have a server-side that handles the data.
But it's possible to use Open Web Apps (as ZER0 suggested) with HTML5, which has a lot of support for offline web apps.
Pay attention to it, though. Even HTML5 assumes that eventually the user will have some sort of internet connection, and offline functionalities are seen as a "cache". So, I'm not sure that this solution is enough for every requirement, because I don't know how much space HTML5 provides to offline applications
I built a PHP / JavaScript website for a customer. Then they asked me to replicate it except as a standalone Mac application. I did this with an app that combined an embedded web server, PHP, and 'WebView' - a Cocoa-ish version of the WebKit web browser that I can embed in a standard app window. This all worked great - I got to reuse 10,000+ lines of PHP/JS code, which saved months off of re-implementing it all again in 'native' code.
Now they want a Windows equivalent. I'm reasonably confident I can get PHP and the web server to work. And I know embedding basic IE functionality is pretty easy.
However...in my Mac setup, WebView (via the windowScriptObject stuff) gave me the ability to call JavaScript methods from C++. For instance, I might call a JavaScript method from C++ to update the screen. Likewise I could set things up so that a JavaScript call in the browser could trigger a C++ method - I used this, for instance, to let a user click 'BROWSE' and pick a file path using a real, standard file browser.
So my question is, is there a Windows-based embedded browser setup that would let me interact with JavaScript in this same way?
(the JavaScript <--> WebKit interface is described in much better detail here: http://lipidity.com/apple/javascript-cocoa-webkit/)
Maybe try using something like Appcelerator Titanium so you'll be ready when your client says they want it to work on Linux, or iPhone, or Android.
Quoting Wikipedia: "Appcelerator Titanium is a platform
for developing mobile and desktop
applications using web technologies.
[...] Support for standards-based web
technologies: HTML, CSS and Javascript
on all platforms along with PHP,
Python and Ruby for desktop platforms.
Integrated support for popular
JavaScript and AJAX Frameworks
including jQuery, YUI, MooTools,
Scriptaculous and others."
Sounds like a perfect tool for the job.
When you embed the Web Browser Control (IE), your application code can simply call execScript (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms536420(v=vs.85).aspx) on the window object. You can have your script call out to the application by using the window.external object from the script, and by using the ObjectForScripting (or C++ equivalent) from the application.
maybe Qt will be good for your case, also you have QtScript and can inject javascript with evaluateJavaScript
I found a great example on the web for invoking JS in my embedded browser from C...basically using COM-ish methods that let you get a DISPID from a script object, and then using the Invoke() method with that. This works great.
But it turns out I need to also call C++ funcs from my JS code. It appears this is possible, and after hours of messing around I think I almost had it - it's like the above in reverse - you create a COM object, then hook it to the browser's script object - but in the end I could not close the deal - I kept getting "library not registered" errors. Honestly I don't know COM well enough to do this right.
So then I, for the heck of it, tried building my first C# app. In about 20 minutes I had an app running with a browser where I could both invoke JS inside of it and have the browser invoke C# methods. Geesh. I'm a believer in .NET after this experience, and a confirmed non-believer in 90's Microsoft technology.
In the interest of completeness, I'd like to mention my Windows port of WebKit, which includes the various cross-layer features of WebKit on the Mac.
I posted some example code showing how to embed WebKit in a native WinAPI application, complete with JavaScript->C++ and C++->JavaScript examples.
The example is a tiny test case for a much larger application using embedded WebViews for major UI components. I can confirm that what you are doing is not only possible, but a great way to build an application.