user perspective vb.net = vb inside a browser?

  • Thread starter Thread starter migue
  • Start date Start date
M

migue

way below newbie level:

I know nothing about .Net. Have a VB6 client-server application (business
app, inventory, purchasing, invoicing, etc.) and am considering converting
it to VB.Net at a customer's request. The goal is to have access to the
application from remote locations without the need to install anything on
the client.

Question 1:
How will the user's desktop experience change using .Net vs. VB? i.e. will
the application now run inside a browser or will it run as a full-window of
it's own? Do controls (drop-downs, radio buttons, etc.) work essentially the
same way from a user's perspective?

Question 2:
Does the application still behave as it currently does, i.e. as a "true"
windows application vs. a web page. e.g. triggers such as leave field to
perform validation against db, etc.

Question 3:
Assuming the application is deployed for access over the Internet, what is
the minimum connection speed to achieve reasonable throughput. i.e. when a
user leaves a field, I currently validate the entered data against a
database table, I perform sqlread to lookup the value in a table. Is that
still a valid method of doing things or do we return to the old mainframe
(and html web page) methodology of page level validation only?

thanks
 
Mark,

Thank you! that was the most straightforward answer I have found to my basic
query. I am quite familiar with ASP and wrote some applications in it (in
the long distant, ancient past....about 4 years ago). However, I found that
ASP does not provide the rich user interface that intranet users expect. I
thought that what .Net and the framework provided me was a way of runing VB
remotely accross the internet....I guess not, still ASP as the front end....

thanks
 
You dont have to use ASP (by the way ASP .NET is wayyyyyyyy better than
ASP).

From what i have read of your situation i would deploy a very thin client of
just the windows forms on each client (and there are ways of doing that
without them knowing too - you can do a touchless deploy from a central
server each time they click a link on their desktop just like a web page).
However they will have full Windows GUI and controls etc but the rest of the
application is on remote servers within the intranet (extranet, internet or
whatever). The rest works on the same principle as ASP (ie some form of
service delivers the information needed to the client) but you have a number
of options (and in your case for speed etc. .NET remoting through a windows
service would be the way i would probably go).

ASP is used for web pages when you dont know the client. If you know and
have some control over the client then deliver Windows forms to them for a
rich GUI but use remoting so you have control and security over your system

Hope that helps
 
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