1. Smart Client Deployment With Microsoft® Windows® Forms
Ammar Abuthuraya
Developer & Platform Lead
Microsoft® Arabia

2. What We Will Cover What is the smart client?
What is no-touch deployment?
What are the advantages of Windows Forms—client caching?
Calling Web services from Windows Forms client applications

3. Agenda What is the smart client? Web service architecture
Web integration
Self-updating applications
Advanced tools

4. What Is the Smart Client? History of the Smart Client
Pre-1980’s
Computers were large server oriented
Server-based computing—dumb terminals
1980’s
Dawn of the PC—first smart clients
‘Fat’ client computing took center stage
1990’s
Dawn of the Internet
Dumb browsers talking to powerful servers

5. What Is the Smart Client? Smart Client Considerations
System impact
Will the install of application 2 break existing application 1?
Initial installation
Installation of applications on every client
Application update
Need to updated every client with changes to the application
Investment in current Web applications

6. What Is the Smart Client? Smart Client Consideration Answers
.NET applications are isolated
Private deployment by default
Applications are self-describing—no central registry
Multiple versions of an application can coexist
Shared components are controlled and explicit
Applications use the included assembly versions they were built with
Different versions of the .NET Framework can live side-by-side

7. What Is the Smart Client? Smart Client Consideration Answers
How we can avoid sending an install to each client
Avoid the application install altogether
Run the application without touching the client
About management software
Ex. SMS, Microsoft® IntelliMirror™
Can extend our reach by placing applications on the client
Can also use traditional MSIs to create installed application footprint

8. What Is the Smart Client? Smart Client Consideration Answers
Automate the update of the application
Don’t need to touch client to update application
If running from a URL, nothing is installed
What about applications with a footprint?
Load assemblies from a Web server
Application downloads its components at runtime
Update server assemblies to update application
No-touch application update

9. What Is the Smart Client? Smart Client Consideration Answers
Existing Web applications can be leveraged
Web services are the glue
Run on the same server as browser applications
Can share the context of the browser application
Can share the data of the browser application

10. What Is the Smart Client? Smart Client Deployment
No-touch deployment
Application isolation is the default
No registration required
Deployment is simple
Copy exe onto client
Run from a file share
Click on a link in the browser

11. What Is the Smart Client? Smart Client Deployment
Stored in the download cache
Not the GAC
Per user layer “on top of” WinInet cache
Maintains URL for security
Configurable cache size
Scavenged base on a LRU algorithm
Application “trickles” onto the client
Components are downloaded when referenced at runtime

12. What Is the Smart Client? Smart Client Deployment
MyApp.exe
Web server
MyApp.exe
Internet
Explorer
HTTP
Client
runs
app
Managed
Exe?
Update
cache?
Download
cache
.NET
Framework
Smart client

13. Deploying the Windows Form application
Demonstration 1 Deploying a Smart Client Application Reviewing a simple Windows Form
Deploying the Windows Form application

14. Agenda What is the smart client? Web service architecture
Web integration
Self-updating applications
Advanced tools

15. Web Service Architecture Smart Client Challenges
Copied applications are semi-trusted
Think Web pages in the browser
Permission to exchange data with the server, but not for access to the local client
Strong names
Can be used to achieve a higher security level
Security-based assembly signature
Challenging to implement and maintain

16. Web Service Architecture Database Connectivity
Attempting to use database connection requires elevated permissions
Can grant permission, but that means bypassing the security model
Web services located at the same base URL as the application are available
Communicate with same site from which code is acquired
Use a business tier in the application to maintain overall system security

17. Web Service Architecture Web Services
Internet-enabled software that follows SOAP standards of communication, and may manage state
A Web service is similar to a component
Defines a specific interface for exchanging request and responses
Web service definition language (WSDL)
Similar to traditional component interface definition language (IDL)
Describes method calls and parameters

18. Web Service Architecture Basic Web Service Security
Authentication is supported
NTLM and Basic authentication are available
Use: System.Net.NetworkCredential()
Authentication does not protect data
Can use SSL for encryption
Modify <service>.url property to include ‘
Custom encryption—such as DES, TripleDES

19. Web Service Architecture Web Service Design
Consider the type of data to be returned
DataSet is natural for .NET but not open
XML is more open but may be slower
Think of services as containing objects
Initially expose objects
Over time, business processes become services
Several objects available via a service

20. Web Service Architecture Managing Complexity
MyApp.exe
HTTP
HTTP
Business service
Business service
Business component
Business component
Business component
Business component

21. Demonstration 2 Using a Web Services Architecture
Updating the Windows Form to use both ADO.NET and Web services
Issues with running ADO.NET from a smart client

22. Agenda What Is the smart client? Web service architecture
Web integration
Self-updating applications
Advanced tools

23. Web Integration Goal Replace client script languages
Difficult to debug
Throw unseen errors
Need to provide advanced UI
Users expect interactive applications
ActiveX has security issues
ASP.NET introduces event-based server-side logic

24. Web Integration Extending Web Applications
Internet
Explorer
HTTP
MyApp.exe
Web application
HTTP
HTTP
Business service
Business service
Business component
Business component
Business component
Business component

25. Web Integration Enhanced User Interface
Windows Forms browser controls
Contained in the Web page
Replace ActiveX
Similar TCO to URL activation
Improved security
Limited system access is a plus
Operate within the .NET environment
Can be synchronized with the Web application

26. Web Integration Network Communications
Windows Forms
Internet
Explorer
HTML:
data and display
XML:
data only
Web application

27. Web Integration Less Network Traffic
Data can be cached on the client
Only updated data needs to be sent to Web service
Web service can be used to poll for other updates
The UI elements are only sent once
Web applications transfer the entire page on every round trip
Windows Forms controls only need to transfer the data

28. Keeping a Web application and Windows Forms application in sync
Demonstration 3 Using the Smart Client to Complement a Web Application Examine a Web application that also has a Windows Forms component
Keeping a Web application and Windows Forms application in sync

29. Agenda What is the smart client? Web service architecture
Web integration
Self-updating applications
Advanced tools

30. Self-Updating Applications Definition
What it is
A .NET assembly that can automatically connect to a server and download the latest components used as part of the assembly
Provides a footprint on the client, but relies on server-based assemblies
Enabling technologies
Application isolation
.NET Framework class libraries
System.Reflection namespace

31. Self-Updating Applications Assembly.LoadFrom
System.Reflection namespace supports loading remote assemblies
Use Assembly.LoadFrom()
Downloads and caches the assembly
Automatically checks for newer versions
Permissions based on where the assembly came from

32. Self-Updating Applications Limitations
Expects connectivity
Not an application installer
Ex… can’t register file types
Security sandboxed
Updates only once per application run
On-demand download is great
But requires careful thought on application design

33. Self-Updating Applications Runtime Deployment
MyApp.exe
Web server
MyApp.exe
AppStub.exe
HTTP
Update
cache?
Download
cache
Smart client

34. A self-updating application in action
Demonstration 4 Self-Updating Applications What code is needed to create a self-updating application
A self-updating application in action

35. Agenda What is the smart client? Web service architecture
Web integration
Self-updating applications
Advanced tools

36. Advanced Tools UDDI Services
Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI)
Previously was published for general public by large providers
Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 supports UDDI within the enterprise
Central server lookups
Use UDDI server to define not only where services exist, but where the application code is stored

37. Advanced Tools Web Service Extensions
Going beyond the basic Web services
Security
Reliability (routing)
Attachments
Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 2.0 recently released
Provide a way to extend your Web service interfaces from your client

38. Session Summary Smart client fits the Internet model
Can rely on HTTP/HTTPS protocol
Leverage Web services
Improved scalability—display refresh
Smart clients can auto-deploy and auto-update
Launch applications from a Web site
Internet deployment with Web services
Automatically download updates

39. For More Information… MSDN Web site at Windows Forms
msdn.microsoft.com
Windows Forms
Windows Forms information at:
White Paper on smart client development with version 1.1 of the .NET Framework

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