Run WPF Web application (XBAP) Offline

1
votes

I'm starting a new project and would like to use WPF Web apps (Xbap) as it provides rich styling and my customer wants to open the application in a browser. However, they wont have access to an internet connection.

If i put all the files on the local machine, can they run the application without an internet connection? I found mixed answers online and can't get a straight idea.

Also, what will they need to have anything on their computers other than the .Net Framework? IIS or something like that?

The idea also is to have the program run on two different machines locally and have a local database on one machine with the xbap on the other machine access it. Is this feasible? If I sign my program to give it full trust, will I be able to access SQL server database directly or will I still need a WCF service?

2
.netwpfxbap
I would, sadly, not recommend this approach - the WPF Web App is a dead technology with very little support around if you hit problems. It had potential for good apps in exactly your use case, but with no support you're heading down a back alley. - Rikalous
Ok, I added another paragraph to clarify what I am doing. Can you tell me what alternative do you suggest? - O.Fouda
hi @O.Fouda I am not familiar with this kind of deployment, sorry. But I suggest you ask a new question - one question in one post makes it easier to answer and easier to read. - kennyzx

2 Answers

1
votes

I had played with this type of project on my dev machine. And I remember I published the package to a virtual directory on localhost, and then opened the application in a Web browser successfully.

When you deploy the package to customer machine, turn on IIS, and follow the steps outlined here, nothing special, don't even need to register the MIME types if the IIS version is 7.0 or higher.

You do not have to install the .NET Framework on the Web server, but you do have to register the WPF Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) types and file name extensions. By default, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 is configured with these MIME types, but Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0 and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 are not.

0
votes

I have developed a similar application where in there will not be any internet connection. I developed a Windows Form UI, having embedded it into IE, using wpf called xbap.

I have included the xbap into iframe of the localhost webpage, so that it appears as if the webpage, but inside it my windows form UI code is working in it. EVerything is ok till this point of time, but my UI doesn't know the webpage URL location, for which I googled many topics with no luck. if you don't have any solution we need to survive with minimal support to the user unitl you get full hold of the technology.