I am a seasoned Delphi developer and would like to create something like seamless terminal services where an application is executed on a server but appears on the the desktop of the client.
To someone working on the server I don't want them to see the remote application running (except if they looked in at the list of running processes).
I'm lost as to how to go about this, where to start, how to get an application to render to a surface other than the servers desktop.
Starting from 2008 Terminal Services (which has been rebranded to Remote Desktop Services) offers RemoteApps which do exactly what you describe. Citrix (XenApp) can do this on all windows (server) versions. So you might want to look at those products before deciding to recreate them yourself.
If you do decide to go on, this link might be interesting, it's a sample project called "Extending Microsoft's Terminal Services Client To Provide Seamless Windows"
From what you are describing, I'd say you should be looking at writing a windows service (not terminal services) and using a inter-process-communications (IPC) system to get status information to a "client" application that can be run by the appropriate user, either on the same machine or another over the network.
Myself, I do exactly this using the RemObjects SDK which makes my client application look like it is just making function calls, but actually they go to the server which implements them. The server can then get on with its job in one (or more) thread, and all the user interface is done in the client which finds out what to display using the IPC channel.
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I have build a few apps that receive and send data over a Datasnap server.
I have multiple Datasnap servers running on my customers servers.
The Datasnap server runs as a Windows Service on their machines.
How can I remotely update those servers or what is the best way to do this?
Is it maybe better to make the Datasnap Server run on IIS instead of as a Windows Service?
Can I let the server update itself? Maybe if I make a function that sends the new version of it that it can replace itself?
I can see no way of updating the exes on your customers' machines without a) getting them to do it; b) logging in remotely using something like VNC (though I'd be happy to know of a better way).
This is an approach I would consider:
I would look to have a separate application which is called by the service on a regular basis (daily/weekly) that looks for a new versions of software on your server (or somewhere), downloads it stops the service, replaces the service's exe and restarts the service.
In the new service exe I would have something that calls this application periodically, so you only have to do this once.
This assumes the machines that run your software have internet access.
Don't forget to include a mechanism to update the updater application.
I am working on a project that will essentially run each part of a program on a complete separate computer. Reason for this because these are data servers, gaining data from a target program launched on the main users desktop. (very CPU intensive)
The application just needs to be able to send data and things like this across a network.
One is a Console app and the other is a C# made operating system(Technically WPF, but replaces windows and just leaves a kernel).
So how would I go about doing this?
Since both applications are in C#, the easiest way will be to use Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms734712(v=vs.90).aspx
It allows you call remote methods as though they are just plain local methods.
I'm planning on writing a control panel for Minecraft in Rails but I don't have much experience with Java at all, Minecraft seems to have some standard remote connection and query tools, but most conventional panels don't seem to use them. For example with McMyAdmin, I have disabled remote connectiona and the query, but it still seems to be able to communicate with the server after restarting it after I've edited the server configs to disable the settings.
What I'm asking is if anyone knows how McMyAdmin communicates with the Minecraft server, it comes with a plugin, but I've deleted that as well and it still seems to be able to communicate with the server, I know McMyAdmin is written in .NET and I believe it uses Mono as it's server, as it's cross platform.
If anybody could shed some light on this I'd be ever so greatful, just trying to get my head around the communication.
McMyAdmin uses the plugin to open a socket that it can interact with(Not sure which features are provided using this plugin). The rest of the features are just from the Process instance that it creates. It also just edits the config files for a few things as well or runs commands using the input stream of the process.
I'm a hobby programmer trying to build a client/server application suite, using Delphi XE.
I write stand-alone applications occasionally, for my personal use. The problem is I don't know ANYTHING when it comes to networking / multi-tier. I am willing to learn though.
I looked for ways to do this and DataSnap and IntraWeb jump out as the most likely candidates for the job. But, before I start using one or the other, I would like to know a few info I wasn't able to find on the web:
If I build an IW stand-alone app and deploy it on my site (as server) will I be able to connect to it/retrieve data with a client application? I need to do that within my Delphi written app, without using a browser and without using HTML (I know very little HTML and I'm not eager to learn). I know IntraWeb isn't meant for this, but will it work?
If I go with DataSnap and build a server app, will I be able to deploy it to my website? Or do I have to make a computer on the network the server?
In case anyone wants to know, I want to connect 5 computers(from different cities), to exchange information between them, if at all possible using ADO, as I'm very familiar with it.
Intraweb is a server based tool for building web sites, accessed via a browser. It is not "proper" multi-tier, and it sounds like it isn't what you need.
DataSnap is designed to do what you want I think. First, the ADO part would be on the server, and you would define an interface that the server offers to do tasks. Then your clients would call that interface over the internet to get data or do those tasks etc.
As for whether they will work on your web server, that depends on what your server is, and the access that is provided to it. A web server is just a PC, but typical hosting is fairly restricted to running "scripted" languages on that server, which reside in the hosting directory. A Delphi server would be a running executable (usually a Windows Service), listening on a port, and needs much more access to the computer than typical. You would need at least a virtual Windows server with administrator access to the desktop to allow it to work. In the first instance though, you could happily run the server on a DSL line or similar and make it work just fine. You can worry about hosting it on the net when you have customers paying for it.
I built an application that is running as a windows service and is installed through my code.
All is fine except at logon.
When at the first windows xp/2003 server logon screen, I am not sure if the service is running at all. If it is, then it does work as it's not functional (the service IS USING WINPCAP so that could be an issue).
The service settings are set to "interact with desktop" and run as SYSTEM.
How can I ensure the service will start before windows logon? Also how can I make sure it is running even after I log off?
There are a couple of issues to consider.
First, you can check if your service really is running before login and after logout by logging events to the Windows Event Log. Pretty much all services do this whenever they start and stop and yours should do the same.
It may be that WinPcap is part of the problem. There are a couple of golden rules for using WinPcap in a service.
1a) Your service must not do anything that might cause the WinPcap service to try to start up while your own service is starting up because this will cause a deadlock in the Windows Service Control Manager. That means that if the WinPcap service is not already SERVICE_RUNNING when your service begins startup, you must not do anything that might cause it to start until after your service is SERVICE_RUNNING.
There are two ways to ensure this. Either make your service dependent on npf, the Network Packet Filter service. Or do not call any WinPcap function until after your service is SERVICE_RUNNING. I've not tried this latter method. I presume then the WinPcap function will block until npf is SERVICE_RUNNING.
1b) If you make your service dependent on npf, you will also have to make it dependent on nm (Network Monitor Driver) - if and only if nm is installed on the system. nm provides WinPcap with PPP/VPN support, and WinPcap always tries to use it if installed. Obviously, if you make nm a dependency of your service and nm isn't installed then your service will fail to start.
I don't think there is a guaranteed way to ensure that your service starts up before the desktop appears. But you might be able to help things along by creating a Service Control Group, adding it to the end of the existing list of Service Control Groups, and putting your service into this group. I'm not entirely convinced that this is an 'approved' way to get your service to start sooner, because if there was an approved way then everyone would do it and it wouldn't work any more. But there is a suggestion that services in a group are started before services not in a group.
Look at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GroupOrderList" and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ServiceGroupOrder" and do a bit of Googling.