CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#asp.netwinforms
Priyank Patel
Priyank Patel

Reputation: 6996

How can a small desktop app communicate with ASP.NET webpage?

I have built a small Windows application which finds the MAC address of the computer. I also have an ASP.NET webpage. When my Login page loads, I am running that executable.

I am trying to get MAC address value. How can I achieve this?

Can my desktop application return that value to my web page?

Here is what I have tried so far.

Desktop application code:

public string GetSystemMACID()
{
    string systemName = System.Windows.Forms.SystemInformation.ComputerName;
    try
    {
        ManagementScope theScope = new ManagementScope("\\\\" + Environment.MachineName + "\\root\\cimv2");
        ObjectQuery theQuery = new ObjectQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_NetworkAdapter");
        ManagementObjectSearcher theSearcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(theScope, theQuery);
        ManagementObjectCollection theCollectionOfResults = theSearcher.Get();

        foreach (ManagementObject theCurrentObject in theCollectionOfResults)
        {
            if (theCurrentObject["MACAddress"] != null)
            {
                 string macAdd = theCurrentObject["MACAddress"].ToString();
                 return macAdd.Replace(':', '-');
            }
        }
    }
    catch (ManagementException e)
    {
    }
    catch (System.UnauthorizedAccessException e)
    {

    }
    return string.Empty;
}

The return value is just assigned to a Label.

Can anyone suggest me if it is possible at all? Any suggestions are welcome.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1223

Answers (1)

Mark
Mark

Reputation: 1537

You could set up your site to accept a query parameter that is called MACAddress. Have the desktop app POST to the website; POSTing the value of the cookie. This may help:

using System.Net;

...

var httpWebRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
httpWebRequest.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
httpWebRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
httpWebRequest.Method = "POST";

byte[] requestBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(queryString);
httpWebRequest.ContentLength = requestBytes.Length;

using (var requestStream = httpWebRequest.GetRequestStream())
{
    requestStream.Write(requestBytes, 0, requestBytes.Length);
    requestStream.Close();
}

The query string will look like

"MACAddress=" + macAdd

-------------update upon request---------------

Within your Desktop Application, add the using statement. You may need to add the reference to the Dll within solution explorer too.

Then, make a method called PostMacAddress as follows:

public void PostMacAddress(string url, string macAdd)
{
   var httpWebRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
   httpWebRequest.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
   httpWebRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
   httpWebRequest.Method = "POST";

   var queryString = "MACAddress=" + macAdd; 

   byte[] requestBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(queryString);
   httpWebRequest.ContentLength = requestBytes.Length;

   using (var requestStream = httpWebRequest.GetRequestStream())
   {
      requestStream.Write(requestBytes, 0, requestBytes.Length);
      requestStream.Close();
   }
}

I'm not sure what it is you're not understanding (not trying to be mean). I'm simplifying here, but, POSTing is an HTTP protocol for sending data to a website. Another one is GET (protocol for reading data).

Hope that helps!

-------updating to show the web side...-----------

In your Page_Load method, you'll want to get the QueryString like this:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
     if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(Request.QueryString["MACAddress"])
         lblMacAddress.Text = Request.QueryString["MACAddress"];
}

Upvotes: 2

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