CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#android
Niklas
Niklas

Reputation: 1000

Best Approach to communicate between a Windows forms application written in C# and Native Android App

so our company wrote an accounting app,in windows,using c# for a certain company that ordered an accounting application.

after a while,they requested an android app that can communicate with the server and request or send data from or to the database that the windows form application uses,which uses SQLExpress 2014.

note that : the application that runs on the android platform may need run on more than one client at any given time.

AND the android app will be native.

my main question is this : whats the best technology to use? do i HAVE to use web services ?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1680

Answers (1)

Matías Fidemraizer
Matías Fidemraizer

Reputation: 64923

well to do that i have to install IIS on the windows client which is all im trying to avoid,because i have a setup and the program has been mass produced within the city so i cant just take back every customer's product and add iis setup procedures to the setup...if u know what i mean

Not true. Since WCF days, there's an in-process option called XXX self-host which is a tiny web server written in C# and started along with your process using code.

Currently your best web should be developing your Web services using OWIN/Katana self-host and implement your RESTful service running on a Windows service (did you know about TopShelf?).

Check this interesting MSDN article to learn more about self-hosting a Web API into a Windows Service using Topshelf.

TL;DR

Your best bet here would be creating a Windows service which might be installed along with the Windows application or in some customer's server machine and host this way your RESTful Web service using ASP.NET Web API.

This is easy to deploy and distribute, and your customer won't require an IIS installed to host web services.

Upvotes: 1

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