Pocket PC/Windows CE Networking Capabilities
Hi,
I am new to .NET Compact Framework and C#. Right now I have a project to develop
an application for PocketPC that runs Windows CE. The application is supposed to be
able to communicate with server application that will be developed in different technology:
J2EE. Assume that I am going to develop a scaled-down ticket ordering system and put
on the server as an add-on.
The PocketPC application is restricted to access only HTTP capability of the server.
Is there any suggest for what the best method for the communication? Do I have to
design my own communication protocol?
The server is supposed to NOT have web service capability.
Currently I am planning to do the communication like this:
- data coming from server will be formatted in XML and transported on the top of HTTP (the content type as application/xml except for binary file).
- data going to server will be written as HTTP URL and all information will be passed in the HTTP GET/POST method.
However, this communication architecture is very troublesome since I will have to carefully
design it. Besides, the security consideration will be very low in this case.
Is there any other way that perhaps Compact Framework already have and can be easily
used in this case?
Assume that the use of Internet Explorer of Windows CE is not an option. The application
is supposed to be used either online or offline.
Your suggestions are very appreciated. Thank you very much for the attentions.
Best Regards,
Simonz May
[1598 byte] By [
Simonz] at [2008-1-28]
You haven't left many options open by discarding all the common approaches.
To answer your question, no the CF does not have anything built in.
HTTP, shared folder, FTP or roll your own with sockets are the usual way one transfers files from PPC to desktop (RAPI is normally used for the other way round).
Cheers
Daniel
Hi Simonz,
In NETCF, we provide multiple means to transfer data across computers/devices in a network. The HttpWebRequest class provides HTTP communication, and is the easiest to use since much of underlying protocol interaction has been abstracted. Security features like SSL and authentication are supported on this class. If you would like to have more control over the details of the data transfer, you can use the TcpClient and TcpListener classes.
Could you explain a bit more to me the difficulties you encountered as you design the communication architecture on HTTP? This way we can provide more specific suggestions to address your scenario.
Cheers,
Anthony
Hi,
Thanks for the great replies.
Currently what I am trying to do is using the HttpWebRequest
like what you mentioned. Perhaps I was not clear enough (forgive my english).
The case is like this, I am supposed to develop an application on PDA device. This device
is actually an extension to a bigger web application that work as an ticket ordering system.
The web application is, of course, more complete and more complex. The new PDA
application is supposed to be able to be used either online or offline to create ticket enquiries.
These enquiries later would be uploaded (if currently offline) or uploaded right away (if
currently online).
My concern right now is, what would be the good practice to communicate this application
(PDA) with the Web Server. The web server is a J2EE server which is probably running
on UNIX system.
By using HttpWebRequest, I need to somehow design the communication: what the client
sends to server and what the server replies to client since it is not applicable to use the
Internet Explorer (perhaps) for the condition I mentioned (offline data entry).
Best Regards,
Simonz
Hi,
Do you guys think it possible to use SOAP in this case? I do not know much about SOAP.
But I saw the SOAP over HTTP things in the MSDN documentation for .NET framework,
and apparently Compact Framework does support that.
Any suggestion/recommendation for this?
It would be great if someone could give me a client and a server code sample.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Simonz
