USB device management from a web application

Question

I would like to be able to control a USB device from a web application.

I was hoping to use Adobe Flex, but I don't think Flex can support access to USB devices.

Is it possible to use Java applets or a similar approach using .NET?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I do not think any web client platform will allow this. Intentionally.

If you find one that does, I will delete all my cars.

Answer 2

With .NET, you could

• Create a WinForm control and place it in IE with an object tag. To do this, you need to set security parameters using CASPOL or ActiveDirectory, but after that you will have full trust in this device

  http://weblogs.asp.net/spano/archive/2007/09/19/hosting-a-windows-form-control-in-a-web-page.aspx

• If the computer already has a COM object that does what you need, you can access it through Silverlight with elevated privileges.

  http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Silverlight-4-elevated-permissions.aspx

With applets, you can do this with a trusted applet.

Using many different technologies, you can create ActiveX objects, plugins or browser extensions for this.

Answer 3

We successfully connected POS devices with the Flex interface ... for this we created a bridge application with Merapi that connects Flex (either Air or Web) with Java, and left the connection with devices in Java ... it was for a controlled environment where we where we are sure that the client has configured the bridge ...

Another option is to try Air 2.0, which allows you to run your own code (for example, Java) to connect to devices, and you can release your application in Air or create a bridge this time in Air instead of Java to connect to the browser application

NTN

Gus

Answer 4

Your question is a bit unclear because you did not say which computers the web application runs on, which computer the USB device is on, and which computer yours.

Depending on the details, one possible solution would be to write an application for Chrome Packaged and use the API for Chrome USB . The application will need to be installed on a computer with a USB device, and then it can provide a user interface to the user or simply connect to a remote server and allow remote control of the device.