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Alternatives to ActiveX in .NET.

I know that there are many threads discussing these topics, but please allow me to discuss my issue in some detail.

In our project, we use many devices (cameras, printers, fingerprint devices, smart card readers) in desktop applications, and we already have C # components that are designed to work with these devices using their SDKs.

Now the problem is that we are moving on to web development, and we must convert our desktop WPF applications to ASP.NET MVC web applications, as well as use our existing device components.

Possible solutions for working with devices from the .Net web application:

  • Using ActiveX (which is dead or will die soon, and this will require some experience with COM and is very difficult to develop).
  • Using Silverlight (Also, it is dead or will die soon, and it is very limited, so we cannot add a link to existing C # components).
  • Using Java applets (which require some Java experience, and we will rewrite existing C # components in Java).

Is there any other solution so that we can work with devices from an ASP.NET MVC application through Intranet?

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You can write browser extensions for Chrome , Firefox, and Edge (coming soon). I'm not sure how much code reuse you will get through browsers if you need to target them, and I'm not sure to what extent you can run arbitrary code to connect to devices from your extensions, but this is what you should learn . You can then link your web pages to your web pages to transfer the necessary data.

Your users will need to install an extension for their browser in order to get functionality.

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You can still distribute small “helper” applications that are based on a smaller version of your current WPF applications. They will access the device and communicate directly with your web server. The website will serve as the interface.

This will allow you to use your existing device communication code. On the other hand, the client requires a separate installation, which means one more thing for the user and one more thing that needs to be updated.

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