How do I do this in ap.net?

[Pete]

Hello

I have a small activeX control that can run in a Browser or a Desktop
Application. The control needs to access processed data from the web.
I was proposing to implement this via a url with a query string where the
query string would identify the specific data required.

My asp.net knowledge is still a bit sketchy so I was thinking of
implementing this as an aspx page with an override on the page load to send
back the requested data rather than any page content.
However, this seems a little clumsy since there really is no actual html
content required - just raw bytes.
Does asp.net provide a more appropriate object to implement this type of
data-server?

Thanks
Pete

 

[Gregory A. Beamer \(Cowboy\) - MVP]

If you are looking for a way to send data back and forth without adding
controls or making a postback, look at AJAX.

You can still embed ActiveX controls, btw, but getting them to talk to your
app is a pain. Flex or Silverlight 2 are better options if you need a lot of
back and forth communication. I would seriously consider Silverlight 2, but
Flex uses Flash, so most people already have the bits loaded.

 

[bruce barker]

a asp.net http handler is probably what you are looking for. you just access
the request and send a response. you may also want to look at the mvc toolkit
which supports a REST interface to the controllers - which is quickly
replacing SOAP as the api of choice.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

 

[Pete]

If you are looking for a way to send data back and forth without adding
controls or making a postback, look at AJAX.

You can still embed ActiveX controls, btw, but getting them to talk to
your app is a pain. Flex or Silverlight 2 are better options if you need a
lot of back and forth communication. I would seriously consider
Silverlight 2, but Flex uses Flash, so most people already have the bits
loaded.

Thanks - I'll take a look at this.

 

[Pete]

a asp.net http handler is probably what you are looking for. you just
access
the request and send a response. you may also want to look at the mvc
toolkit
which supports a REST interface to the controllers - which is quickly
replacing SOAP as the api of choice.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

Thanks a lot - I took a look at http handlers and they look just right for
what I want.

Pete