Start a process in the client-side

Rails
1

Hi everyone

Is there anything similar to ActiveX launchApp in Rails so that I can
start an application in the client-side?

This is how I done it with ActiveX:

Thank you very much

Victor

2

rails won’t have anything like what you are looking for as it is
clientside functionality specific to Windows/IE (ActiveX).

I assume you’re using the LaunchInIE ActiveX control in order to do
this. If so, just do it the way you’ve done it previously. Just keep
in mind that 1) every client has to have this control installed and 2)
you’re limited to IE (and windows for that matter) for this
functionality.

more info at: http://www.whirlywiryweb.com/q/launchinie.asp

Chris

3

Slightly OT now, but aren’t there security issues in launching a local
application in response to clicking a button on the web?

Cheers
Mohit.

4

On Tue, Aug 29, 2006 at 07:57:34PM +0800, Mohit S. wrote:

Slightly OT now, but aren’t there security issues in launching a local
application in response to clicking a button on the web?

well, there are security issues with running IE, but people do it anyway

  • so that’s at least consistent :wink:

Jens

in mind that 1) every client has to have this control installed and 2)

Victor

–
Jens Krämer
[email protected]

5

that’s the purpose of using the LaunchInIE ActiveX control. It’s
supposed to be secure. Note that I am not recommending it’s use, just
answering a question. I personally would never allow this in any app
I have control over.

Chris

6

That’s interesting - I didn’t really think that this would usually be
acceptable, but I guess that there are use cases for this. In fact, the
only other way I knew to launch a local application was a bit silly -
either use a plugin or send a file of a format that is registered to
your PC application - but there are numerous imponderables with that
approach :smiley:

Cheers
Mohit.

7

Chris H. wrote:

rails won’t have anything like what you are looking for as it is
clientside functionality specific to Windows/IE (ActiveX).

I assume you’re using the LaunchInIE ActiveX control in order to do
this. If so, just do it the way you’ve done it previously. Just keep
in mind that 1) every client has to have this control installed and 2)
you’re limited to IE (and windows for that matter) for this
functionality.

more info at: http://www.whirlywiryweb.com/q/launchinie.asp

Chris

Hi Chris, thx for your reply

Do you know any other way that is not limited to IE?

Victor

8

Mohit S. wrote:

That’s interesting - I didn’t really think that this would usually be
acceptable, but I guess that there are use cases for this. In fact, the
only other way I knew to launch a local application was a bit silly -
either use a plugin or send a file of a format that is registered to
your PC application - but there are numerous imponderables with that
approach :smiley:

Cheers
Mohit.

Thank you Mohit

Can you give me some more details about these?

Victor

9

Mohit S. wrote:

It’s a silly approach (even in my mind)… basically, the idea is when
you send a “.pls” file, the browser asks if it should load the file with
WinAmp (since it’s a playlist) or a ‘.doc’ file with Word and so on.

Now, if you had a file type ‘bcft’ (say, BC File Type) which is
registered in Windows to being launched by an application called
“BC.exe” then if you click on the link on the website and it sends the
file “something.bcft” (with the correct MIME type - which may need to be
configured on the webserver). When the web browser encounters this
file, it should ask to either save the file or open it with the
registered application (BC.exe) installed on the PC.

Things that may get in the way:

  1. The application must be installed on the PC
  2. It must be registered to handle the file of that format
  3. The web server will need to send the right MIME type
  4. There may be some configuration in the web browser to deal with that
    MIME type
  5. There may be some conflict over the file extension and may get in the
    way.
  6. At least a few other things that I have not thought about…

I think it may work, but there may be many things to think about…
and this will not return data to the web browser (if that’s needed)

Cheers
Mohit.

That’s an interesting approach Mohit, really appreciated, but I would
like to have a bit more sophisticated approach that I don’t need to
configurate the client side’s setting (because I won’t be able to).

O, I am doing this for my company’s intranet not for the internet in
case anyone wonders :slight_smile:

Thankz again for your reply

Victor

10

my question would be why do you need this functionality in the first
place? from your example, it just looks like you want to run the app.
why not just let the user run it themselves?

now if you want beyond compare to automatically run when you download
a file from the server, that is a completely different scenario than
what you presented and the author(s) of beyond compare should be more
able to assist you.

Chris

11

Victor F. wrote:

Mohit.

Thank you Mohit

Can you give me some more details about these?

Victor

It’s a silly approach (even in my mind)… basically, the idea is when
you send a “.pls” file, the browser asks if it should load the file with
WinAmp (since it’s a playlist) or a ‘.doc’ file with Word and so on.

Now, if you had a file type ‘bcft’ (say, BC File Type) which is
registered in Windows to being launched by an application called
“BC.exe” then if you click on the link on the website and it sends the
file “something.bcft” (with the correct MIME type - which may need to be
configured on the webserver). When the web browser encounters this
file, it should ask to either save the file or open it with the
registered application (BC.exe) installed on the PC.

Things that may get in the way:

  1. The application must be installed on the PC
  2. It must be registered to handle the file of that format
  3. The web server will need to send the right MIME type
  4. There may be some configuration in the web browser to deal with that
    MIME type
  5. There may be some conflict over the file extension and may get in the
    way.
  6. At least a few other things that I have not thought about…

I think it may work, but there may be many things to think about…
and this will not return data to the web browser (if that’s needed)

Cheers
Mohit.

12

Victor F. wrote:

Mohit.

That’s an interesting approach Mohit, really appreciated, but I would
like to have a bit more sophisticated approach that I don’t need to
configurate the client side’s setting (because I won’t be able to).

Remember - I did tell you that it was a bit silly! :smiley: As far as not
configuring anything on the

O, I am doing this for my company’s intranet not for the internet in
case anyone wonders :slight_smile:

What is the application that will be launched? Is it a standard
application in a standard place? Can you create a hard coded link to it
in the webpage?
file:///F:/Technology/Tools/MySQL-Front_Setup.exe

Would that work? It’s not very sophisticated, either :-S

Thankz again for your reply

You are most welcome!

Victor

Cheers
Mohit.

13

OK this is seriously off topic…

What about a ruby vm plugin ala java

Why?

Well I would like to use ruby gl to make 3d vr environments

That’s why

:wink:

14

Chris H. wrote:

my question would be why do you need this functionality in the first
place? from your example, it just looks like you want to run the app.
why not just let the user run it themselves?

now if you want beyond compare to automatically run when you download
a file from the server, that is a completely different scenario than
what you presented and the author(s) of beyond compare should be more
able to assist you.

Chris

Hi Chris

What I am trying to do is writing an web application in Rails to do
automated test. After the tests completed, the results would be stored
in a database. Now instead of doing diff at the server, we would like
to launch a program (at this point, we picked beyond compare) to compare
the results (output files) at the client side.

Thank you

Victor