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Cassinni for Business solutions
Cuba2000
#1 Posted : Tuesday, August 28, 2007 10:07:27 PM(UTC)
Groups: Member
Joined: 8/28/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1
Location: Netherlands

Hi,

Is it wise to use Cassinni UltiDev web server in a Business environment?
The reason I ask this, is that we want to use the GUI design build for the an online solution as well for the offline solution.
Problem is that our customers do not have a local webserver installed at their laptops. So Cassinni comes in mind to solve this problem.
So, we can spare some time to built one GUI that facilitates the online and offline solution, both.

But what are the risks?

The current risks I see using your software is:
1. Security aspects (i.e. firewall settings on clients PC)
2. Installation problems (i.e. do we need to prepare a helpdesk?)
3. Integration problems with our designed software
4. Different platforms used by our customers (2000, XP, VISTA, MAC)

Could you please give me some suggestions to mitigate these risks?
Or, could you explain to me why this current thinking is the right way to go forward?

Thanks,
Cuba2000
Ultidev Team
#2 Posted : Wednesday, August 29, 2007 11:08:14 AM(UTC)
Ultidev Team

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Joined: 11/3/2005(UTC)
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Hi, Cuba2000.

The only scenario where we do NOT endorse using UltiDev Cassini without additional precautions is hosting public Internet applications. The reason is that UltiDev Cassini by default runs under LOCAL SYSTEM account, which allows access to most of the local files, including system folder. If there a substantial risk of being exposed to hacking attempts, you better use IIS or change Cassini service identity to NETWORK SERVICE. Other than that, UltiDev Cassini should serve your purposes fine.

Here are also answers to the bullets you provided:
1. Software firewalls may block inbound TCP connections. UltiDev Cassini creates exceptions for Microsoft Windows Firewall during installation, allowing all requests on all ports listened to by UltiDev Cassini process. If your clients have other software firewall products, help-desk training may be required, or you could modify your application installer to take care of those firewall, if it's possible.

2. UltiDev Cassini is arguably the easiest web server when it comes to integrating it into your installer, especially when creating installer packages using Visual Studio 2005 Setup project.

3. Integration-wise, most of the properly written ASP.NET applications will work under UltiDev Cassini as is, without any changes at all. Most common problems made by developers preventing apps from running under UltiDev Cassini include:
- Assuming application will be in a virtual folder, not in the web server's root. Using relative URLs, or using "~/"-based URLs solves this issue.
- Writing HttpModules (usually for authentication purposes) assuming that only requests for ASPX, ASMX and other ASP.NET resources will be routed to the HttpModule, which is default (but not the only possible) set up in IIS. For example, in IIS requests for CSS, JPG and other static resources are not routed through ASP.NET - IIS handles them directly. In UltiDev Cassini all requests are routed through ASP.NET.

To see whether your existing application will work under UltiDev Cassini, simply install UltiDev Cassini and register your application with it using Cassini Server Explorer. This does not require any programming.

To see how easy is the integration of UltiDev Cassini with your ASP.NET application, we highly recommend printing out UltiDev Cassini Developer's Guide, and go through the exercise of creating a simple (or not) ASP.NET application and a setup project that will install both your application and UltiDev Cassini on the target system. We bet you will do everything in a couple of hours.

4. UltiDev Cassini supports almost any Windows you can imagine, from 2000 to Vista, including both 32 and 64 bit systems, but it does not support MAC or Linux/Unix.

Please let us know if this information answered your questions.

Best regards,
UltiDev Team.
Please donate at http://www.ultidev.com/products/Donate.aspx to help us improve our products.
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