Azure running native win32 code? - winapi

From this post i see we can run un-managed code in azure.
Running Native Code
My question is do we have access to all Win32 API's in azure, or are there any limitations. In general are there any limitations (which some of you may have come across) in running un-managed code in azure.
Thanks
Nakago...

Most Win32 APIs will work fine. But please note Windows Azure is a service environment, so in general it doesn’t make sense to call APIs like CreateWindowsEx.
In addition, by default, only core OS components are installed. Please install libraries like ATL yourself, if you wish to use them (via startup task or custom VM image). Please also manually enable Desktop Experience to use certain OS features. From my experience, I’ve tried to use Direct2D (to process images, but not render them) and Media Foundation, it doesn't encounter any issues.
Best Regards,
Ming Xu.

Related

Winsock LSP vs API hooking

I need your advices what to use - Layered Service Provider or just load mine DLL in all
process and hook necessary functions using, NCodeHook or EasyHook library.
This is needed for inspection of HTTP traffic.
P.S. This need to be done for commercial application
Thanks!
Before making a decision you need to consider the following:
Code hooking:
AV doesn't like code hooking, if you're using a library that has external DLLs, run a check with AV total before committing to it.
Make sure the library's license works for you, for example, for LGPL you won't be able to embed the library as static without becoming GPL yourself.
I heard people managed to hook Metro apps, it's something to investigate.
If you have another code hooking app, it may conflict.
LSP:
The default MS sample/installer is broken.
You may get something working on a VM or fresh install, but to get LSP working properly across all OS and browsers, will take 6-12 months.
Will not work with Metro apps.
In Komodia we use a combo of LSP/WFP for our SDK, knowing what I know now, if I'd go back 4 years, I'd use LSP all over again.
Good luck.
Using Easyhook will be a nice way to do it check the following http://www.sghaida.com/easyhook-for-systemcall-hooking/

Desktop publishing platform closely tied to PhoneGap?

I'm looking for a desktop publishing platform for Mac, Windows, and Linux that is closely tied to PhoneGap in terms of the concept. I know that there's Titanium for Desktop (TideSDK?) but as far as I've used it before, it requires the end-users to download a big 70mb-ish runtime file once. What I liked about PhoneGap is that it doesn't require any of that (it works out of the box). I'm looking for something similar, only, instead of being meant for the mobile development, it 's targeted at desktop application development.
Perhaps I failed to mention it but if you are not aware of what I'm specifically talking about, I'm talking about an environment of sort that will let me code via an HTML base and output a native for said platforms. Both TideSDK and PhoneGap does this.
I would highly recommend giving TideSDK another chance, I have developed large, data driven applications on it in the past, and deployed to OSX and Windows and have personally been very satisfied with it. Also, it is now an open source project managed and maintained by a very good team with some oversight and help from Appcelerator (the original creators).
Theyre are two benefits to TideSDk as I see it:
License - TideSDK is open source licensed under a liberal Apache 2.0 license. As opposed to QT which is under the restrictive GNU Lesser Public, and commercial license.
Power - TideSDK allows you to leverage native API's (like phonegap) but access them in your favorite programming language (well, choose between Ruby, PHP, and Python). Your only options with QT are C++.
As for what you said about the 70MB runtime, this is not true, I built the runtime in with my last project, and the binary I gave to my clients (OSX) was only 15.3MB.
Hope this helps you come to a decision.
There is a way to run a PhoneGap HTML5 App on the Desktop with the help of Adobe AIR like described here: http://www.tricedesigns.com/2012/02/17/repurposing-phonegap-apps-as-desktop-apps/
But I am also looking for a less bloaty approach. Maybe based on Xulrunner/Prism/WebRT thing (or Chrome).
Tidesdk is the easiest, xml file is almost identical to the phonegap, provides powerful api and the best part you can package your app with runtime. I think you should stick to tidesdk.
I was looking for the same and found this implementation for windows ony: https://github.com/davejohnson/phonegap-windows
I did not tried it though.

Fastest/easiest way to build a WebKit based Windows application?

I am a web developer. I don't know how to build native Windows applications. I recently built a Mac desktop application (using MacRuby) which is a WebKit wrapper around one of my web applications. I'd like to do the same thing for Windows (preferably in Ruby, but whatever is easiest).
Since this is not the core of the application, I'd rather not spend a lot of time trying to build and maintain it. I just need a Windows application that can:
Open a specific website on application launch using an embedded WebKit WebView
Trigger Growl notifications via JavaScript (with some sort of named bridge)
What is the easiest, fastest, cleanest way to do this?
Update: So far I've come across some frameworks like Qt and Awesomium. I don't know how these frameworks compare to other options available, so if you have any opinions or advice, I would appreciate it.
Check out http://appjs.org/ it's built with NodeJS at its core! And it uses chromium webkit at it's core :D
Well, this is a very old question, but if you are still interested...
I'd recommend Qt. There are some very good books available with a lot of boilerplate code and wizard-type tools. You will be able to find example code demonstrating the embedded Webkit that you can modify to suit your needs. It is free and redistribution is free (last I knew). You won't have to know anything about native Windows development, nor even use any native Windows dev tools.
Good luck!

C# mono from windows to mac

I wanted to know what i shouldn't do in code that will prevent my C# app from running on mac.
In general you shouldn't use anything from the Microsoft.* namespaces, no PInvoke (DllImport in C#) and UI might be problematic as well.
Further information on Mono compatibility is contained in the Mono Guide Porting Winforms Applications. Existing applications can be checked for compatibility using the Migration Analyzer tool.
UPDATE: PInvoke actually works in Mono, but if you want to have it working cross-platform you must provide a native shared library with the same interface for each platform (i.e. Win API most likely will not work).
Mono's Application Portability guide is a good reference.
In addition to divo's recommendations, I would recommend the Mono Migration Analyzer (MoMA) tool: "The Mono Migration Analyzer (MoMA) tool helps you identify issues you may have when porting your .Net application to Mono"
Also, I would keep an eye on Miguel de Icaza's blog, and the Mono Project website.
In his presentation for the Boston.NET Users Group this month, he showed a preview of a Visual Studio plugin that launches your app on Mono using a VM! This lets you test compatibility during the development process.
I believe their goal was to release it at TechEd 2009, so look for an update over the next month or so.
You will, at the very least, want to try and avoid using Windows Forms, since that is just a paper-thin layer on top of the Windows native UI.
Mono emulates it somewhat with help from WINE, but I wouldn't trust that.
Mono did this a while ago but the effort was abandoned. See WinForms on Mono for more information. Thanks jpobst.
Try using GTK# or Qt# (although I'm not too sure the latter one actually exists) for cross platform support. You might also consider using Java with SWT or even Swing instead of C#, but that will probably not be an option you're willing to consider.
Using anything related to P/Invoke is probably also a bad idea, since that invokes native code which will probably not be portable (unless you write it yourself, then you can choose to make it portable).
I'm not sure if it is possible with mono, but WIN32 API calls will definitly not work ;)

Running a native program in Adobe AIR

I need to run a native program and retrieve the output in an Adobe AIR client side only application. I know that AIR does not allow access to native applications, so what is the best way to achieve this? I came across this solution which works on Windows, but I need something that works on Mac as well. I'd rather not have two separate solutions if possible. Any suggestions?
I believe that Shu might be what you're looking for. It costs money, but its an API and bundler for AIR applications that gives them additional functionality.
To quote their site:
Shu provides you the developer with a
toolkit of commands to extend the
system capabilities of your AIR
application, features include,
controlling external applications,
opening external files, database
connectivity and control, system path
retrieval and screen capture
functionality.
I believe that its cross platform as well.
Also see
http://www.merapiproject.net/
http://aperture.fluorinefx.com/

Resources