Can ASP.NET access client side USB devices?

Question

User1091470215 posted

My boss wants to move our VB.NET desktop applications (with some C# class libraries) to the cloud.  Seems to be a bit of a nightmare, but here's the first hurdle that I can see.

The application(s) download information into USB medical devices.  You press a button in the app, it downloads to the device through USB.  The question is, can an ASP.NET website download info to a USB device connected to the client computer?

Answer 1

User475983607 posted

The question is, can an ASP.NET website download info to a USB device connected to the client computer?

Browser do not allow access to client resources like the USB port.  Software must be installed on the client machine for this feature to work.

Answer 2

User1091470215 posted

Thanks a lot.  That's what I thought.

Answer 3

User379720387 posted

Here is what web can do:

https://whatwebcando.today (open in various browsers as capabilities differ)

Answer 4

User409696431 posted

You say it downloads information into the USB device on a button push.  A web application can certainly download a file to a specified folder (including on a USB device) on a button push.  The key is that it requires user interaction: the web application can't decide where the file will be downloaded, the user must.  This assumes the data you are talking about is a file of some kind.   Just consider any website where you can download something: your browser asks you to select where it will go, then it downloads.

Answer 5

User1091470215 posted

Thank you for the information.

Answer 6

User1091470215 posted

The desktop software will download information into the USB device, but it's not a file, sends data through USB.  My boss wanted to move everything to the cloud.  But, we had talked about this a year and a half ago, he's just forgotten.  I wondered if something had changed since then.

Since he is a medical doctor, he is used to use medical records software over the net.  To him, that's the cloud.  But, he doesn't understand that talking to medical devices from a website through a browser is probably not going to happen.  I will just remind him.

Thanks for the info.