WEB SERVICE, WINDOWS FORMS APPLICATIONS,

Question

Dearest Programmers,

I have developed a Win Forms App with VB2010. I want to incorporate a registration process through which users will be able to use the application.

I thought of creating a web service that will enable users register online and get a serial key to the application.

The application houses an MD5 algorithm that generates serial keys.

One of these keys will be given to the user on registration - NOTE THAT: One user per serial key.

I do not know how to incorporate a web service in my app. I do not also know how to create a web service.

Please I would really be grateful for any ideas, KEEPING IN MIND the intent of the web service am requesting help for.

Thank you.

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Eyo Honesty

Answer 1

After a lot of searching, I think this is a fairly good introduction to creating a web service: how-do-i-create-and-call-a-simple-web-service-in-aspnet. Things may be slightly different with .NET 4.0. There does seem to be a paucity of examples in VB.NET, especially ones that don't dive in and use databases as a major part of the web service.

As to using the web service in a Windows Forms program, the term to search for is "windows forms consume web service."

It seems to be a lot easier to start trying it out than find a tutorial.

HTH,

Andrew

Answer 2

Hello Eyo,

Be aware that what you describe is a click once installation. However, you ask for webservices which is currently integrated in the windows communication foundation.

Here a link (it is an older one), the original ones are broken currently on the Microsoft website.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/ms735119(v=vs.90).aspx

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Success
Cor

Answer 3

Hi Cor,

If you're recommending something more recent than an asmx web service, why WCF and not WebAPI? I was thinking that a web service would be the simplest to implement, and WCF is overkill for returning one string from a simple request.

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Andrew