Question

I’m developing WinForms application. By far I’ve finished about 50% percent of it.

Is there anyway I can convert it into a Web Application without rewriting the whole GUI?

If there is non, in what platform should I use instead (rewriting my project) for having easily both Web and Windows UI?

Is there anything new in this subject in the last 3 years?

I know of course WPF and Silverlight are quite alike, but I’m not sure this is the bust solution.

Answer 1

This will be dependant on how you have constructed your architecture. The main reason WPF and Silverlight are interchangeable are because they tend to use MVVM patterns and architecture (also things like PRISM)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff921075(v=pandp.20).aspx

In theory if you follow the pattern you can drop the front whenever you like and and design it using something completetly different. This is known as:

Making your UI loosely coupled.

If you wanted to switch your front end display to a web application you would obviously have to change the UI layer to use HTML, in theory if you have given your application a suitable architecture your business logic should be able to remain the same, however if you have a lot of logic tied into the multiple Windows Forms i’m afraid you will suffer a long and painful migration process with many bugs along the way.

Think of your application as a house – you have the main foundations for the house (insulation, bricks etc.) which you may want to change from time to time to bring the structure up to date, however the fundamental foundations will normally remain the same. You can however decorate the house with however you wish without affecting the fundamentals (sorry for a poor analogy).

Hope this helps somewhat.

EDIT:

I just noticed you wanted to know the best architecture to use with a project, personally from what I know I would use PRISM, WPF and MVVM – you can Build WPF and Silverlight Applications with a Single Code Base Using Prism