Is it possible to have a WinForms application make a simple call to an Mvc app over the wire to carry-out a simple query (into a controller > service > repository)? I’m wondering whether it should provide a service api controller, separate to the rest of the application which spits out the Json to the WinForms application, or should it go the WCF/WebService route?
It needs to be able to authenticate too so the end solution is secure. As the WinForms app needs to poll the end-point, I don’t want to send the username/password in each request. Can there be some provision for a session on the end-point which times-out and then requires a re-login from the client?
Yes, you can use the
System.Net.HttpWebRequestandSystem.Net.HttpWebResponseclasses to create an HTTP client. See here for an example.Web apps do have a session timeout which starts counting when there is no activity on a session. So, if you do not want to be re-authenticating on every request, you will need to echo the cookies that the server sends to you in HttpWebResponse back to the server with the next HttpWebRequest, so that the server knows your session and keeps you logged in. If you erase the cookies, you will need to re-authenticate. If you do not interact with the server for a while, (usually about 20 minutes,) you will also need to re-authenticate. (Assuming that your WinForms application will not check the ‘remember me’ checkbox on the login form.)