Monitoring a program using a web service

[Randolph]

Ok I'm a total n00b to this program, so I'm prolly really gonna piss some of ya'll off with my stupid questions.

But here is what I want to do, and I hope that some of ya'll can possibly help me.

I want an Internet Explorer window that is open (not being forced to refresh) to be able to monitor and await a command from another machine (via bat file, or whatever will work) and then go to the specified page that is sent from the other machine.

I hope this makes sense, but I have no idea where to start.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[suddenelfilio]

It makes sense, but can't be done with normal IE and web service. It's because these techniques are stateless. You can't keep a constant connection.

there are some workarounds:
- Use a java applet
- Use an ActiveX object
- Use Ajax

The most .net oriented solution would be Ajax. You could use Ajax to check the server for command every x seconds. The beauty of this is that it won't cause a (visible) postback when it goes back to the server. the downside is that you have to know some javascripting.

A good Ajax library for .net is Ajax.Net --> http://ajax.schwarz-interactive.de/csharpsample/default.aspx

If you want to use Ajax directly you need to google for XmlHttpRequest. I wouldn't advise this because it's rather complicated and advanced,but hey you're free to learn ;-)