Any "gotchas" with remotely-coded, locally-run .NET web apps on XP machines?

Question

It looks like I am going to be on a project where, for deadline and expertise reasons, we are going to code a web app (.NET 3.5) that will be deployed to enterprise laptops to be run locally. Since my experience with developing web apps has only been with centralized servers that I can immediately jump on and take control of, I'm trying to look ahead to see what problems with this approach I need to take into consideration. Some concerns that come to mind:

• Does the IIS version on XP present any large-scale problems?
• How do we deploy metabase changes to IIS instances on the laptops and enforce their update?
• For that matter, how should the code be deployed in general? Small client application that polls for updates and pulls down the needed binaries and forces an IIS recycle?

Client-app-versus-local-web-app conversation aside, can you think of any other problems that might show up with this approach?

Answer 1

IIS 5 on XP is restricted to only one primary domain.

You might also look and see what ASP.NET 4.0's support for IIS 5. It's release is around the corner. You'd hate to pidgon hole yourself on the 3.5 framework.

Another solution might better fit your needs. Something like a Windows Form, WPF or smart client. You are cheating yourself going with a deployable thick web application... you are getting the worst of both worlds: No state and deployment and maintenance headaches.

With that said, I've seen this done before. There was a local update service that pinged a server update service. When a change happened it would stop IIS update the files and then restart the service.