WPF app into ASP

Question

Is there any way to turn to WPF app into an ASP app? Or are they totally unrelated technologies? XAML format reminds me so much of HTML that it seems like there might be a way. Thanks.

Answer 1

I don't believe there is an easy way to do so; they are indeed basically unrelated technologies. WPF renders to your screen while ASP.NET renders HTML for viewing through a browser, and all the event/data pipelines are completely different.

Though you could convert your WPF app somewhat easily into a Silverlight app if you want to run it on the web.

Answer 2

WPF app is a windows application while an ASP.Net app is a web application. These two platforms have huge differences which make it hard to convert. In most cases this isn't even feasible due to different limitations and strengths of these platforms.

For viewing this might be possible but if the WPF application does anything like write to the local filesystem or modify something on the user's computer this just won't work on the web.

If the application is for internal use, you could look into XAML Browser Applications (XBAP). These have only security limitations which you can bypass by signing the deployment and propagating the correct certificate to the client computers through the Domain. The great part about XBAPs is that they can share assemblies with the WPF application and so converting WPF application to an XBAP is quite trivial.

Silverlight is another possibility but there are quite major differences between WPF and Silverlight and turning a WPF application into a Silverlight application requires more rewriting than one might initially think. The Silverlight engine is built on top of .Net but it uses different virtual machine and isn't binary compatible. It's still easier to port to than to ASP.Net!

Even if you would manage to convert the XAML to ASP.Net HTML you'd have problems with the minor differences in control behaviours. And if your WPF app is using the major WPF features such as embedding controls inside tab page headers or applying transformations don't even think of trying this.