Me and my friends are developing a project, and here are the inputs so far:
- There is a CRM-like website, written with JSm with its own DB, authentificaion and everything, hosted on *nix system.
- There is a Control Cash Machine pluged into user's computer
- There is a .Net application, which is a wrapper for cash machine driver.
Here is what we would like to implement:
- User installs .Net application on a machine with a cash machine plugged into, and registers it on a website;
- Whenever user click a button on a website, the assosiated with user .Net application runs method with arguments (based on data from a website), interacting with cash machine (register a buy, print a check, etc.);
- User can be logged into a website from a different machine, not the one with a cash machine plugged, and still be able to send commands to .Net application;
- Communication between server and .Net application has to be secure.
My question is "Using what technologies should we implement such functionality and what are the steps?"
So far I've been looking into ActiveX, creating HttpListener, using SignalR, using custom URL protocol and everything has mixed up in my head, so I'm a bit confused.
I would appreciate any advices or opinions on the situation. Thank you
UPDATE:
Clarifications:
The site and its communication with DB is written in JavaScript, RubyOnRails and Python and is hosted on *nix system.
Polling server by application for commands seems inapropriate to me, since user expects fast reaction to his actions. Obviously there must be some connection between application and server, the question is what kind of connection and how to implement it