Port Win client to UWP, put in MS app store #1804
Comments
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I've never work with UWP but I can try to do this task this summer |
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Great. The hardest part is likely to be the installer. We do tricky stuff, like creating new users and groups. I UWP's installer features are likely to be much different from MSI. |
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I think it would be a good idea upgrade to VS2017 and skip the VS2015. |
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@adamradocz This will require rebuilding 3rd party libs which are not stored on GitHub. This is possible I guess but should be made as a separate task. |
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Yes I know. :) |
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Yes, please |
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I made some investigations and I think that it is impossible to make UWP BOINC applications. |
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If the Windows default is to allow only UWP apps from the MS app store to be installed, we'll have to deal with this issue. The UWP spec is fluid; we need to at least be able to tell MS what we want changed. |
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UWP - is a sandbox. And there is no way to run boinc client. OK, even if we will find some way (I do not believe in this but anyway) there is no chance to let it work in background. Otherwise you will need to keep UWP Manager application opened. Why we need this app be in MS store? In any case boinc client cannot be UWP application so if we will put Manager application to MS store we will need to ask user to download and install separate boinc client outside of MS store. |
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So again, why we need this applications in MS store?
Microsoft has released Windows S on which you can install applications only
from Windows Store. What kind of market share that version will have and if
it's worth the effort to port BOINC to it is then a different question.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-s
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@JuhaSointusalo, ok but as I wrote before there is no way to run win32 process from UWP application so we can create Manager application only. And I do not think that it is so needful for device with no boinc client, |
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I haven't put in any real effort in seeing if BOINC could be ported to
Windows Store other than if I have been looking for some other information
and there has been a mention of Store I have taken a quick peek. The infos
I have seen seem to contradict each other. Some texts seem to imply that
you can't launch other applications from UWP apps but other texts seem to
imply that it is possible to launch another application as long as both are
from the same application package.
I'm getting the impression that Microsoft really wants developers to adopt
Windows Store and is willing to make changes to Store's requirements to see
that happen. If David has some connections to Microsoft it might be useful
to compile a list of problematic restrictions from BOINC's point of view
and see if that leads anywhere. BOINC might not be the only one to find
some restriction problematic.
The background task limitations you mentioned earlier for instance sound
really strange. Take some video editing software. From what I understand
you usually edit videos in preview mode and when you are satisfied with the
edits you let the software process the video in full quality. Now, while
the software is processing the video you could read your emails or go
surfing and let the video editing run in background. But if there is some
hard limit in what background apps can do then it would make UWP version of
such software much less useful.
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I don't currently have any useful contacts at Microsoft, but I can make phone calls and see what happens. It would be very helpful if someone could identify the problematic restrictions. |
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Ok, I'll try to do deeper investigation. |
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If UWP is put into store (or at least as a side-loadable package) they it should be able to run on Xbox one platform (though is there any computing tasks using directcompute?) Desktop (Win32) bridge for uwp is also helpful. |
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Interesting article on Windows 10 S and the reviewer's view on this for future desktop computers: http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-s-is-the-future-but-not-the-present-of-the-desktop-pc/ |
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Unless I'm seriously misunderstanding the limited developer documentation I've seen, the BOINC client won't work at all as-is in S mode. A UWP app version designed to run in S mode would have to pre-load all the project applications as part of the app (and even then it's debatable whether or not it would work, as I have no idea how well any of the project applications will work without any access to the win32 API's). |
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As far as I know there is no possibility to run executable. So I see no way
for BOINC to work on Windows S.
Best regards,
Vitalii
Sent via Android
чт, 8 марта 2018, 14:35 Austin S. Hemmelgarn <notifications@github.com>:
… Unless I'm seriously misunderstanding the limited developer documentation
I've seen, the BOINC client won't work at all as-is in S mode. A UWP app
version designed to run in S mode would have to pre-load all the project
applications as part of the app (and even then it's debatable whether or
not it would work, as I have no idea how well any of the project
applications will work without any access to the win32 API's).
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I found this article showing how to launch any executable from UWP application: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49189353/uwp-how-to-start-an-exe-file-that-is-located-in-specific-directory |
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Any updates on this? |
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S mode in windows is designed around UWP, it has very hard limitations for native applications. But besides that for normal users having boinc in the windows stor at all may already help. And that shouldn't be that much of a problem. As also native applications can be shipped with it. All you need is to contact the Windows Store team and request permission for the native api (if it is not yet available publicly, heard something about this being subject to change last time I submitted an app there). |
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The BOINC packed with the project files couldn't be a viable option as discussed #1376 ? |
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@adamradocz, @agowa338, as far as I know only Microsoft signed executables can be run from UWP application. I'm not sure it is possible to ask Windows Store team to assign couple dozens of applications that are developed by different people and organizations (because boinc is not responsible for all applications that are running using boinc infrastructure). |
This is only true for S-Mode, not for generell.
If this is your concern, you would integrate an "app-service", as an api for other uwp apps to link against. But as mentioned above, it is only relevant for S-Mode.
I don't know if there was a change, but I do know, that you can run native applications from UWP. Have a look at this project of mine: https://github.com/agowa338/WSL-DistroLauncher-Alpine https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/desktop-to-uwp-root |
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@agowa338, thanks for the links. |
AenBleidd
added
OS: Windows
C: Installer
and removed
PR: Enhancement
Feature Request
C: Manager
labels
MS is moving toward having users download apps only from their app store.
Such apps must be built as Universal Windows Platform apps.
This requires VS2015.
Info: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/desktop-to-uwp-root
Rom thinks that CreateProcess() may be missing from UWP.
However, see
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/537da783-f8af-4ce4-853e-d68bd97e2e88/uwpdesktop-bridgecreateprocess-not-working?forum=wpdevelop
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