Setting Up A Program To Run On A Website

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

There used to be a site called "Mommy Rose's Nursery". One of the things it featured was a Tux Paint that the visitors coul use, Now I thought that was a real tiara, however that cost, if I read things right, $20/mo. But that gave me ide

when I got Widnows 7, I did not like the Paint so I found a download of a versio of the Windows XP Paint for Windows 7. It is a stand-alone program. The I though, well, what if I could this could be shipped up to the girls' home and run there? It is up there and can be run from the FTP client However now comes the tough part. I set up a page to link to it using the A HREF="http://... right to the mspaint.exe file and tried it out. What I goet is the "You have chosen to run...." message box, however, the only choices I get are "Save File" and "Cancel" with no "Run" option

http://paint.sandralyn.net/mspaint.exe

Is there a way that I can set it up to run or at least give me a run option. the program is in its own folder

[DailyDi]

Can't help you with this one. Not entirely sure what you are asking, and have a policy against opening random exe files

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Well, you would not have to worry about this one because all you would get is this

There is no Run option, which is why I am posting, otherwise, modest girl that I am,I would be bragging that RUFFLES & RIBBONS GIRLS' HOME has a working drawing program

[DailyDi]

That's a desktop program, i don't think you can make it run on a website, it has to be saved locally then opened

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

It ran from there in the FireFTP client remote. It was described as a "standalone program" and installed in the 32-bit Progam Fies folder. Also encouraging me to think that when it was run in FireFTP, it was running from the site was that avast! gave me the security notice with the option of running the program and not seeing the security notice again

[wetman]

Hi Christine,

The problem there is most likely in your browser, which does not know how to interpret .exe files. It would have to pass this file to be processed by windows explorer (not Internet Explorer) for providing the window handles and so on; and it will not do so anyway for security reasons. If you set the security (I can't try at the moment, because I haven't got the time to set up an Internet Explorer on a Windows virtual machine), it might work if you set the MIME-type for the link correctly; more about that here. The client (every browser of each of your website's visitors) would have to be set individually still, which makes it somewhat cumbersome.

Apart from that there's the legal difficulty of hosting and publishing a copyrighted program to everybody and their dog. Even if mspaint comes with every windows, it is still a program that is not freely distributable. But that is up to you, I just thought I'd draw your attention to that...

Have you looked into javascript to get something similar? Here is someone's try to do a bit of drawing that could be extended; Flash (if you happen to like it) would also be a possibility with great promise, albeit a bit laggy; take a look at this.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Thanks to both of you:

The item is freeware and, I believe, free distribution

Wetman: My browser is FireFox 9.0.1. I have seen other programs on other sites and they offer options Run, Save, Cancel

If I knew where to get a js program like that, I would have grabbed it up long ago, I search for javascript. the "SmartyPanties" caulculator is all js. That would be one long script. the mspain.exe is a meg plus

Another problem I see is how it would save the resutls. When I operated it rmotely through FireFTP it wnated to save to my My Pictures folder. Just how it would work on a web browser, I do not know

EDIT: You're right about the broswer: I ran it from my the page that I had written torun it at the site but did not put up yet until I am satisfied that all things work rightl. It did not run but when I engaged FireFox add-on IEView it offered me the full set of choices and ran perfectly. saving the trial run to my folder. Now the question becomes howto configure Fx to do this for my site only

[wetman]

The program did not run on your website/web server, it was just loaded from there and then ran on your local machine. Thus the default saving location will be a folder on your local machine, too. To save the .jpg , .bmp, .pcx or whatever on your website, it would need to be uploaded afterwards, unless you can set your web server to provide space that is mountable as a network drive (which then again, would have to be done by every user on his/her machine; and a lot of people maybe don't want network drives that point to a fetish site on their computer, for privacy reasons?).

I don't think you run your own web server but you probably use a web hosting service, and they will most likely not let you use it as a network drive anyway...

Does your website contract include cgi?

Oh, and mspaint.exe is actually a part of the Microsoft Windows operating system, which is not free or freely distributable. I would like to strongly advise to choose a different software. There's freeware out there that does the trick. No need to pee on Microsoft's carpet.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Thank you again

My web hosting does contain CGI

Well, I got it from Sofpedia which operates under GNU and the only restriction I know of in GNU is commercial use. Getting back to my original post Tux Paint has gon freeware. I would prefer to avoid any sources of misunderstanding and would like to find something else, Maybe Gizmo can point me somewhere

[KittenAB]

If you want a browser app (something that runs on the website itself) you will need a Java or Flash version, I do not believe HTML5 has come this far ... yet. Even with CGI and all that, your server may also likely have to be configured to reserve a port and you'll have to add it to the crontab. Unless it's a P2P app, in which case it would just be plug and play. If I was better at explaining things I'd state that much clearer than I just did. But I am having a hard time understanding exactly what you're doing anyway so I may be completely off.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Separating the issue of what may be done form what can be don

Here is the Softpedia page that links to the license and developer

http://www.softpedia.../Paint-XP.shtml

I lookede at the license and see nothing that either expressly permits or forbids this kind of use. The only expressly forbidden use is stated in two ways "commercial" and "to generate income", without compesating the company of origin. This was also privately developed. I would think that if this use were forbidden that fact would be part of full disclosure and/or terms of use. This presumes that what is not forbidden is permitted which would seem to be the defauft position in a free society and also comes under the aegis of "nobody told me I may not do this". An argument could be made based on the McDonlad's hot coffee case that even though the person should have known that the coffee was hot and burned herself, some damages were awarded because there was no stipulation that she could injure herself with the hot coffee. Failure to specifically prohibit this kind of use, if it is meant to be prohibited, constitutes negligence. Also no license is included in the download and the only documentation referenced is the GUN GPL license

[wetman]

Christine, now that I saw which program you were actually talking about, I found that we didn't talk about the same one. The paint program that you gave the developer link to in the post above is not the same as the paint program that is included in Windows 98 - XP, it isn't even called mspaint.exe, even though it is designed to show the same interface.

Use at will, its not an issue at all.

As a personal view: Stella whatshername and her son/ nephew/ grandson were stupid and careless. She shouldn't have got any money at all, maybe a fine for distracting the driver and not wearing a seat belt.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

As for the McDonlad's case, I agree with you and said at the time "WTF!? any woman who's had kids should know that if you put something hot between your legs, you get burned".

Your notre of caution was well worth the giving since it alerts people to what they could be unknowingly doing

I went into the Properties to see if I could find what language it was written in. I did see a Copyrigh label that read "Microsoft Corporation all rights reserved" It would occur to me that the developer knew that and softpedia, also which might have an effect on what you can do with it and on its GNU GPL status

[DailyDi]

I suggest people watch the documentary "Hot Coffee" to see the truth about that and other "frivolous" lawsuits. It's all anti-lawsuit spin by Corporate America.

[AutieAB]

However don't google too much. There are photos out there and they're very much in the "cannot unsee" category!

Back to the original matter, there's a very clear and deliberate barrier to prevent stuff that should run via the operating system (applications like MSPaint, Word, Excel, etc, etc, etc) from running via the browser without explicit user consent. It's what keeps you safe on the internet and you really shouldn't tweak your browser settings to override it (I believe that in Firefox, you can't) unless you *really* know what you're doing. Allowing Windows applications (.exe files) to be launched by the browser unhindered by security alerts and whatnot is like wearing a cloth diaper without plastic pants... Sure, you can pee but you risk a big puddle of problems!

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Gee; AutiAB, I have not seen you in ages!

Well, FireFox does have the "Exceptions" for sites that you want to exempt from such tight security. There is also some question as to whether this is a Microsoft item or even a real msnpaint file On the one hand the "Copyright" says it is, on the other Wetman says not, and Softpedia treats it like it is not, listing a non-Microsoft developer and listing it as freeware and then referencing GNU GPL terms

I think the best way around this is using the FireFox addo-on IEView or IE tab and assigning the page to always come up in that. However, I have gotten on Fx the three choices (Run, Save File, Cancel) and it would seem fascistic of Mozilla not to offer the option since we are not all toothless fourth-generation imbreds

[pvcdiapers]

Christine, I am a web developer full time so perhaps I could help here... Are you hoping other people will be able to run this app too? I'm guessing so, otherwise you wouldn't be putting it on a website. Unfortunately, no one running any kind of modern browser will be able to download and run the paint app from your site due to security settings. As other posters have said, the app isnt actually running on your site at all - its just downloading and running on their pc. Of course, even if they did manage to download it, only users on windows machines would be able to run it.

.EXE files are application files to be run on windows. Not on the internet.

If you want a painting app for your site, it needs to be done in Javascript or HTML5. I suggest against Flash based solutions, as a lot of people also block flash nowadays and it's on it's way out. Do you want this painting to be collaborative - as in everyone can paint on the same canvas and view what each other is doing - or just something the user can do on their own browser?

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

No, it need not be collaborative. I actually saw a paint program in js but it was a bit primitve. There was also the matter of onsite storage of the result

I got the idea from what was done at "Mommy Rose's Nursery" a decade ago. Now, I do have a js calculator the runs there that I cobbled together from a couple of js calculators and some s js subroutines It is pretty good, too. It is in the Girls' School

[pvcdiapers]

Christine, you sound like you know your way around Javascript - try this one: http://www.williammalone.com/articles/create-html5-canvas-javascript-drawing-app/

It's an HTML5/Javascript based tutorial, but the full source can be downloaded straight away and used.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Thanks but I do not know my way around js. One of the reasons I am anxiously waiting for them to get some kind of reading aid for me is so I can go itno my javascript text and learn how. At this point in time, I cannot read. The operation made me a bit farsigted so some kind of corrction and magnification has to be found

Also, it uses frams which are difficult to work with

It is not what I had in mind. It seems to be more of a coloring book. Now the thing about that is that I was not looking for one of those because I did not know how to. so this is a gem that dropped into my lap. I kinow just where to put it and what I can do with it to make the images RUFFES & RIBBONS GIRLS' HOME; you know, dresses, rubber panties, dollies, babydolls and all of the things that Nursie says that Little Girls need.. It could use a few more colors, like sky blue, rubber sheet ivory, chocolate brown, diaper white, blonde gold and girls' rubber panty pastel pink,

EDIT: A closer look shows that it can be used as a drawing program of a primitive sort, ideal for the 5-8 age range and I know the color code or have access to color/code charts. Now I have found the color section and could probably turn it into a 16 or 24 color crayon box. If I could learn how to change the line or "stroke" size the age range could be expanded to 12 or 15. It still functions as a coloring book if you use pre-defined line art images, whichyou can create with the full implementation of IrfanView

2 more things: DailyDi might want to put that in here and the example image to color looks a bit like a duck