APazari Desktop
aPazari Desktop is a proprietary online e-commerce software product aimed at users who want to buy and sell goods worldwide from their desktop. The product is developed on Microsoft's WPF and uses a XAML-based rich graphical user interface that resembles the look and feel of an online auction website. It is a standalone application that is installed using Microsoft's ClickOnce deploying technology. aPazari Desktop currently supports Windows Vista and Windows XP with Microsoft Net Framework 3.0 as a prerequisite. It is a free of charge, downloadable application that requires an aPazari account to work.
ClickOnce Installation
The ClickOnce technology skips all the usual installation steps. Once it starts it checks for prerequisites. If anything is missing it downloads it from a default location. Then it asks the user to click on the Install button to verify that he/she trusts the publisher and wants to install the application. It finally copies the necessary files to a default location on the local hard disk, it CREATES a desktop and a start menu application shortcut and it launches the application.
The core principles of ClickOnce are to bring the ease of web applications to the Windows user. Besides that, ClickOnce aims to solve three other problems with conventional deployment models: the difficulty in updating a deployed application, the impact of an application to the user's computer, and the need for administrator permissions to install applications.
ClickOnce-deployed applications are considered 'low impact', in that they are installed per-user, not per-machine. No administrator privileges are required to install one of these applications. Each ClickOnce application is isolated from the other. This means one ClickOnce application is not able to 'break' another.
ClickOnce employs CAS (Code Access Security) to ensure that system functions cannot be called by a ClickOnce application from the web, ensuring the security of data and the client system in general.
Windows Presentation Foundation
Microsoft WPF is a framework that allows graphics-rich application development. It supports vector graphics and it can present rich animations without requiring heavy processing from the local machine. aPazari desktop is build entirely in XAML, using only one Windows Form to capture a photo from the web cam and store it as an item photo.
Online Behaviour
aPazari Desktop uses the internet to create an encrypted connection with the aPazari servers. It requires a constantly ACTIVE online connection to work and it shows live data AbOUT items, transactions and user settings directly from the website. It uses a special version of the aPazari API to perform shopping related tasks without requiring the user to visit the aPazari website.