问题
I have been tasked with the creation of a desktop application within some very rigid constrains. The first version of the application was quite small, only intended for some specific tasks, but it seems like the application was quite liked, so I've been asked to improve it a lot.
The initial app I created was made as a hta with heavy doses of javascript and jquery, using a XML to store information (through MSXML2.3.0), but the increased amount of data makes me think it won't be able to keep up with the requirements, so I wanted to remake the application on a more solid base. Of course, I'd rather keep the interface more or less consistent with what I've already shown, and I'd prefer not having to rewrite all the code.
The restrictions are as follows:
-Desktop application. I cannot develop a web application, as not a single target computer has a solid internet connection.
-No need of installation (copying and pasting the folder should work, and should keep all the data consistent).
-Should be relatively multi plataform. The only information I have about the target machines is that all of them have a windows XP OS or newer, a MS Office 2003 suite or newer, and some kind of PDF reader.
-Should be able to embed and show different file types, such as diferent image formats, pdfs, and office documents. That said, for office documents, as long as I can link to the document and open it by instanciating a common MS Word/Excel/wathever app, it should be good enough, although interoperativity with the suite would be great.
I've been searching through the net, and I've found some interesting options, but I'm not sure about them.
On one side, I think XML won't be able to keep up, although I suppose I could make it work if I distribute the data through several xml files. I've been reading about open source embedded databases, such as SQLite, and it looks like this could work.
On the other side, I feel like the hta basis I'm using isn't going to work that well if the application keeps growing. I've checked lots of alternatives, but all of them give me some problems.
Cappuccino or Chromeless looks like good ideas, but both of them require a certain degree of HTML5, which is something I can't be sure the machine's browser will support enough. Also, NativeHost for Cappuccino seems to work only on Mac OSX. Xul looks interesting, but unusable.
Another option I've found is porting the app to Qt, but I don't know how hard would be porting the app to Qts, and it looks like I can only use the ActiveX needed for the embedding of MS Office applications with a proprietary license. Although that's comparatively less important, but I'm sure in the future I'll want to include those features.
That's how I stand. Do you think keeping the hta + XML architecture (or any variation thereof) could still work? Do any of the alternatives I've mentioned be viable? Do you know any other alternative?
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10583410/standalone-desktop-application