Customization In Web Application

[Andrew Hayes]

All,

Using VS 2005, C#.NET, SQL Server 2005, W2K3.

We are developing a web application that would be shared by numerous
customers for information management. Some of those customers want
variations on the usual form layout.

For example, we have a form where the user can enter their dependents
information (parents, siblings, spouse, kids, etc.), but we know one of our
customers wants to include additional information on that form that none of
the other customers would use (company specific insurance coverage).

Based on our experience with our C/S version of the product, we can expect
to see many more requests like this.

There are 3 ways to do this that I see.

1. Create a separate web application for that customer and host it on a
different web server.
2. Add the custom fields to the single web application but hide the extras
based on the customer using it.
3. Allow the customer to add the fields themselves and store them for just
that customer.

Pros and cons that I see.

1. Quick to implement, but costly in new infrastructure, and would end up
difficult to maintain.
2. Still relatively quick to develop, and uses existing infrastructure, but
would create complex forms.
3. Difficult to develop, but would use existing infrastructure and wouldn't
need extra maintenance.

Personally, I'd like to use 3. That is... Design the application so that
each form includes standard fields, but a customer can add new labels,
textboxes, drop-down combos, lists, etc., themselves and doing so doesn't
require us to change any code or the database schema.

While this would be a no-brainer in an C/S application, it gets a little
more difficult in a web app since the only client they use is a browser.

Any thoughts?

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Andrew,

Although I don't understand in your message if the user decide everything or
that the company has as well some restrictions what is seen by who.

In past this was done with cookies. (Althouhg it was not forever a success.
Because hidding something is simple, but get it back needs more work and
knowledge from your user, which is not always direct by the webuser.)

Now the word for it is personalize and should become one of the new features
from Net 2.0

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/09/WebParts/default.aspx

I hope this helps,

Cor

 

[Andrew Hayes]

Hi Cor,

Very interesting reading. Looks like "Web Parts" can handle what we want to
do. Thanks.

Essentially, an appropriately authorised user at the customer (or us) can
modify a special section of each of the informational web pages to include
custom fields. That new page is then seen by all users, but they can only
read/modify the data, not the design.

To them, that is how the page is supposed to look, but to us and the
relevant people at the customer, we know it was a custom layout. It also
allows the customer to limit what a user can see based on their
requirements. For example, our app includes salary information and in most
cases the department head can only see the salaries of the employees in
their department.

Looks like .NET 2.0 is getting better and better.