Architecture: Replace 12 MS apps with a single ASP.NET application

 
50   50
Aug 14, 2012
 
Greetings

I wonder if you could give your opinion on something I am working on right now? We have 12 MS Access applications that look quite similar in terms of data and functionality: each app allows 12 practices to capture data for services they provide to patients. The practices cover physical therapy, orthotics, speech and language , social services , etc. 6 are for inpatients and 6 for outpatients.

I built a MS SQL database to replace the 12 apps and respective 12 databases. The model looks pretty good and I think it will scale well.

Now I am working on designing an asp.net web forms app to replace the above 12 apps. My dilemma is: how should I approach this challenge?

In the current version of the apps, each data entry screen looks almost the same amongst practices; there are a few cosmetic changes and fields may be laid out differently but the result is the same: allow the user to enter service codes for work performed on their patients.

So, say that for each app, we have a page called charges.aspx which will look almost the same per practice.

My question is: should i build 12 similar pages, one for each of the old apps, since the data entry is very similar? Or, maybe, generate the UI, previoulsy defined in sql using something like a template for each practice?

Any suggestions would be welcome!

Regards,

Huambo



80   96.3
Aug 14, 2012
Hi,

As you said all 12 pages look almost similar :

I would prefer to create a base UserControl with all the common form controls in it and have Child UserControls derived from it.

Include the bottom most of the UserControl hierarchy on a Single .aspx page.

Hide /show the unwanted/relevant userconrols based on a Querystring/session (here it is your practice Name)

Thanks,
Tarriq
 2 comments
 
Tarriq, Thanks for your input! The problem I have with a 1 page solution with user controls is that I may ended with a bunch of if then else or case statements to show/hide fields depending on the practice. Also, when i add the business rules, this one page will start to become a monster littered with conditional logic? Huambo --- Everardo Cunha  Aug 15, 2012
 
Agree, from the problem statement , it appeared to be more static:everything is in place and few minor changes, thats why suggested this, otherwise ASP.NET MVC would be the best fit :http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/older-versions/overview/asp-net-mvc-overview --- Tarriq Ferrose Khan  Aug 16, 2012