Question

Hi just about to get the dev team to start looking at the next version of a CRM type SOA based application and the thorny issue of Application Front End came up.

Currently the application is a composite application using

• Web Forms (.net2)
• Sharepoint 2003
• InfoPath *
• BizTalk

*Not FormsServer though – was before FormServer as we hack the ProgID in HTTP to launch a server based XSD for InfoPath and punch data into that on load.

We are looking at moving to MVC or MVVM model as we have web services and a database to interact with and we can see the move to that architecture to be a good one with 3.5 and Linq (although we have keyTables for managing one to many relationships that dont appear to work that well with LinqToSQL or EF… but i digress)

So we are at a point of looking at what would be good for the contact centre taking in these points

1. We must have a web server version for deployment (?) XBAP may diminsh this
2. Visulisation v Speed (WPF/SilverLight v WebForms and Grids)

So was wondering if anyone else faced this dilemma, hints tips and which would you choose based on your experience?

EDIT
Thanks for the links to Prism and the EP Site – already been looking at that – was hopeing for some real life expereinces…

Answer 1

xbap(can deploy on webserver) or wpf

1. patterns & practices: Composite WPF and Silverlight
2. Prism

Go for Xceed WPF Grid (xbap)