Question

I have a pretty specific scenario that I want to do and wondered how you’d go about making the decision on how to proceed with an ASP.NET solution.

The info:

1. The existing application is in Classic ASP.
2. The application runs on IIS on a Windows Server 2003 against a SQL Server 2005 database.
3. The application serves 3,000 students per semester; they submit papers at certain dates, which is when the peak load occurs.
4. The application needs to support roles that are determined by semesters. Steve may be an instructor for fall, but not in the spring.
5. The server runs ASP.NET 3.5 in addition to Classic ASP.
6. I’m the sole developer.
7. I know Webforms, and the development cycle is tight so it precludes me from learning MVC. I’d like to continue with webforms.
8. The major activity of the site is receiving submissions, grading submissions, and getting them back through instructors to students.
9. The focus of the system going forward is tracking and reporting and monitoring.
10. I’m the sole developer, dedicated 100% to the job. The last major ASP.NET project I did was in 2.0 with C#.
11. We don’t have a tools budget, though I have Visual Studio 2008 and some older Red Gate SQL Tools running.

Given this scenario, how would you go about determining whether customizing an existing open-source CMS, pulling a framework from elsewhere, or building up something simple from scratch is the best solution?

You can mention possible frameworks in your answer, but for the sake of longevity of the question, I’d also like to have thought processes and determination be the important part.

Answer 1

Point 7 – wrong approach. You will likely spend MORE time for your first complex form in webforms than to learn MVC 😉 Going through the same here at the moment.

11.We don’t have a tools budget, though I have Visual Studio 2008

What budget do you need? MS pretty much gives tools away for nearly free to education entities.