Standing Start...

I need to devise a system whereby all the people in my large office can use a web page (on our network somewhere) to let other people know where they are at any time, ie out to lunch, in a meeting etc.

I have 2 ideas...

1. Write 2 Exe's, one to run on a dedicated PC (always powered up) and the other as a user interface (instead of a webpage).

2. Write an ASP.net solution that would run the webpage.

Now, I know how to do (1) but I'm concerned about network traffic. I know (2) would be more efficient but I have no experience in ASP.net (and only a little in HTML page design).

Is ASP.net easy to learn? I am quite proficient at VB and a bit of C#.

Does anyone have any advice about what I should do? My deadline is 2 weeks or so to ave the beta version up and running. :eek:

The asp.net solution would be more elegant and easier to deploy and update, but it is really more of a judgment call. There is twice as much to manage when you have two exe's though...

The asp.net thing isn't too hard to pick up. My suggestion is to pick up a asp.net book and read the first 4 chapters at the very least. Should only take two days. This will at least give you a basic understanding of the technology so you can start building with it. It is still VB.Net or C# code, so that isn't a problem.

Also, for datagrid controls, the "ASP.Net Data Controls Kick Start" book is awesome. Might want to look at it.

Good luck.

Thanks.

I've got "Teach yourself ASP.NET in 21 days" but it's a bit patronising :rolleyes:.

I'll give it a go though. I suppose it'll be more 'future-proof' than the 2 exes as well.