Need help with a new project.. (brainstorm with me.)

[Kt3]

Ok, I was wondering if somebody could give me some ideas as to what technology I could use for this project.

I need to write a web service that collects files which contain metadata, some of the meta info is hash coded so is XML going to work? Either way, after the file is archived, I want the location of the file as well as the metainfo it contains to be stored in a database, all of this on the web server. Then a windows forms application can log in, and retrieve the database. I might perhaps include the ability for the application to upload files to the web service for automatic storage. Then, to top it all off, there might be several hundred people using this database with the windows forms application at once, plus, I need to include the ability for the windows forms application to connect to and retrieve similar formatted data from other web services and combine all the data and present it to the user.

So let's recap as well as introduce some new specifications:

1. Web service that accepts files, stores the files and archives info about the files to a database.

2. Windows forms application to retrieve information from the database and download the file based on the information.

3. Scalable to support several hundred users.

4. Able to connect to several web services at once.

5. Windows forms application must be somewhat light on resource consumption.

6. Database on a single service could be as large as 10,000 entries.


Yes, I know this is a big project, yes, I know I am crazy, can it be done, what .NET technology will let me do it?


KT

[nemaroller]

I would shoot for just going web enabled, using ASP.NET.

Basically, you build the web application on the server, it consumes the database and webservices, and because its a web application, anyone that browses to it, is a user.

File uploading/downloading done just like uploading and downloading files over the internet.

If you need it to be extremely scalable use the SQL server for ASP.NET session state.

[Kt3]

Do Windows forms not integrate very well with web services? I realize asp.net web enabled apps might make for an easier solution but dont those place more load on the server since it has to be executed server side?

[Kt3]

I decided to build a web service enabled application.

I had a question about user interface programming. I'm trying to implement a lot of controls on a limited space without using tabs, so what's the best way to do that at design time? The panel control seems transparent straight through to the form, so I tried overlaying two panels together and I was going to hide one and show the other but that's not going to work.

Is that gonna tax a user's system anyway? Should I create the controls at run time when I need them? And if I wanted to do that, what's the best way to do it, have methods within my main form's class that create the controls and call the methods when I need to show them?

I really could use a quick reply on this, don't need a whole lot of info just some quick explanation.

[nemaroller]

You could use a Windows form application, but it limits you in a few ways:

1) they can only run on machines that have .Net framework installed

2) Because of #1, they can only run on Windows machines

3) IF there are 200 users, and you find a bug, that's 200 instances of the program that need to be updated. Granted, there is remoting, but its certainly still easier to just upgrade the application on the web server (one instance), and then the upgrade is live.

4) You stated that the Windows Forms applications must be light on resources, well, if the computer has IE, you don't have to worry about any of that.

You questioned that web applications take more resources on the server. Well, yes they do, and yes they don't.

They generate the html and necessary javascript, and pass it back to the requesting client.

The client's browser does the heavy work of creating a UI etc... handling events, etc.

An 800mhz Athlon Thunderbird with 256mb of RAM, running Windows 2000/2003 server would spit that html out so fast... even with 1000 users actively using the website.