Rich client choice for an intranet web application with 5000+ users

Question

For an intranet web application with 5000+ users we need to develop highly interactive (as few postbacks as possible) client. So performance issue might arise. What would be your choice and why?

- ASP.NET Web Forms + JQuery/Ajax
- ASP.NET Web Forms + Silverlight
- ASP.NET MVC + JQuery/Ajax
- ASP.NET MVC + Silverlight
- WPF
- Smartclient

You may suggest any other libraries (only for .net world). Share your toughts please.

Answer 1

asp.net + commercial reporting tool(for example: telerik) + pure asp.net ajax

reasons:

-because it's intranet application, speed in context of bandwidth and page size it is not issue, and viewstate it's not concern

-for reporting, asp.net it is very good because of using of controls which you can bind to data very fast and easily...if you put on top of that some asp.net commercial reporting tool like telerik, I think you get pretty stable and robust system

-unfortunately, asp.net and jquery don't work well together(asp.net id generation issues) so I will recommend asp.net ajax, it fits nicely in whole asp.net page lifecycle system

cheers

Answer 2

Have you ruled out using SharePoint as a foundation? I played with the SharePoint 2010 beta for a few weeks and they seem to be using Silverlight a lot in there and I suspect the integration will be getting better and better.

I have a love/hate relationship with SharePoint as my profile states, but using Silverlight and/or jQuery for page customization has been a huge improvement. You get a lot of stuff for "free" from SharePoint that you'd spend a lot of time implementing in ASP.NET for an intranet such as authentication, profiles, dashboard/web part functionality, document libraries with version control, etc. I cringe every time I work with SharePoint 2007 but deep down inside I know it's better than starting from scratch.