using silverlight to pretty up a basic CRUD interface

eon

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I'm about to start on a relatively simple project of creating an interface that captures data for monthly invoices. Basically select which month and year you want and then add, edit, delete invoices to a table grid (~10 columns and a dynamic amount of rows). I was going to just whip up a form linked to a sql server DB and publish it to our Sharepoint but I've now been told to use Silverlight to "make it look nice".

So first of all I dont have much web dev experience and never used Silverlight. But from what I know, Silverlight is more of flash and multimedia stuff which really has no place in this kind of application. So does anyone know any features of Silverlight that may help the aesthetics this? The only ideas I have is maybe Silverlight has a table grid control thats better looking than a basic web table.

thanks
 
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oops i meant to say captures data. This will be a data entry interface for transactions. The user selects what month they want to use and then adds, deletes, or edits transaction rows for that month. The underlying data is very simple, it can all be thrown in a single table.
 
Boss/Company forcing you to use silverlight? Its not something that is universally supported. Unless this is only going to be accessed from company machines and you also know that all these machines have silverlight installed, I would consider another option.
 
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Check out visual studio lightswitch.

silverlight + quick and easy CRUD forms. Just give it a DB and it will build the forms for you. You can customize their look if you want.
 
Boss/Company forcing you to use silverlight? Its not something that is universally supported. Unless this is only going to be accessed from company machines and you also know that all these machines have silverlight installed, I would consider another option.
this will be an internal application used by employees at our job so we can ensure the users will have whatever necessary perquisites needed

and thanks for the suggestion tgabe213 ill look into that.
 
As long as this isn't a desktop app:

It sounds like the person who requested you to use Silverlight is just using terms to make themselves sound more knowledgeable than they really are.

Use CSS to style what you create. Universal and low-bandwidth. Maybe add in a little Photoshop work to make some of the more subtle effects (like noise, yet to find a good way to add noise to web elements without photoshop).
 
Silverlight, while having some resemblance to Flash, offers much more possibilities within a .NET architecture. You're able to use native objects, pass security context, and many Silverlight applications can be served from a webpage or as a client application without modifying the codebase.

Though the motivations of your boss pushing Silverlight do seem unclear. But Silverlight is a very powerful tool for creating rich UI and business-integrated solutions, and can be considered as a viable solution based on what's been shared.

Edit: Regardless of the technology chosen, I believe the most complex part of this project is your data connector and querying to Sharepoint.
 
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Sharepoint is not necessary now, that was just my initial proposed idea for the project: an infopath form that connects to a sql server database, published on a sharepoint site. I could have done this in a few hours tops.
Now its going to be some .net web app deployed to an internal webserver.

how well does Silverlight integrate into asp.net? I planned to just get the basics done with asp.net, then come back and see what Silverlight features I can do to enhance the UI. Is this a good idea or will I just end up rewriting too much code?
 
Sounds like you want to couple Silverlight + RIA services for simple DB capturing and editing. That is to say, it seems like you want to make the basic of basics in Silverlight, which luckily for you is wonderfully explained in an hour tutorial by MS.

http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/all/net-ria-services-intro/

In that video he takes you from a basic Silverlight App, plugs in a DB and shows you how to quickly make simple (yet decent looking) user interactions for updating data.
 
how well does Silverlight integrate into asp.net? I planned to just get the basics done with asp.net, then come back and see what Silverlight features I can do to enhance the UI. Is this a good idea or will I just end up rewriting too much code?
Re-read my previous post, but I'm confused by by your last comments. I'd expect a rewrite in XAML to see the enhanced controls throughout the UI, instead of sprinkling some Silverlight elements around a WebForms app. If you're aware of this, great; if not, then once you dive into some Silverlight you'll see what I'm referring to. Your call either way.

Edit: abudhu has a good link in the previous post, which also touches Entity Framework and some other concepts.
 
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the sound on my workstation is shot so i've held off watching that video and i couldnt find much tutorial support for lightswitch

but ive did this tutorial for using silverlight with asp.net MVC framework:
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Upload...rticleID=02f1c537-5017-41e2-9845-11574f363080

I'm familiar with MVC concept and implemented stuff in java with it but its becoming a huge pain trying to use this tutorial as a basis to build this project. For example I spent a good 2 hours fooling around trying to have a button that inserts an empty row in the datagrid control and still no luck.

So I'm hoping lightswitch or that RIA services provides a more straight forward implementation process.
 
the lightswitch looks promising but from what I see so far, the customization options are very limited beyond the default templates. I was able to very easily create a CRUD grid with it but now I have to figure out how to add additional requirements. I'll keep researching if all the requirements for my project are feasible with it.
 
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