Fastest way to develop data entry screens for a .NET backend?

Question

I am a .NET / C# back end guy. I am working on a app that will have about 200 different data entry screens. For me exposing DTO as a collection for CRUD (IUpdatable and IQueryable) is the easy part, I can do it in my sleep :-).

What I am trying to decide is what type of front end technology will allow me to develop these data entry screens fast. They don't have to be fancy but they are not just plain grid either and on average they have about 15 form fields and some client side data validation (no db look up)

Options I am looking at are

1. Use ExtJS on the front and REST / JSON on the back.

2. ASP.NET RIA but I do not know SL (Well XAML)

3. Plain ASP.NET / MVC

One idea I had was the DTO will contain the meta data about the form (As Attributes) and the form can be dynamically generated, but I do not want to reinvent the wheel if there is an easier way.

I have looked at RAD software but all of them look at the DB and generate screens. I'd rather want something that can look at my DTO and generate screens.

Jay

Answer 1

Try asp.net dynamic data, we used it for a quick and dirty project and it worked well. You can do a simple functional app in a matter of hours.