Should I use WPF or ASP.NET for my next Web Application development?

Question

We have a web application that has been built using MySQL / PHP / Javascript+JQuery, with server-side HTML generation. The problem is that of the 10 software developers that work for the company, none are PHP experts (we're all .NET / C# developers). I need to make a recommendation to my management team on which technologies to use as the platform for the next generation of web application products.

I want to leverage the .NET / C# expertise which the company has and is otherwise building, and so am inclined to recommend some Microsoft technologies. We don't want a client-side plugin, and we don't need flashy animations/multimedia, so I'm ruling out Silverlight.

Is WPF ready for primetime? Is ASP.NET deprecated by WPF? How do I choose between these two technologies?

Big Question, I know... I can refine it based on your comments if necessary.

Thanks for taking the time.

Answer 1

Contrary to what the answers from Greg and Tyler say, you can use WPF in the browser in the form of a WPF XAML Browser Application. These do have some limitations over regular WPF applications, so may not be the right solution for you.

As for whether you should use ASP.NET or ASP.NET MVC, that requires more info from you as to what you want to do with your web application. If you go with one of these then you may also have to consider which javascript library you are going to use (if any; for example jQuery is very popular).

Alternatively, depending on the complexity of the application or its UI, you shouldn't discount Silverlight simply based on the client side plugin reason - Silverlight is considerably easier to develop complex apps in and ongoing maintenance is easier, so make the decision on the whole picture rather than just part of it.

Answer 2

Your options are using ASP.NET web forms and ASP.NET MVC. WPF does not come into play here, it's for desktop applications. ASP.NET and WPF are completely unrelated.

Either way, you have to use ASP.NET.

Answer 3

I strongly recommend .net MVC with the new view engine called razor. this allows you nice separation of layers and can you leverage a lot of front end technologies like jQuery without all of the heavy controls that webforms brings to the table.

I view WPF a lot like flash and sometimes that is the best way to go but for most web apps I would say should be MVC. You can also find support easily for this either for the entire app or just for certain layers of the app.