views:

227

answers:

3

At my company most inventory tracking is done via an ASP.NET web application. The application is poorly conceived, poorly designed, poorly implemented, and somewhat of a hassle for a user to work with. These are things that are my opinion though and management has its own thoughts on the matter.

Such luxuries as the browser's back button and bookmarking pages are already not an option because of heaps and heaps of ancient Ajax code and now one of my bosses has the idea that he would prefer for the URL bar and browser buttons not to appear at all.

At first I told him that it was impossible but after thinking about it I suppose it could work if you used Javascript to create a fullscreen pop-up and run the application in that.

I personally am against this idea though since I'm the one who would do the work my own subconscious motivations are suspect so I'd like to gather some opinions on running an application in such a manner.

In addition, has anyone had any experience with transferring a regular webapp to such a setup? I'd like to know how much work could be in store for me.

+4  A: 

Next time, for the good of the world, keep these kinds of ideas to yourself. It sounds like your boss is not qualified to make such a call, so make the call for him.

If your boss believes the url bar and browser buttons are not suppose to be there, then convert it to a stand alone app. Don't try to cram it into a web platform if its not suppose to be one.

You know the issues, so fight for what you think is right. Don't implement anything you are not going to be proud of.

Pyrolistical
Sure, but given that you already can't go back, bookmark, etc. its kind of different to come up with any concrete reasons why this would be icky.
George Mauer
I agree with naeblis. Some people don't have the luxury of being able to refuse to write sucky code.
Knobloch
Heh, I can refuse it fine - I'm their only developer, and a difficult SOB. I'm trying to do this thing called modesty that I just read about however. Maybe the things that I think are best are not actually best. I do have pretty strong intuitions about this particular one however.
George Mauer
You can always refuse with your feet.
Pyrolistical
You offering me a job Pyro?
George Mauer
+2  A: 

You may find Prism intresting

Full Screen, no bars, just WebApp

Luis Melgratti
Oh ain't that cute, you think this thing can under anything other than IE. Who do you think we are, Google?Honestly though, if I need to install custom software to a computer to get this to run it sort of defeats the point.
George Mauer
It does and doesn't defeat the purpose actually. While the model for items like Adobe Air and Prism require a runtime to be installed on the clients, it would allow you to address your boss's issues. Though, the model would need to change into static HTML with AJAX calls instead of aspx postbacks.
JamesEggers
A: 

I'd be tempted to simply add a button that allows you to pop out the app, without removing the normal mode.

If necessary, sell it with some waffle about users getting confused or not being able to reopen it or something. Or even pretend its not possible to do it without it.

That goes some way towards user friendliness. Salve your conscience anyway

Colin Pickard