I'm working on an internal company website. Standard operation - search for an item, from a list, select one item.
After clicking on an item in the list, should the next page be a webform with text boxes and other form controls to allow me to edit the entity or should it be a summary of the details? For a summary I would then select an action to edit (maybe a button) to proceed to an edit screen and then amend the entity details and save?
This is dependent on how your users will interact with the app. That said, on the "list" page, I typically link the ID of an item to a "view" page, and also include a link (or better, an icon) that navigates to an "edit" page. Upon successful submission, you can then redirect to the view page with the updated values.
This has the advantage of providing a "read-only" set of functionality that you can control with permissions.
I would have both a details page and a edit page. This way way in the future when your client tells you that only admins should be able to edit it's easier to implement ;)
Alternative, if the item dosn't have to much details you could show a ajax popup frame(tooltip) when clicking on the link and an edit linkbutton.
This is more a usability preference and probably wouldn't make have much of a difference between the two other than coding. I always tend to go for the least amount of clicking possible.
If you can afford the screen space I would go for both on one page next to each other. You could have the original on the left for viewing and a form replicated on the right for editing. Then the user can compare both before saving the changes.
If you cant fit them in side by side you can always have them one after the other. Although this would probably result in having to scroll up and down so would affect usability.
You could also have a bit of js to disable the form unless an edit button is clicked. Permissions can be worked in easy enough if its ever required.
Did something similar myself and it worked out really well. I did have the advantage of users with widescreen though!