views:

212

answers:

4

I'm currently working for a small .net shop, we mainly create web applications for mid-sized companies, sometimes desktop applications and other custom solutions. We are part of a mid-sized advertisement agency.

We now have a request for a quote for a larger project, segmented into 3 sub-projects.

Below I paraphrase some of the demands, if you want to skip them, please do, and jump right to my question below.

The first part would be the company's main website, a complete redesign, and different specialized modules for their needs.

The second part is an online catalogue. We have to write custom import modules for their product definitions, which are available in xml, offer an online based administration system for said articles; we have to implement the usual mumbo jumbo (they have to be able to define related articles, optional articles, grouping articles into article packs, additional information and media links). There are extended options for distribution partners, we also have to offer a cart-based system which allows the users to either let them generate pdfs (either individual files or collected in one single pdf based on the user choice) for the articles, of course the pdf templates have to be changeable through the online administration. We also have to allow them to trigger a request for more information based on the content of the cart.

The distribution partners are also administrated online. Available articles etc. can be assigned to regions and distribution partner etc. The distribution partners need to be able to define custom 'appearance' settings (logo, css values). We have to create a JavaScript API that allows distribution partners to include the articles available to them on their website, with custom skinning thanks to the parameters. The PDF export functionality will have to be skinned appropriately.

In a third phase we have to create a distribution partner portal. This portal provides additional information for the distribution partners (mostly in the forms of uploadable documents). In the backend, the administrators should be able to assign these documents to different groups of distribution partners, and to different articles from the online catalogue. There needs to be a shop system where the partners can order these documents, and there needs to be a notification system (e-mail) that informs partners when a new document is available to them. There also needs to be a calendar, event & booking management system where distribution partners are informed of upcoming events, and where they can sign up for them, and even request a hotel reservation. Of course all this information has to be easily set up in the administration area.

Of course this goes much more in depth in reality, this is a rough rundown of it.

Now, my question (thanks if you actually read all of that :))

Are there any integrated 'enterprise' (I hate that word) solutions on the .net platform that already have a lot of these functional requirements built in? I'm not really afraid of using our main CMS, extending it with modules and writing custom applications for all these demands, with the help of external libraries, wcf, etc. I've worked on such projects before, we often wrote custom solutions. This is, however, a smaller shop, so manpower is restricted, and the project is on a really tight schedule.

But if there's a solid server solution that will help us in the process, or something similar (and please for the love of god, not sharepoint) I'm interested in it.

How would you tackle such a project?

edit2

I settled with DevExpress Reports for PDF creation... thanks for your input

A: 

Have you taken a look at Joomla? I know it's not .net but it might be just what you're after. I haven't delved into it too much as it didn't fit my needs but sounds like it might be just what you're after.

MrWiggles
Yes, I know Joomla. We already have a CMS. And we use .net. Thanks for the suggestion tho.
kitsune
Also, Joomla is absolutely full of security holes. A company I worked for once used it on a production site and, even with all relevant security fixes and patches continually updated, left a gaping security hole that was exploited time, and time again. Terrible piece of software.
James Burgess
Good to know James, thanks for that
MrWiggles
A: 

I'm especially interested in pdf creation tools

kitsune
+1  A: 

Sorry I can't help with the whole 'enterprise solution' side, but I can recommend Nixps as a product to generate PDFs... it can turn XPS into PDF (great from .NET 3.0/3.5 as you can get almost anything you can design in Xaml output as XPS). If the PDFs you want to generate are graphic-heavy/freeform then it's definitely worth a look (sorry it's not free though). I am not associated with the company - we are a happy customer of theirs.

Also, RDL Project is a cool implementation of the 'Report Definition Language' - which can output PDFs. If the PDFs you want to generate are tabular/report-like then give this a try (it's free when crediting the authors). Help to implement available at CodeProject.

Of course, Adobe sells a product 'LiveCycle' which includes a PDFGenerator component (a 'server side' version of Acrobat...) however it's hobbled in some ways (they purposefully removed XPS conversion, even though desktop Acrobat can read/convert XPS) so I can't really recommend that as a good solution.

CraigD
A: 

For PDF generation I highly recommend JasperServer which can be used from any environment via HTTP requests. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/458340/is-there-a-better-layout-language-than-html-for-printing for details.

mdorseif