Dynamic form creation in asp.net c#

Question

So, I need some input refactoring an asp.net (c#) application that is basically a framework for creating dynamic forms (any forms). From a high level point of view, there is a t

Answer 1

Since your application seems to have become a big ball of mud, a complete (or an almost complete rewrite) might make sense.

You should also take into account new technologies like document-oriented databases (couchDB, MongoDB)

Most of the form definitions could probably fit pretty well in document-oriented databases. For exemple:

To define a customer form, you could use a document that looks like:

{Type:"FormDefinition",
 EntityType: "Customer",
 Fields: [
   {FieldName:"CustomerName", 
    FieldType:"String", 
    Validations:[
      {ValidationType:"Required"},
      {ValidationType:"StringLength", Minimum:15, Maximum:50},
    ]},
    ...
   {FieldName:"CustomerType", 
    FieldType:"Dropdown", 
    PossibleValues: ["Standard", "Valued", "Gold"],
    DefaultValue: ["Standard"]
    Validations:[
      {ValidationType:"Required"},
      {
        ValidationType:"Custom", 
        ValidationClass:"MySystem.CustomerName.CustomValidations.CustomerStatus"
      }
    ]},
    ...
 ]
};

With this kind of document to define your forms, you could easily add forms and validations which are customer specific.

You could easily add subforms using a fieldtype of SubForm or whatever.

You could define FieldTypes for all common types of fields like e-mail, phone numbers, address, etc.

namespace System.CustomerName.CustomValidations {
  class CustomerStatus: IValidator {

    private FormContext form;
    private List validationErrors;

    CustomerStatus(FormContext fc) {
      this.validationErrors = new List();
      this.form = fc;
    }

    public List Validate() {
      if (this.formContext.Fields["CustomerType"] == "Gold" && Int.Parse(this.form.Fields["OrderCount"]) < 10) { 
        this.validationErrors.Add(new ValidationError("A gold customer must have at least 10 orders"))
      }

      if (this.formContext.Fields["CustomerType"] == "Valued" && Int.Parse(this.form.Fields["OrderCount"]) < 5) { 
        this.validationErrors.Add(new ValidationError("A valued customer must have at least 5 orders"))
      }
      return this.validationErrors;          
    }
  }
}

A record of a document with that definition could look like this:

{Type:"Record",
 EntityType: "Customer",
 Fields: [
   {FieldName:"CustomerName", Value:"ABC Corp.", 
   {FieldName:"CustomerType", Value:"Gold",
   ...
 ]
};

Sure, this solution is a lot of work, but if/when realized it could be really easy to create/update/customize forms.