Hello:
We are implementing a work flow system. We would like there to be one
site hosting all the different work flows. Each state in the work flow
is to be associated with a web user control (or something equivalent)
that can be loaded dynamically and displayed. The control will provide
events to allow the host web site to observe user interaction and
eventually transition the work flow to the next state.
We are right now doing some preliminary testing and would like to know
if it is possible to create assemblies with web user controls.
However, it seems that web user controls don't like to be created
outside of the webpage that uses them.
We are wondering if there is another way of getting what we want
without using web user controls. We are trying to avoid working
without a designer. We don't want pure HTML or server controls. We
can't stick the user controls directly in host web site because the
same application may be customized and hosted separately for a large
number of organizations with different needs. We also want the ability
to create new states and user controls without restarting the system.
We are trying to keep things flexible.
We have been thinking about storing an assembly name with each state
in a relational database. The host application, provided the state ID,
will load the state and get the assembly name. The assembly will
implement an interface that provides a method returning a user
control. The user control will implement an interface with events for
observation. All this will be achieved using reflection.
We have thought about using a web service to return the user controls.
However, we have no idea how to do this either.
We're looking for ideas and potential solutions. Thanks for any input.
~Travis