Build vs. Buy and Asp.net Server Controls
Sunday, July 17th, 2005I’ve done three projects within the past couple of years where I have built the same server components for asp.net-based applications. It seems like everyone is using custom phone controls, date controls, calendar controls, credit card controls, zip code controls, etc. It’s always the same thing over and over.
Every time that I’ve done this, I’ve always felt that it wasn’t worth the effort. The requirements always change for the interaction of these controls and when you look at the final price of the man-hours to build these things it ends up being ridiculous. When you look at it on the surface, these are simple things. For some reason, it just always seems to take forever to get these things built and tested.
Here’s my advice… don’t build them if you can avoid it. Take a look at the controls that are for sale and evaluate them first. These are common problems with common solutions and there is no reason to re-invent the wheel over and over. If anyone has any control recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments. I’ve never seen a really good control comparison for what is out there, but if you know of one then I’d love to see it.
