ASP.NET - can i use it to build dynamic Excel forms?
 

hello,

i am on an interesting project. in this project, i have to create
dynamic data-entry forms for offline-users to fill out, save locally,
and eventually postback to our app (when back online). data validation
is required on the form.

i had looked at using PDF-forms for this.. Adobe's "LifeCyle Forms"
would work perfectly. with it one can pass in xml to their webservice &
get back PDF-form binaries. however, Adobe's pricing is simply
unrealistic for any but super-large budgets (got an extra 50k + 20%
annual maintainence for your project? talk to adobe).

so now im back to something low-tech. sure, i could do it w/ .HTML
forms w/ javascript validation, and use javascript to save the
data-entry into a .xml file. however, a two-file solution is not viable
for us.

my next idea is probably better from a user standpoint anyway -- Excel
forms. the user could input into the excel doc, save it, and later
return it to us.

two key questions:

1) can i build dynamic Excel forms w/ an ASP.NET app on a server, and
response them back?
2) if so, can i build them w/ any kind of data validation?


any help would be greatly appreciated!

thanks,
matt