What are the ways to build an app for Salesforce?

Question

I am looking to implement some customization, calculation, at custom page. And Yes I am new to Sales force , very new.

So I need to know that what are the ways to build an App for SF? ( My custom App will be in AP.NET language)

Also what are the ways to design custom page & internal implementation at Salesforce?

My requirement : Need one custom page, there will be one form & fields where one user will add some info , no of hours for the task etc... and some calculations I need to do at their local while some may be done at custom App, also I need to send the data on submit/save the form.

So what is the best way?

I have made one simple App using ASP.NET web services through generating WSDL & used the service classes I am able to get data But still not sure what need to be done after this???
I know its vast question but I need some summarized steps from where I can get to know the steps & other info that I should know but need to develop it fast , as always !!

Thanks in advance All Tech Leads...

Answer 1

There are two general approaches for integrating an ASP.NET app with Salesforce.

1. Create a Canvas App in Salesforce that will surface your ASP.NET site in an iframe. Salesforce will POST a signed request to your ASP.NET site that you can use to verify the request came from Salesforce and get a valid Session ID for making calls back into Salesforce via the API.
2. Create a Composite App. This is the older version of a Canvas App. Again, your ASP.NET site will appear in an iframe. Here the Salesforce SessionId and orginating Server URL are passed on the query string.

I'd say go with the Canvas App. You can easily play this within a Visualforce page as required.

Incidentally, there is a dedicated StackExchange site for Salesforce questions at salesforce.stackexchange.com.