dynamic column to sql table via .net OR dynamic report field

Scenario: Client maintains financial/compliance record in a spreadsheet for each quarter of the year. Spreadsheet contains columns which are not static, they can change from quarter to quarter and will not be same the next year. They want a portal by which all the regional managers (of stores/franchise) can enter their data and at the end aggregated at the national level.

Issue: As you could have guessed, I want to develop the spreadsheet column into sql table with all the columns, but the issue is that they want to add new columns dynamically (for future quarters) via admin side. Thinking of providing a textbox (columnname), dropdown (sqltypes possible) and add button which will basically add the column. But the columns can grow and that's not the right option, I guess. Other alternative is, instead of adding columns, I开发者_如何转开发 can add it as rows and then use PIVOT to do the sql part.

If anyone of you have developed this kind of application, could you please aware me of any complications before I proceed further with my idea of adding rows instead of columns for adding fields for the reports dynamically. If anyone has got sample example or reference online, please divert me there.

Take a look at Umbraco. It's a cms that puts the concept of PIVOT into practice. (Actually I believe most CMS does).

Actually, I'd go so far as to suggest building that application of yours in Umbraco. You will need to customise it a bit, but you will have quite a bit of heavy lifting already done for you, such as authorisation, membership, and the schema/content mechanism.