Preface

IN EARLY VERSIONS OF SHAREPOINT, the developer experience was an afterthought at best. Microsoft finally opened up a supported way for developers to create SharePoint features in 2007. Although the tooling was still primitive, this led to an interest in developing applications on top of SharePoint. These solutions are generally cheaper and faster to build and more flexible for business users because they build on all the capabilities included in SharePoint.

Around the same time, the Internet was offering a richer user experience. Page refreshes became passé in favor of pages that were interactive. This drove a number of client-side technologies for bringing pages to life right within a web page. Silverlight was making a name for itself as a very productive way to build compelling business applications that run in a web browser.

The authors both noticed that more and more customers were asking how they could develop rich business applications on SharePoint, the kind of applications that lend themselves to a Silverlight user interface. Paul co-authored a book about SharePoint and Silverlight, which shows how to build solutions using the tools that were available at the time.

The advent of SharePoint 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 changed everything. Suddenly SharePoint wasn’t just allowing applications, but it was encouraging them. Features like sandboxed solutions and client object models enabled a whole new class of light-weight applications. And the tooling in Visual Studio 2010 removed the tedious and arcane aspects of SharePoint development and seamlessly knitted in Silverlight as well.

Bob and Paul started speaking on SharePoint and Silverlight development and developed collections of sample applications. And both wanted someday to write a book (or another book!) on the topic. At one of the conferences after speaking in adjacent rooms, they decided to coauthor this book.

This book is for any .NET, SharePoint, or Silverlight developer who wants to learn how to build a new, richer class of applications. SharePoint provides a data layer, a hosting platform, and a suite of collaboration and publishing features to build on. Silverlight makes the experience richer and easier to use.

Late one night last winter, Bob’s wife Kate wandered into his home office and observed how much time he was putting into this book. “But,” she added, “you seem to be having fun!” It’s true, programming with SharePoint and Silverlight is actually fun!

Whether you read it during your day job or late at night, may this book bring some of that fun to you, too.