Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET-based media experiences and Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) for the Web.
If you want to learn how Silverlight can fulfill an organization's need for an enterprise-level technology platform for RIAs, you need to understand how Silverlight can be applied in today's business environment rather than simply delving into the syntax and grammar of Silverlight in isolation.
This book is a one-stop guide to understanding Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, and enterprise mobility concepts. You will learn how you can adopt Silverlight in your organization and remain ahead of the competition by developing Silverlight-based simplified, rich, interactive, and loosely coupled RIAs and deploying them as Software as a Service (SaaS) in a secured environment.
I will demonstrate the enterprise capabilities of Silverlight for developing service-oriented RIAs. You will get hands-on experience by developing a Silverlight-based enterprise training portal integrated with WCF, LINQ, and external data sources. The developed RIA also demonstrates how you can utilize advanced features of Silverlight such as Deep Zoom, custom controls, and externalized dynamic user interface definitions. We will explore different deployment options (same-domain vs. cross-domain) to deploy Silverlight-based RIA in a secured, supportable, and maintainable environment.
Finally, I will discuss the future of Silverlight for Mobile and how to plan for its release. You will learn the basics of developing for mobile applications, including coverage of common pitfalls and traps you may encounter, and you will explore the key architectural considerations for developing mobile applications.
This book is for enterprise architects, IT executives, IT professionals, the developer community, technical and project managers, and anyone who wants to start using Silverlight in a corporate environment as well as understand SOA, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, and enterprise mobility concepts.
This book assumes that you are familiar with Silverlight and its syntax, .NET Framework 3.5 components (WPF, XAML, and WCF), C#, ASP.NET, and development tools such as Visual Studio and Expression Blend.
This book is mainly divided into four parts. Part 1, "Exploring Silverlight," details how Silverlight is capable of supporting the Web 2.0 concept through rich, interactive RIAs and builds the foundation for the rest of the chapters by showing you how to develop an example RIA, named My Album. This part contains the following two chapters:
Chapter 1 defines the Web 2.0 concept and discusses the architecture and available technologies for developing advanced RIAs. It also provides a detailed overview on Microsoft's Silverlight technology architecture and the components of Silverlight that allow organizations to develop advanced enterprise RIAs.
Chapter 2 serves as a foundation for the rest of the book. In this chapter, I show you how to develop a quick but sound and attractive Silverlight RIA, the My Album application. In Chapter 5, you see how to extend the architecture of the My Album RIA to develop an enterprise-level training portal RIA.
Part 2, "Enterprise Application Development with Silverlight," is the heart of this book. This part defines Enterprise 2.0 and SOA in the context of Silverlight capabilities and provides hands-on experience by walking you through the development of an enterprise-level, service-oriented, Silverlight-based RIA, the Enterprise Training Portal. This part contains the following four chapters:
Chapter 3 defines the Enterprise 2.0 concept and the key objectives of an enterprise-ready technology platform. Here I also explain what makes Silverlight an enterprise-ready technology platform.
Chapter 4 focuses on defining the SOA concept in detail, which involves the seven key principles—usability, flexibility, simplicity, reusability, scalability, maintainability, and security—of the SOA concept. This chapter also covers Silverlight's enterprise capabilities for integrating with WCF/Web Services and LINQ by developing a sample Silverlight application with dynamic UI creation and dynamic content population.
Chapter 5 provides hands-on experience by showing you how to transform the My Album RIA developed in Chapter 2 into an enterprise-level RIA, the Enterprise Training Portal, utilizing Silverlight and its service-oriented features and capabilities.
Chapter 6 defines the deployment process in general. Here you explore Silverlight deployment features and Silverlight application deployment options/approaches such as Silverlight in-package and on-demand deployment, and same-domain and cross-domain deployment. The chapter also discusses embedding the Silverlight plug-in into a web page, custom error handling, and Silverlight support for globalization and localization features.
Part 3, "Silverlight for Mobile," takes a look at the future of Silverlight for Mobile with the following chapter:
Chapter 7 explains enterprise mobility and its key components so you can understand the role of mobile applications in Enterprise 2.0. Here I outline the basics of developing enterprise-level mobile applications, main architecture components, key design considerations, and different data synchronization models for mobile applications. This chapter also provides the latest updates on Silverlight for Mobile and potential capabilities of Silverlight for developing RIAs for the mobile platform.
Part 4, "Final Words," wraps up the book with one last chapter, which provides practical advice on how to adopt Silverlight in your organization.
Chapter 8 discusses current challenges posed by Silverlight and key considerations and practical advice for organizations deciding whether to adopt Silverlight as part of their technology and product roadmaps.
The design theory and Silverlight enterprise capabilities I discuss apply to Silverlight 2 and future versions (Silverlight 3 is planned for release later in 2009).
I developed the example Silverlight RIAs in this book with the following tools, which you may want to use as you follow along:
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
Microsoft Silverlight 2
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1
Microsoft Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1
Microsoft Expression Blend 2 SP1
Microsoft Expression Encoder 2 SP1
Microsoft Deep Zoom Composer
The source code for this book is available to readers at www.apress.com by clicking the Source Code link on this book's details page. Please feel free to visit the Apress web site and download all the code there. You can also check for errata and find related titles from Apress.
I really enjoyed writing this book and actually learned a lot. I am sure you will feel the same when you read about the enterprise-level design concepts for Silverlight RIAs presented herein and how to develop enterprise RIAs using Silverlight.
I appreciate your continuous comments and feedback. You can send them to me, as well as any questions, via e-mail at [email protected].
You can also visit my web site, http://www.TechnologyOpinion.com (an enhanced version of the Enterprise Training Portal developed in this book), to access my latest articles, instructor-led onsite training information, and news on different IT areas including Silverlight.