Techniques, practical tips, hints, and tricks for Silverlight interactions with SharePoint

• Develop Silverlight RIAs that interact with SharePoint 2010 data and services
• Explore the diverse alternatives for hosting a Silverlight RIA in a SharePoint 2010 Page
• Work with the new SharePoint Silverlight Client Object Model to interact with elements in a SharePoint Site
• Use Visual Studio 2010's new features to debug Silverlight RIAs that interact with SharePoint 2010
• Learn to perform CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) operations on SharePoint 2010 lists from Silverlight
• Access and interact with external data sources and WCF Data Services
• Use themes and work with multiple interactive animations and effects to create distinct User eXperiences (UX) in a SharePoint environment
• Develop Silverlight RIAs that interact with SharePoint Visual Web Parts
• A step-by-step, fast-paced book that guides you in implementing Silverlight 4 applications in SharePoint 2010 environments

In Detail

Silverlight is a powerful development platform for creating engaging, interactive user experiences for the Web, desktop, and mobile applications. Integrating Silverlight RIAs in SharePoint 2010 offers amazing opportunities to combine the power and flexibility offered by SharePoint. It is easy to create great user experiences when you have a step-by-step guide to implement Silverlight 4 applications on SharePoint 2010 sites.

This book is not a primer on Silverlight 4 or SharePoint 2010. This book focuses on the integration of Silverlight 4 and SharePoint 2010 and provides step-by-step guidelines for implementing Silverlight RIAs in SharePoint. It is filled with real-world examples that depict the various techniques for interacting with data and services provided by this powerful business collaboration platform, for the enterprise and the Internet. As you sit reading this, you might have already started thinking about the benefits of implementing multiple Silverlight applications in a SharePoint environment. This book will help bring those thoughts to fruition.

This book begins with the fundamental concepts of integrating Silverlight 4 with SharePoint 2010, such as the preparation of the development environment to create applications using Silverlight 4 and the addition of one or more Silverlight RIAs to a SharePoint site. Then, it moves on to the SharePoint Silverlight Client Object Model world, using step-by-step examples to combine a Silverlight application and a SharePoint module. It also covers methods to deploy and debug the Silverlight application while it runs as Silverlight Web Part in a SharePoint page. The book teaches you to take advantage of the new features offered by Visual Studio 2010 to browse SharePoint lists.

Once the reader has control over the SharePoint Silverlight Client Object Model and its asynchronous operations in Silverlight applications, it is time to access external databases through the new Business Connectivity Services (BCS) and interact with workflows. Then, the book explains to perform CRUD operations by consuming the new SharePoint 2010 WCF Data Services in Silverlight. In the end, you'll learn to utilize Silverlight 4's rich media features to add effects and interactive animations to images and videos, thus offering the final touches to the Silverlight 4 and SharePoint 2010 integration learning experience.

By the end of this book, you'll learn to take advantage of the unique features offered by Silverlight in order to create impressive UX that interact with SharePoint 2010.

A hands-on guide packed with real-world examples for integrating your Silverlight 4 applications in a SharePoint 2010 environment.

What you will learn from this book

• Develop and host Silverlight Rich Internet Applications in SharePoint 2010 Pages
• Deploy and debug a Silverlight RIA included in a SharePoint solution by using the new SharePoint deployment features offered by Visual Studio 2010
• Take advantage of Silverlight 4 features to create rich UX for SharePoint solutions
• Work with asynchronous SharePoint requests and queries, and debug their execution
• Retrieve information from SharePoint lists, workflows, and libraries
• Use Silverlight applications to read, insert, update, and delete items from SharePoint 2010 lists and external data sources
• Combine external data sources in SharePoint 2010 and interact with them through Silverlight
• Create Web Parts that host multiple Silverlight applications
• Create Visual Web Parts that render Silverlight applications
• Consume SharePoint 2010 WCF Data Services in Silverlight applications
• Use Silverlight multimedia controls and features to display information to users taking advantage of the processing power offered by their client computers
• Enhance the responsiveness offered by SharePoint 2010 Visual Web Parts by transforming them into Silverlight Rich Internet Applications

Approach

This is a practical book with step-by-step guidelines to integrate Silverlight 4 applications in a SharePoint 2010 Server environment. This book focuses on the integration of the two technologies and is not a primer for any of the individual technologies. It offers clear examples to successfully perform the most important integration tasks.

Who this book is written for

If you are an application developer who wants to implement Silverlight 4 applications within a SharePoint 2010 environment, this book is for you. We assume that the reader has prior knowledge of Silverlight and SharePoint 2010 and this book focuses more on the integration of Silverlight with SharePoint 2010.

Gastón C. Hillar

Gastón C. Hillar has been working with computers since he was eight. He began programming with the legendary Texas TI-99/4A and Commodore 64 home computers in the early 80s.

He has a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science in which he graduated with honors and he also has an MBA (Master in Business Administration) in which he graduated with an outstanding thesis. He has worked as a developer, an architect, and project manager for many companies in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Now, he is an independent IT consultant and a freelance author looking for new adventures around the world. He also works with electronics (he is an electronics technician). He is always researching about new technologies and writing about them. He owns an IT and electronics laboratory with many servers, monitors, and measuring instruments.

He has written two additional books for Packt Publishing, C# 2008 and 2005 Threaded Programming: Beginner's Guide and 3D Game Development with Microsoft Silverlight 3: Beginner's Guide.

He contributes to Dr. Dobb's Go Parallel programming portal ddj.com/go-parallel/ and he is a guest blogger at Intel Software Network software.intel.com/.

In 2009, he was awarded an Intel® Black Belt Software Developer award.

He is the author of more than 40 books in Spanish about computer science, modern hardware, programming, systems development, software architecture, business applications, balanced scorecard applications, IT project management, the Internet, and electronics.

He lives with his wife, Vanesa and his son, Kevin. When not tinkering with computers, he enjoys developing and playing with wireless virtual reality devices and electronics toys with his father, his son, and his nephew Nico.

You can reach him at gastonhillar@hotmail.com.

You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/gastonhillar.

Gastón's blog is at csharpmulticore.blogspot.com.