Microsoft Silverlight 4 and SharePoint 2010 Integration

Gaston C. Hillar

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781849680066
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Information Technology
• Index: Computer Science

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.

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 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.

Microsoft Silverlight 4 and SharePoint 2010 Integration

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Table of Contents

Microsoft Silverlight 4 and SharePoint 2010 Integration

Credits

About the Author

Acknowledgement

About the Reviewers

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Integrating Silverlight 4 with SharePoint 2010

Understanding the benefits of integrating Silverlight with SharePoint

Creating a SharePoint solution

Preparing the development environment

Setting up the development environment

Discovering the rich controls offered by the Silverlight Toolkit

Browsing themes with sample controls

Preparing the server

Browsing SharePoint Site collections

Creating a Silverlight LOB (Line-of-Business) RIA

Creating rich User eXperiences (UX)

Building a Silverlight 4 RIA

Adding a Silverlight Web Part

Adding a Silverlight RIA as a shared document

Adding a Silverlight Web Part to display a Silverlight RIA

Working with many Silverlight Web Parts in a single page

Understanding client and server code

Summary

2. Deploying and Debugging Techniques for Silverlight and SharePoint

Deploying a Silverlight RIA included in a SharePoint solution

Creating a list of tasks in SharePoint

Browsing SharePoint lists and fields with Visual Studio

Creating a Silverlight RIA to be linked with a SharePoint module

Working with the asynchronous methods and callbacks

Working with the ClientContext object

Linking a SharePoint module to a Silverlight RIA

Understanding the default deployment configuration

Debugging Silverlight and SharePoint

Debugging Silverlight Web Parts

Taking advantage of Visual Studio 2010 multi-monitor support

Understanding 32-bit and 64-bit differences

Understanding scalability

Preparing applications for multiple-browser support

Summary

3. Interacting with Data on the SharePoint Server

Managing data in a Silverlight RIA included in a SharePoint solution

Working with the SharePoint 2010 Silverlight Client Object Model to insert items

Inserting items in a SharePoint list with the Silverlight Web Part

Working with successful and failed asynchronous queries

Retrieving specific information about fields

Creating complex LOB applications composed of multiple Silverlight RIAs

Interacting with multiple Silverlight Web Parts in the same page

Understanding Line-Of-Business systems as independent Web Parts

Expanding LOB systems with delete operations

Understanding how to delete an item from a list

Expanding LOB systems with update operations

Updating an item in a list

Summary

4. Creating Dynamic Business Solutions

Accessing an external database in a Silverlight RIA included in a SharePoint solution

Creating a new database

Creating a new external content type to access data in a SQL Server database

Browsing a SharePoint list with external content and its fields

Interacting with external data sources using the SharePoint 2010 Silverlight Client Object Model

Specifying the fields to include in a CAML query for an external list

Consuming Business Connectivity Services from a Silverlight Web Part

Understanding security issues related to Business Connectivity Services

Impersonating BCS calls

Applying dynamic filters in a CAML query

Running Silverlight RIAs as Out-of-Browser Applications

Interacting with workflows

Attaching a workflow to a list of tasks in SharePoint

Inserting and approving items in a list with an attached workflow

Using a Silverlight RIA to display a SharePoint workflow's status

Understanding workflows' status fields

Summary

5. Working with WCF Data Services

Working with SharePoint 2010 WCF Data Services

Querying SharePoint 2010 lists in a web browser

Working with SharePoint 2010 WCF Data Services to display data from a list

Consuming SharePoint 2010 WCF Data Services from a Silverlight Web Part

Performing CRUD operations with SharePoint 2010 WCF Data Services

Deleting an item from a list with SharePoint 2010 WCF Data Services

Updating an item in a list with SharePoint 2010 WCF Data Services

Working with SharePoint 2010 WCF Data Services to insert items

Using LINQ to objects to perform joins

Debugging HTTP Requests with Fiddler

Analyzing Web Parts with SharePoint Developer Dashboard

Analyzing pages and Web Parts with SharePoint Developer Dashboard

Activating the Developer Dashboard On Demand display mode

Understanding the Developer Dashboard

Deactivating the Developer Dashboard

Summary

6. Interacting with Rich Media and Animations

Bringing life to business applications and complex workflows

Creating asset libraries in SharePoint 2010

Adding content to an assets library

Browsing the structure for SharePoint Asset Libraries

Controlling the rich media library by using controls in a Visual Web Part

Creating a Silverlight RIA rendered in a SharePoint Visual Web Part

Linking a SharePoint Visual Web Part to a Silverlight RIA

Adding a SharePoint Visual Web Part in a Web Page

Organizing controls in a containing box

Reading files from an assets library

Working with interactive animations and effects

Adding and controlling videos

Video formats supported in Silverlight 4

Adding and controlling sounds and music

Audio formats supported in Silverlight 4

Changing themes in Silverlight and SharePoint

Summary

Index

Microsoft Silverlight 4 and SharePoint 2010 Integration

Copyright © 2010 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: July 2...

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• Microsoft Silverlight 4 and SharePoint 2010 Integration