Bob German - SharePoint 2010 Development with Silverlight

Bob German
Paul Stubbs

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

German, Bob.
Sharepoint 2010 development with Silverlight / Bob German, Paul Stubbs. 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-321-76959-6 (paperwork)
1. Microsoft SharePoint (Electronic resource) 2. Silverlight (Electronic resource) 3. Intranets (Computer networks)
4. Web servers. I. Stubbs, Paul R., 1969- II. Title.
TK5105.875.I6G46 2012
004.36dc23
2011036853

Copyright 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

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ISBN-13: 978-0-321-76959-6
ISBN-10: 0-321-76959-7

Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at Edwards Brothers in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

First printing November 2011

I dedicate this book to my parents, Don German and Joan German-Grapes,
who inspired and encouraged me to write.

Bob

This book is dedicated to my brilliant friends and colleagues in the Share
Point community who inspire and encourage me every day.

Paul

AS MICROSOFT DEVELOPED Silverlight versions 3 and 4, it enabled developers to create compelling business applications that were distributed and run in the browser with a rich, refreshing, and engaging experience. This technology was a natural addition to the SharePoint developers toolbox, as so many companies store business data within intranets and extranets on the SharePoint platform. With the release of SharePoint 2010, Microsoft made it easier to consume and integrate data stored within SharePoint into Silverlight applications with the client object model and a new RESTful service.

While many technologies (such as HTML 5) promise and deliver, to varying degrees of success, the ability to build rich business applications in the browser, Silverlight has a proven and mature track record. It is an obvious choice when building a new business application. SharePoint serves not only as a fantastic delivery mechanism, but the application can also leverage the vast amounts of business data that is stored in corporate SharePoint deployments.

Over the years, Ive been fortunate enough to know and work with both Bob German and Paul Stubbs. Bob and I have worked on other book projects, and Ive worked on numerous development projects with Paul. Both have solid, real-world experience and perspectives on the SharePoint platform and both also spent a considerable amount of time with Silverlight. They have presented many informative and engaging presentations at conferences and user groups, as well as written numerous articles on the subject. Who better to collaborate on the topic!

Most SharePoint development books only touch on the client object model and how to use the Silverlight implementation or the new ListData.svc RESTful service. If you are building a Silverlight business application, you need a good resource from some trusted names to deliver solid guidance on working with both Silverlight and SharePoint together.

The authors break the learning experience into three parts. kicks into high gear, teaching you how to leverage Silverlight to create sophisticated navigation controls, utilize the emerging and ever more important cloud, and even create custom field controls.

I cant imagine two better people to collaborate and deliver a fantastic book on the subject of SharePoint 2010 and Silverlight. Consider this a must-have for your bookshelf...I do!

Andrew Connell
Co-Founder, Developer, Instructor, Speaker
Critical Path Training, LLC
www.CriticalPathTraining.com
August 2011

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 pass 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 wasnt 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.