Pro Business Applications with Silverlight 4

Silverlight 4 has the potential to revolutionize the way we build business applications. With its flexibility, web deployment, cross-platform capabilities, rich .NET language support on the client, rich user interface control set, small runtime, and more, it comes close to the perfect platform in which to build business applications. It’s a very powerful technology, and despite its youth, it’s moving forward at a rapid pace and is gaining widespread adoption.

This book will guide you through the process of designing and developing enterprise-strength business applications in Silverlight 4 and C#. You will learn how to take advantage of the power of Silverlight to develop rich and robust business applications, from getting started to deployment, and everything in between.

In particular, this book will serve developers who want to learn how to design business applications, and introduce the patterns to use, the issues that you’ll face, and how to resolve them. Chris Anderson, who has been building line-of-business applications for years, demonstrates his experience through a candid presentation of how to tackle real-life issues, rather than just avoid them. Developers will benefit from his hard-won expertise through business application design patterns that he shares throughout the book.

With this book in hand, you will

• Create a fully functional business application in Silverlight
• Discover how to satisfy all of the general requirements that most business applications need
• Develop a business application framework

• How to structure your project to ensure a robust and maintainable application
• How to create user interfaces with XAML and bind controls to data
• How to communicate securely between the server and the client
• How to view and maintain data within a Silverlight user interface
• How to design unique user experiences and use advanced styling techniques
• How to implement standard business application paradigms in Silverlight

This book is for developers experienced in other .NET technologies, such as WinForms or ASP.NET, looking to translate their existing skills to developing business applications with Silverlight. Patterns and methodologies associated with building robust applications will be introduced and are not prerequisite knowledge.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Getting Started with Silverlight
3. An Introduction to XAML
4. The Navigation Framework
5. Exposing Data from the Server: Using WCF RIA Services
6. Implementing Summary Lists
7. Building Data Entry Forms
8. Securing Your Application
9. Styling Your Application
10. Advanced XAML and Data Binding
11. Creating Custom Controls
12. The Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) Design Pattern
13. Printing and Reporting
14. Out of Browser Mode, and Interacting with the Operating System
15. Application Deployment

Silverlight 3 has the potential to revolutionize the way we build business applications. With its flexibility, web deployment, cross-platform capabilities, rich .NET language support on the client, rich user interface control set, small runtime, and more, it comes close to the perfect platform in which to build business applications. It's a very powerful technology, and despite its youth it's moving forward at a rapid pace and is gaining widespread adoption.

Pro Business Applications with Silverlight 3 will guide you through the process of designing and developing enterprise strength business applications in Silverlight 3 and C#. You will learn how to take advantage of the power of Silverlight to develop rich and robust business applications, from getting started through to deployment, and everything in between.

In particular, developers who want to learn how to design business applications, the patterns to use, the issues that they will face, and how to resolve them will be well served with this book. The author, Chris Anderson, who has been building line-of-business applications for years, demonstrates his real-world experience through a candid presentation of the issues faced in real life and how to tackle them, rather than take the easy route and avoid them. Benefit from his hard-won expertise through business application design patterns that he shares throughout the book.

Chris Anderson has been a professional developer for over 10 years now, specializing in building desktop, web, and mobile business applications using Microsoft technologies for industries as wide ranging as accounting, property valuation, mining, the fresh produce industry, pet cremations, logistics, field services, sales, and construction. Now running his own business he has turned to Silverlight as the ideal new technology for developing and deploying business applications. Chris currently resides in Sydney, Australia.