Sharepoint 2010 Development With Silverlight

With SharePoint 2010, developers can create richer, more compelling, and more efficient user interfaces than ever before. This book teaches experienced ASP.NET developers how to build them with Silverlight 5 - the easiest, cleanest way to get the job done. Utilizing fully explained code listings, two Microsoft insiders teach everything developers they need to know. They teach key concepts through the creation of useful working solutions, and present code that teaches superior design as well as efficient programming. You can start from the beginning if you're new to both SharePoint and Silverlight, or skip the first few chapters if you're already familiar with developing for either or both of them. After explaining the tight integration between SharePoint 2010 and Silverlight 5, the authors show how to use Silverlight to overcome key limitations of "sandboxing"; design more secure, scalable SharePoint solutions; and choose the right approaches to accessing data from Silverlight. A complete "Building Solutions" section offers cookbook solutions for these and other advanced tasks: * Building out-of-browser applications * Supporting webcams * Constructing geocoding and mapping applications * Creating mashups to combine data from multiple sources * Integrating with Search, Excel Services, and Visio Services

Bob German, Technology Architect at the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) in Waltham, MA, has developed for SharePoint since it was called Site Server 3.0 in the late 1990s. At the MTC, Bob helps customers strategize and create SharePoint solutions that fit their business and technology needs. His blog can be found at blogs.msdn.com/BobGerman.

 

Paul Stubbs, Microsoft’s Senior Technical Evangelist for SharePoint, is active in the SharePoint, Office, and Silverlight development communities. He often speaks at Microsoft events, such as TechEd, PDC, and SharePoint Conference, and is a regular presenter at DevConnections. His blog on advanced SharePoint development topics can be found at blogs.msdn.com/pstubbs.

Foreword xvii

Preface xix

PART I Getting Started 1

1 Getting Started with SharePoint and Silverlight 3

Why SharePoint? 4

Why Silverlight? 6

Why SharePoint and Silverlight Together? 9

Who Should Read This Book 11

How to Use This Book 11

Creating a Development Environment 13

Summary 26

2 Introduction to SharePoint Development 27

Understanding SharePoint Content 28

Building a Web Part 33

Lists and Libraries 43

Accessing Lists and Libraries with the SharePoint Server API 51

Updating List Data with the SharePoint API 59

LINQ to SharePoint 60

Web Parts as Composite Controls 63

Event Receivers 67

Solutions and Features 69

Feature Receivers 75

Summary 77

3 Introduction to Silverlight Development 79

Placing Silverlight on a Web Page 80

Building a Simple Silverlight Application with Visual Studio 2010 82

Toolbox and Layout Controls 87

Setting Control Properties 92

Creating and Showing Child Windows 93

Advanced Features of .NET in Silverlight 97

Networking and Web Services in Silverlight 104

Asynchronous Response Handling 106

Introducing Silverlight 5 108

Summary 109

PART II SharePoint and Silverlight Development 111

4 A First Look at Silverlight in SharePoint 113

Create Content 114

Media Web Part 121

Media Field Control 127

Organizational Chart 128

Workflow Visualization 130

Silverlight Web Part 133

Other Hosting Options 138

IFrame 144

Summary 147

5 Web Part Development 151

Silverlight Web Parts 151

Manually Building a Silverlight Web Part 152

Visual Studio Silverlight Web Parts Extension 156

Building a Silverlight Web Part 159

Building a Custom Silverlight Web Part 166

Connecting Web Parts 172

Summary 182

6 Expression Blend, Data Binding, and Sample Data 183

Behaviors 184

SketchFlow 197

Design with Data 213

Summary 221

7 Accessing SharePoint Using the HTML Bridge 223

Passing Data to Silverlight with the HTML Bridge 223

Passing Data on the Web Page 226

Passing SharePoint Library Content to Silverlight 231

Introducing the Visual State Manager 240

Displaying and Caching Images 243

Full Screen and Printing in Silverlight 246

Web Part Editing and Posting Back with the Web Page 247

Calling SharePoint Javascript and JQuery from Silverlight 253

Summary 259

8 Accessing SharePoint Data with the Client Object Model 261

Client Object Model Goals 261

Hello World 262

Client Context 266

Load and LoadQuery 268

Object Model 270

Retrieving List Data 271

Updating List Data 274

Deleting List Data 275

Creating List Data 276

Paging 277

Document Upload 282

Creating Ribbon Custom Actions 283

Server Side Exception Handling 285

Deployment and Redistribution 287

Summary 289

9 Accessing SharePoint Data with WCF Data Services 291

REST and the Open Data Protocol 292

Getting Started with WCF Data Services 293

Binding to a SharePoint List Using WCF Data Services 296

Updating SharePoint Data 304

Paging through Large Data Sets 306

Caching Paged Data 310

Filtering and Sorting the Data 312

Using Silverlight 5 to Bind Style Setters 315

Summary 317

10 Accessing SharePoint with Web Services 319

Web Services in SharePoint 320

The SearchView Web Part Sample Solution 322

Accessing Enterprise Search 339

Accessing Social Data 354

Updating SearchView for Silverlight 5 361

Building Custom WCF Services for SharePoint 366

Summary 373

11 Accessing External Data 375

Building a Feed Reader Web Part 379

Building a Custom Feed Reader Proxy 386

Adding Cross-Domain Policy to SharePoint 390

Using Business Connectivity Services from Silverlight 392

Adding a Web Browser Preview with Silverlight 5 409

Summary 414

PART III Building Solutions 415

12 Windows Phone 7 SharePoint Applications 417

Office Hub 417

Development Framework 419

Development Tools 420

Connecting to SharePoint 425

Databinding to the Task List 435

Development Environment 438

Publishing an Application 443

Summary 445

13 Creating Silverlight Navigation 447

Out-of-the-Box Navigation 447

Site Map Providers 453

Building a Site Map Provider 455

Building a Navigation Web Part 461

Building a Navigation Control 471

Rendering a Navigation Control on a SharePoint Master Page 472

Summary 475

14 SharePoint and Silverlight in the Cloud 477

SharePoint Online Sandboxed Solutions, Development Environment, and Deployment 479

Web Services in SharePoint Online 484

SharePoint Online Debugging 485

SharePoint Online API “Additional” Restrictions for Sandboxed Solutions 486

SharePoint Online Silverlight “Client Side Object Model” Data Project 488

SharePoint Online Silverlight REST Data Project 497

SharePoint Online Azure Project 502

Summary 520

15 Creating a Silverlight Field Control 521

Defining the Bing Maps Field Type 523

Building a Silverlight Field Control 526

Serializing a Bing Maps Location 534

Getting Started with Bing Maps 536

Displaying and Editing Maps in Silverlight 540

Using the Location Field 549

Field Controls and Publishing Sites 553

Defining a Bing Maps Column and Content Type 555

Defining a Page Layout 558

Using the Location Field in a Publishing Site 563

Summary 565

Index 567