Microsoft Silverlight 4 and Sharepoint 2010 Integration

Integration is one of the inevitable aspect in software development paradigm as well as in the scope of my regular work. A .NET application needs integration with OLTP, which in turn needs integration with relational data warehouse. SSAS or your cube development tool / technology needs integration with relational data warehouse, Dashboards needs integration with the Cube. Dashboards are deployed in Sharepoint and 2010 is the latest version of the same.

Now the question comes that where does Silverlight 4 fit in the picture and what does it have to do with MS BI. The answer is that Silverlight 4 does not significantly fit in the MS BI picture, but still it does graze the boundary of it. Sharepoint 2010 has got rich support of Silverlight, like Silverlight web part for example. Visio Services also uses Silverlight to show visio diagrams more interactively.

Now this is basically about a book that I have got, and I have presently the task of technically reviewing this book. I would be sharing this review very soon in a couple of days. I have gone thru the TOC, it has got 6 chapters which looks quite interesting to me. My .NET background basically helps me a lot to make sense of each and every chapter. If your job role is just of a developer and your responsibilities involves designing a report or developing a cube or writing stored procs or creating a package, this book is probably not for you. But in case if you intend to architect an end to end solution, silverlight is like garnishing and decorating the dish you are going to serve to your client. And we know that presentation is as important as is preparation, and as Sharepoint houses services like Performancepoint Services, Access Services, Excel Services, and Visio Services, I am sure that with all these dishes in the house, garnishing of Silverlight is a must in sooner or later future.

You can download a sample chapter of this book from here for free. In case if you want to know more about this book, you can check out the details of this book or buy this book, check it out here (from the packt website) where you have a greater probability of hunting some discount deals.

Update

Below is the review of this book:

1) This book would not be much helpful for Sharepoint and Silverlight beginners, but still Silverlight beginners would be comfortable using this book.

2) Book covers most the new ehancements introduced in Sharepoint 2010, where silverlight can play a role.

3) The best use of this book, would be to use it as a cookbook for developing RIA using Silverlight 4 on the Sharepoint 2010 platform.

4) If you have been developing RIAs for quite some time and want to add the Silverlight flavor to it, this book should be the first step in my views.

5) How to use this integration between Silverlight 4 and Sharepoint 2010 at various phases of SDLC is not explained in an elaborate manner.

Overall, in terms of Silverlight 4 and Sharepoint 2010 integration, I rate this book 6 / 10.