BenkoBLOG : Silverlight

SharePoint for Developers Tour Part II

benko — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:03:30 GMT

I’m back in the field for another installment of the SharePoint for Developers Roadshow. Last time we talked about configuring a development workstation, workflow, customizing the master pages and the collaborative features of Windows SharePoint Server 3.0.This time we’ll be taking a look at Web Parts and how they fit into SharePoint. Specifically using them for the Silverlight and SharePoint Story, and then we talk about SharePoint Designer and the Data View Web Part.

SharePoint Designer and the Data Form Web Part

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is a powerful tool for customizing the look and feel of your SharePoint sites. However, did you know that SharePoint Designer can also help you to build interactive dashboards? During this session we look at the magical Data Form Web Part and how you can use it to display SharePoint data in all new ways. We also look at how to display data from external data sources and how to create custom new and edit forms without writing any code.

SharePoint Designer and Silverlight

Rich User Experience is getting easier to create with the release of Silverlight. In this session we show how Silverlight takes advantage of XAML and provides an easy way to build compelling user interfaces. We will demonstrate using Silverlight to allow the developer and designer to collaborate to build exciting new applications and how these new tools can be leveraged within the SharePoint environment. We will cover the basics of Silverlight as well as what configuration steps need to be taken to deploy it.

I know it’s short notice and seating is limited, but if you're interested here are the links to register:

Some links of interest for this session:

DemoFest Build Notes...

benko — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:53:51 GMT

I got some questions about last week's BenkoTIPS webcast - DemoFest, and what you need to do to replicate it. Based on what I did for my version It thought I would share some notes. A couple points to successfully complete the full DemoFest application…(LINQ to Amazon to Silverlight to Web Part to SharePoint)

You’ll need VS 2008 sp1 installed along with the Silverlight Tools on the workstation you’re developing the Silverlight web part on…can be your workstation. Get all of these tools from http://silverlight.net/getstarted
To do the flip animation (can’t remember if we did that version or not) it’s much easier to build in Expression Blend…also available on the get started link
Register for an Amazon Web service key at http://aws.amazon.com
On your MOSS Server you’ll need a few things installed as well including

Same Silverlight tools as on workstation…(VS2008 sp1, Silverlight Tools)…note that I used the express version of Visual Studio on the server…get it from http://msdn.microsoft.com/express
WSS 3.0 sp1 (although sp1 is only because I was running Server 2008)
A site you want to deploy onto …

From Central Admin site create new site on arbitrary port…for example port 88…This creates a site in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\virtualdirectories\88

Upgrade the wss site to .net 3.5 by opening the web site with VWD from the directory (not the web server because VS can’t edit SharePoint sites from IIS)…it should prompt you to upgrade the site to the new framework…say yes
Edit the web.config in the target site to add Silverlight configuration settings (from Patrick Tissighem's post)
Add your web part assembly to the “SafeControls” section of the web.config
Create a directory for holding the Silverlight applications:

c:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\virtualdirectories\88\clientBin

Add “User” to security rights to read this directory…otherwise Silverlight app won’t work
Copy your webpart.dll to the bin directory

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\virtualdirectories\88\bin

Advertise the web part in the web part gallery by going to site settings of the target site and if you’ve got the web config correct you should see it in the list of web parts you can add…check the box and click add
Create a demo page and add your part to it

On the Misc settings for the web part change the source to include a leading \

Source: /clientBin/BookFinder.xap

Refresh the page

That should do it...

Silverprint a webcast on the SharePoint Silverlight Blueprint

benko — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:31:04 GMT

Here's some links from today's webcast...

Notes from what it takes to get the Blueprint working on a typical SharePoint installation

Install the Silverlight 2 add-in
On a server only installation add the Silverlight 2 SDK...
- or - For a developer environment with Visual Studio 2008 install the Silverlight 2 tools
Run GacUtil to install the 'system.web.silverlight.dll' assembly into the global assembly cache

c:\> cd \prog*\*sdk*\sil*\v*\li*\ser*
c:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Silverlight\v2.0\Libraries\Server> gacutil /i system.web.silverlight.dll
Start the Windows SharePoint Administration Service (used by the installers for the BluePrint)
In WSS Central Admin create a site/application and site collection to test the web parts in
Download the package from the Blueprint you're interested in...in our webcast we looked at the code from HelloSilverlight1 and HelloSilverlight2
- To run HelloSilverlight1 simply run the setup in the download
- To run SilverLight2 demos we need to make some changes to the web.config of the target site

Configuration changes to build & run HelloSilverlight2

Open code solution
Edit Install.bat to fix gacutil locations & set correct target site
Modify site web.config to include settings from sample web.config on Patrick Tisseghems post

I'm still working out some of the bugs, but that's where I'm at.

Good luck & hope this helped!

Mike

Video Puzzle Code

benko — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 18:57:46 GMT

When I demo what's possible with Silverlight I like to show a demo of a video puzzle. This is a fun one to do, where the puzzle pieces are animated by a video file while they can be scrambled around the screen. A lot of people have been looking for the code to this, so I've posted it to the downloads section of BenkoTIPS. Feel free to download and explore the code. It is written using Silverlight 1.0 which uses the JavaScript API.

Enjoy!

On the road with LINQ, WCF and Silverlight

benko — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:37:22 GMT

…With a boulder on my shoulder feelin' kinda older I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing the calliope crashed to the ground…

-Bruce Springsteen

This quarter we're back on the road bringing some great technology & tools for building software that takes things to a whole new level. From the data integration capabilities of LINQ to working with the cross-browser presentation experience, you'll find we've got some fun stuff happening at MSDN Events. I will be on the road starting in Madison, then touring the upper Midwest to visit cities like St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Green Bay and more to show what's possible with these new tools.

As part of these events I like to post links to resources on the topics we're talking about. The links for this quarter include:

LINQ

WCF

Silverlight

Enjoy!