we are developing a Silverlight 4.0 (C#, .NET 3.5) application using the MVVM design pattern.
Is it possible to create reports on the client-side with the existing ViewModels or does it have to be done on the server-side? On server-side we only have models and we don't want to copy our business logic to the server. I know ServiceHost is not available in Silverlight and we can't use a WindowsService. Non-free solutions are also welcome.
Thanks in advance
Thomas
It can certainly be done but to what extent you need is slightly up to you. Pete Brown posted an example on creating a simplistic report writer which may suffice based on your needs and is free; allowing you to build on top of the example as needed.
If you moved up to .NET 4 you could leverage the Silverlight Reporting project on codeplex.
telerik also offers a reporting package; however it is not free and requires the full .NET runtime for generation. Don't confuse the .NET runtime as an assumption that it must be server side generation as that is not the case.
Related
Our client has a Desktop application (VBA and Access) that they are using for the past 10 years and it is buggy and they want to upgrade it. I want to use the latest MS technologies and plan to make this a web application using .NET 4.0, C#, SQL server and MVC running on the Intranet.
Since the application has many visual components (about 10 different tabs on top and each tab has atleast 10 different controls on it), I was wondering what is the best way to implement the UI layer a .NET web application. The 2 candidates are Silverlight and Telerik controls (we have license for this).
Some issues to consider :
Silverlight Plug-in : Since this new application will only be used internally on the intranet, I dont think installing a Silverlight plug-in will be an issue. Also, since its on the intranet, hopefully download speed should not be an issue for SL apps.
Telerik-MVC : It is really rich in functionality, however, I played around with it (.NET version not MVC) using some of the controls and if there is anything out of the recommended way to use a control, its a pain to get it working.
Skill-set : Do I want to learn how to use a tool (Telerik) or would I be better off learing a technology (Silverlight) in terms of future projects.
I would like to hear any feedback/ issues to help me decide which way to go.
If you are replacing a desktop application then going with Silverlight may be the best approach.
With Silverlight you are writing an application that happens to be delivered across the internet (well intranet in this case). This can be as stateful as you need to be. You have good access (no pun intended) to the database via the WCF RIA Services.
There's also the Prism MVVM model you can develop on top of.
However, I'd double check with the client as to what they are expecting.
Telerik also do a set of Silverlight controls.
If the project time permits, go for Silverlight. Also, if needed, it's possible to create a desktop version (WPF) out of the Silverlight project.
Issues with Telerik control set(or any control set), if you need a control that doesn't exist in the current set, you'll have to either buy from Telerik, or create your own. In the latter case, the whole UI aesthetics might break because it's not easy to create a control matches the tool set.
I am at the initial stage of designing a client application. However, being new to WPF and having already gained some experience in Win forms development, time pressures on the project means that there is a risk to going down the WPF route. If time were no pressure, then I would say forget forms and design with WPF. However, I am not lucky enough to have this luxury. Having spent a little time investigating the Composite Application Block for Forms, I have decided that I will definitely develop the application within this framework. However, there are 2 versions of the CAB, 1 for WinForms that targets the .Net 2.0 runtime which has now been retired, and then the WPF version which targets .Net 3.5. Not being a fan of 'retired' code libraries, I would prefer to use the WPF version of CAB. This may be a silly question, but is it possible to use the WPF version of CAB for Win forms application developement? I do envisage at some point in the future moving to towards WPF. If I could use the WPF version of CAB I am hoping that this would make it easier to migrate the forms application to WPF.
It looks like somebody had the same idea that you did.
I found it by reading this thread on the CompositeWPF codeplex forum, discussing this very issue.
You should be able to do this without too many issues. We are currently using CAB to enable us to display SQL Reporting Services reports in WPF (along with a couple other items). It's a pretty simple implementation, but our architecture is WPF-based, not WinForms. As far as we've been able to tell, there wouldn't be much of a problem were it the other way around, and displaying both types of forms is done the same way.
I deal mostly with XBAP,
Q1.XBAP normally uses the PresentationHost.exe to get the work done,What does SilverLight use?
Q2.Are there considerable differences in moving from XBAP to SilverLight ? (Experience Based or fact based answers?)
Can somebody give me a rundown?
XBAP is the regular .NET framework exposed (as WPF/XAML) in the browser; Silverlight is a much reduced framework, focusing on things like UI/media/etc. But with the advantage of cross-patform support, and (with the next version) allowing the client to take it out-of-browser.
The XAML is similar, but is not a strict subset/superset; so you can't always translate "as is" in either direction; it will also be easier to go Silverlight-to-WPF/XBAP
With Silverlight 3 on the horizon, I'm not sure I'd bother looking too hard at XBAP myself... if I wanted the full .NET, I'd go WPF/ClickOnce.
And I'm pretty sure Silverlight doesn't use presentation host...
Silverlight 3.0 beta has just been announced at Microsofts Mix Conference in Las Vegas.
Two features of the new beta are 3D-graphics and the ability to run applications outside of the browser, which to me seemed to be two of the major features that WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) previously offered over silverlight.
I am currently evaluating WPF and Silverlight for possible use in our companies future development activity, and this announcement has left me confused as to the intended direction of these two UI technologies and why I would choose one over the other.
Has anyone implemented a new application using WPF recently, and if so, what drove you to that decision? Given the announced changes to silverlight, Would your decision have changed had you made it now, and if not, why?
Any advice would be appreciated.
The biggest difference I find is the asynchronous model you have to adopt
in your Silverlight application.
It does seems like an advantage (and it can be), but it does make
life very difficult sometimes.
There are also some limitations that can be a real challenge like the absence
of print support.
I would recommend Silverlight over WPF when:
- There is no need for best possible performance (graphics included)
- Can get around the absence of print support (it will come, we just don't know when)
- Camera/Microphone support is not needed
- Can tolerate the assync app/development model
- Can tolerate limitations on WCF (no support for WS-Security at this point)
- There is no need to store huge amount of data on the client.
- There is no need to direct integration with client side applications like Office.
- Has a server to host your application
I would say the main difference is that WPF requires the client to have the .Net 3.0+ framework. Silverlight only requires the runtime. Now that being said, WPF is geared more for controlled environments such as an intranet. Silverlight is meant for the public web. Another difference is that Silverlight is cross platform (Windows, Mac, Linux in the future & Cross browser). WPF is meant for Windows only.
The .Net framework can be a huge download for some users. Silverlight is only 4-5MBs. This is a big difference to run your app on the web, but not a big issue if its an internal application at your company.
Silverlight is Sandboxed which is meant for web use. So if your app requires more permissions you will need WPF.
There are also some differences between Silverlight code and WPF. But from what I've heard, the ultimate goal is to get a Silverlight to run inside of WPF with minimal code changes. But they aren't there just yet.
I have just worked on a WPF project that in hindsight we feel we might have chosen SilverLight for. It is probably more important to know the differences and select the one that is most appropriate for what you're doing.
Here's my starter for ten on some of the important differences - there were originally some differences in the available controls, but that has largely been smoothed out now.
Silverlight
Runs entirely on the client with AJAX
calls to the server for data
Can run on any server, including Windows and Linux / Apache
Uses COMPACT .NET framework
WPF
Runs on the client... usually calls services for data
Runs on Windows XP / Vista with .NET 3.5
Utilises the entire .NET framework
Silverlight is basically a stripped down version of WPF in order to make the runtime libary download as small as possible.
As a result, WPF simply has a lot more functionality available in it and tasks that are simple in WPF often become not so simple in Silverlight.
If running as a web app is not a requirement then the decision is a no-brainer - WPF all the way.
Has anyone implemented a new application using WPF recently, and if so, what drove you to that decision: Well since WPF was desktop only (or browser based using XBAPS - but that was more a deployment system than a real system) that was a good reason to it.
"Would your decision have changed had you made it now, and if not, why?" - No Silverlight, even on the desktop in v3, is still highly sandboxed and so certain functions are going to be hard/impossible to do due to the sandbox. Also the ability to use DirectX parts in WPF will still give another optimisation area which Silverlight and it's 3d won't be able to use.
It's worth noting that Silverlight's 3D is not the full 3D support of WPF, but only projection of 2D into 3D - i.e. take the 2D plane and allow rotation in X, Y & Z directions. WPF has full 3D modelling with materials, view ports, lighting and camera positional support etc.
I'm well along in the development of our first WPF app for release. Silverlight 3 looks great, but for this application I would still have chosen WPF. The application centers around presenting and manipulating very large sets of images hosted on a central server on our clients' networks. Additionally, the software update/change rate will be minimal. Mass import of new images from a local drive, no Internet connectivity requirements, performance concerns, etc. make this a project well suited for WPF.
One of our upcoming projects, however, will require many remote users to access a single data store on our network. The data they work with requires significant validation and error handling, so running that code locally is ideal. They will need the ability to work both on and offline and remain in synch (probably with SQL Data Services). SLOOB (Silverlight Out Of the Browser) will most likely be our choice for that one so they can have all the Silverlight advantages but use it like a regularly installed application, even without an Internet connection.
Both formats have their place: the trick will be to avoid using Silverlight for everything - we have more tools than just 1 hammer. :-)
Another difference is that with SL you only have one 'window', you can't have dialogs (they can be simulated but their size is limited to the main window) and you can't add multi monitor support.
If you have to interact with existing business applications (e.g. open a document in the archive viewer) you need to use WPF.
I recently have built several internal tool using wpf, and I chose it simply because It was easier for me coming from win32 work. I don't really think that the differences are major, and really... everything i have seen/heard indicates that porting between wpf and silverlight is quite easy.
Storage: You only have 25MB of isolated storage out-of-browser. If I remember correctly from some mix09 video, this limit is lower if your app is in-browser.
http://bliny.net/blog/post/Out-of-Browser-with-Silverlight-3.aspx
No FlowDocument: So there are limitations there too.
Is it possible to build a good medium to full sized application using just silverlight as a host?
A few things that would be needed:
- dynamic pages (one silverlight "screen" can switch between screens, like a normal app.
- similar to a java applet which launches from the browser
I see that Telerik sells RadControls for WPF...but this is only useful (to me) if Silverlight can be a rich client platform through the web.
Although still a somewhat immature platform, Silverlight 2.0 supports many of the features that I would expect from a platform needed to create full sized applications.
Data access through web services and local data/object query support with Linq
Many feature rich controls such as datagrid, treeview, etc
A very usable subset of the CLR (common language runtime)
Access to restricted local storage on the client machine
It is cross platform
There are already some great add-ons, like Telerik and the Silverlight Control Toolkit
For your specific scenario, Microsoft has published a tutorial on Multi-page Applications
Absolutely. I've been looking into this and believe that it's as easy to do in Silverlight as it is in any other language. Remember that Silverlight 2 uses C# 3.0 and from that you can build anything that's not included in the Silverlight version of the CLR. Also, the fact that Microsoft gives you access to the .NET source code means that you can compile the missing parts of the .NET libraries with your application. (No idea about the licensing issues with that though.)
I've seen a presentation of a full featured CRM application two days ago. Although it's still alpha: It looks and feels like any office application. I don't know details but for me it's a proof of concept.