PHP and Silverlight

Who are we?
Maarten Balliauw – RealDolmen
E-mail: maarten.balliauw@realdolmen.com
Blog: http://blog.maartenballiauw.be
Twitter: http://twitter.com/maartenballiauw
Kevin Dockx – RealDolmen
E-mail:kevin.dockx@realdolmen.com
Blog: http://kevindockx.blogspot.com
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/kevindockx

Agenda
What is Silverlight?
WhySilverlight?
WhySilverlight and PHP?
Building anapplicationusingboth
More onSilverlight
Q&A

RichApplications are the future, today
AdobeFlex
Microsoft Silverlight
Silverlight
“A frameworkforprovidingrichapplications to the browser”
“A cross-browser, cross-platformimplementation of the .NET Frameworkfor building and delivering the nextgeneration of Rich Internet Applicationsfor the web”

4-5 MB plugin
Download once, distributedthrough Windows Update
Alsoavailableon Linux (Moonlight) and Mac
Runs in browser, on the client
Internet Explorer
Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome
Subset of the full .NET Framework
Originatedfrom Windows Presentation Foundation
Rich UI: XAML / .NET code: C# - VB.NET

WhySilverlight?
HTML / PHP / ASPX / AJAX
Best days are over…
Extending HTML (CSS 3, AJAX, …)
“like putting lipstick on a pig”
Silverlight
Stateful model
.NET Framework
UI Capabilities
Cross-platform

Why Silverlight and PHP?
Best of bothworlds?
PHP
Rapidapplicationprogramming
Ideal as back-endusing JSON or SOAP
Re-useyourexisting PHP logic
Silverlight
Rapid user interface development
Createrich interfaces using a richframework

Programming Silverlight
XAML
“an XML file thatdefines user interfaces”
Tool: ExpressionBlend (orEclipse)
.NET
Richframeworkofferingendlesspossibilities
Tool: Microsoft Visual Studio (2008, .NET 3.5, SP1) (orEclipse)
PHP
i.e. Zend Framework
Tool: Zend Studio (orEclipse PDT)
 Strong separation of UI design & logic

GettingStarted
Visual Studio 2008 SP1
Silverlight Tools for VS2008 SP1
VS2008 Updates
Project Templates
Runtime
SDK
ExpressionBlend 2.0 SP1
Possibility: Eclipse4SL - http://www.eclipse4sl.org/
Use Web Platform Installer (www.microsoft.com/web)

Underactivedevelopment (ongoing)
Catching up Visual Studio 2008 Silverlighteditingpossibilities
Butjustlike VS2008: stillnot the rich designer thatExpressionBlend is…
Currently Win & Mac
V1.0 releasedtoday! Includes full SL debugging.
http://www.eclipse4sl.org

Why Eclipse4SL?
AllowsEclipsedevelopers to buildRIA withSilverlight
AllowsCollaborationbetween
Web Designers
.NET Developers
EclipseDevelopers(Java, PHP, ..)
Eclipse Developer
Common Project System
.NET Developer
Web Designer

DEMO
Editing a Silverlightsolution

Whataboutmy data?
Silverlight does notinclude data namespaces (clienttech)!
For most apps, thisforcesyou to use a Service OrientedArchitecture

Communicating with data services
Silverlightincludes support for
WebClient, WebHttpRequest-classes
REST, JSON, SOAP, …
Windows Communication Foundation
… almostany kind of service canbeaccessed
Preferredway to communicate: through WCF
BasicHttpBinding (BinaryEncoding)

Zend Framework SOAP
What you would expect…

Zend Framework SOAP
Reality…

Zend Framework SOAP
Zend_Soap_AutoDiscover
Generates valid SOAP 1.2
Generates almost valid “WS-I Basic Profile 1.1”
SilverlightStrategy to fix this
Zend_Soap_Server
Almost works with WS-I basic Profile 1.1 WSDL
DocumentLiteralProxy to fix this

Communicatingwith SOAP service
CrossDomain.xml / ClientAccessPolicy.xml
Tells SL it/whocanaccess the service
Addreference to generate proxy, and initialize
Addhandler to completedevent
Call service method (Async)

DEMO
BarTender – Communicatingwith service

Keywords when working with data
DataContext
DataBinding
INotifyPropertyChanged/CollectionChanged
ValueConverters

What else is there?
Localization
Isolated Storage

Resources – Silverlight toolkit
Containscontrols, components, utilities to use in SL apps (MS, sourceavailable)
AutoCompleteBox, different Panel controls, UpDowncontrol, Treeview, Expander, …
Charting component
ImplicitStyleManager
Variousthemesincluded
http://www.codeplex.com/Silverlight

Resources
http://silverlight.net/
http://codeplex.com/Silverlight
http://silverlightdragdrop.codeplex.com

Questions, possiblyAnswers
?

Thanksforbeinghere!
http://blog.maartenballiauw.be
http://kevindockx.blogspot.com