Architecting RIAs with Silverlight

Architecting

RIAwith

Contact

Josh HolmesUX Architect Evangelistjosh.holmes@microsoft.comjoshholmes.com

What is

by Kushal Das

Is it…Rural Inoculation Association?Rare Isotope Accelerator?Royal Institute of ActingRampantly Inept Alien?Royally Idiotic Annoyance?Really Inane Acronym?Rich Internet Application?

What is a Rich Internet Application?

RIA for me is all about expanding the experience for the user. Those "gray beards" amongst us remember the old days of just being happy seeing plain, static text show up in the browser. We've come a long way since then. While dynamic web sites have pushed us way beyond the simple pages of the old days, RIA is helping us now provide the same level of dynamic interaction on the client side as well. I think this is wonderful as it improves the entire process (server and client)!

While we have a great opportunity here to help users, the challenge is to not actually make things more difficult. Like any new feature, the web is rife with examples of poorly designed and hard to use applications. It is not enough to learn how to make HTTP requests and change content dynamically, but rather how to do it well in ways that help the user and not scare them off.

Raymond Camdenhttp://www.insideria.com/2008/01/what-is-ria-

1.html

But the term still begs the question: Rich in what sense? Responsiveness, immediacy, convenience? production values, chrome, animation?

http://www.insideria.com/2008/01/what-is-ria-1.html

Christian Crumlish

Rich Internet applications (RIA) are web applications that have the features and functionality of traditional desktop applications. RIAs typically transfer the processing necessary for the user interface to the web client but keep the bulk of the data (i.e., maintaining the state of the program, the data, etc.) back on the application server.

RIAs typically:•run in a web browser, or do not require software installation•run locally in a secure environment called a sandbox

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Internet_application

Back Button and Refresh Visual VocabularyState management

Browser Sandbox Business Logic in UI

Component Level Logic

Animation

new for Desktop Developers

new for Web Developer

What’s different with RIA?

Limited Runtime

Service Orientation

Non-text based layoutHype

Ubiquity Richness Next Generation

SharePoint ASP.NET+AJAX Gadgets Silverlight Infopath OBA Winforms WPF XNA

Ubiquity Richness Next Generation

cross-browser, cross-platform, cross-device

for building and delivering the next generation of

.NET basedmedia experiences and rich interactive applications

for the Web

Legend

V2Legend

V1.0

CLR Execution Engine

Framework

HTML DOMIntegration

XAML

Networking

JSONREST POXRSS

DataLIN QXLINQ

DLRRubyPython

WPFExtensible

ControlsBCL

Generics Collections

InputsKeyboard

Mouse InkMedia

VC1 WMA MP3

Browser Host

IntegratedNetworking

Stack

Installer

ApplicationServices

MS AJAXLibrary

UI Core

Vector TextAnimation

Images

DRM

MediaControls

Layout Editing

Whether you are designing rich standards-based websites, ultimate experiences on the desktop, or managing digital assets and content, Expression professional design tools give you the flexibility and freedom to bring your vision to reality.

The professional

Webdesign tool

The professional Interactive design tool

The professional

Media Encoding tool

The professionalAsset

Managementtool

2

+ Silverlight tools for Visual Studio

Usable Useful

Adaptive

Reliable Cost-effective

Desirable

User NeedsInteraction DesignInformation DesignVisual Design

Experiences that create value!

++

+

Taliesin West: Drafting Studio

MVP Pattern View is more loosely

coupled to the model Easier to unit test Usually view to

presenter map one to one

Complex views may have multi presenters 

MVC Pattern Controller are

based on behaviors and can be shared across views

Can be responsible for determining which view to display (Front Controller Pattern)

• Uses tiled image pyramids

• The overhead of pyramids is 33%:

• Preprocessing tool breaks image into 256 x 256 tiles

• Then generates pyramids of tiles at lower resolutions

• When the image is displayed on the client the lowest resolution tiles are shown first

• Then as the higher quality tiles are downloaded, they are smoothly blended in

• When the image is displayed on the client the lowest resolution tiles are shown first

• Then as the higher quality tiles are downloaded, they are smoothly blended in

• When the image is displayed on the client the lowest resolution tiles are shown first

• Then as the higher quality tiles are downloaded, they are smoothly blended in

..but don’t forget the power users

70 20 10

with usability

• Cookies are on a domain level• bar.com cannot access foo.com cookies…• Same domain - http://foo.com  is different

than http://bar.foo.com or http://www.foo.com • Same protocol - http://foo.com is different

than https://foo.com • Same port - http://foo.com is

different than http://foo.com:8080

• foo.com should feel securestoring user data in cookies

• Prevent cross-site forgery• Exploits a sites trust for a user

• “Private” services (for your own app)• DO use browser-based authentication • Cookies, HTTP Auth, etc. • DO NOT enable public access via cross-domain policy file

• “Public” services (for 3rd-party apps)• DO NOT use browser-based authentication • DO publish cross-domain policy files • DO use “cross-domain-safe” authentication • E.g. URL signatures

• DO separate public services in their own domain• E.g. api.flickr.com vs. www.flickr.com

1.0 minimal Accessibility support We only provide some root “alt” information No focus and keyboard support

2.0 Accessibility greatly improved Full keyboard support Decorate XAML UI elements with Accessibility info Add accessibility to custom controls Accessibility reader support (AT) Accessibility tree exposition for UIA

Note - UIA on Windows, OS X does not support accessible plug-ins

by Caution Mike

private void Application_Startup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e){string startPageParameter = "/StartPage"; if (!e.InitParams.ContainsKey(startPageParameter)) { this.RootVisual = new DefaultStartPage(); } else { switch (e.InitParams[startPageParameter]) { case "DefaultStartPage": this.RootVisual = new DefaultStartPage(); break; case "NonDefaultStartPage": this.RootVisual = new NonDefaultStartPage(); break; default: throw new Exception(

"/StartPage must be 'DefaultStartPage' or 'NonDefaultStartPage'."); } }}

by billaday

by joeltelling

by mikeyexists

Who is using Silverlight now?

France Internet Marketing

Japan Great UX

Rich Internet Applications are meant to enhance user experience

Architecture of the client matters Use good development practices Leverage the framework Build for the user Don’t get religious

Take-aways

http://silverlight.net/getstarted http://www.joshholmes.com

Take the Next Step

Architecting

RIAwith

Contact

Josh HolmesUX Architect Evangelistjosh.holmes@microsoft.comjoshholmes.com