SharePoint 2010 Development with Silverlight

Preface

IN EARLY VERSIONS OF SHAREPOINT, the developer experience was an afterthought at best. Microsoft finally opened up a supported way for developers to create SharePoint features in 2007. Although the tooling was still primitive, this led to an interest in developing applications on top of SharePoint. These solutions are generally cheaper and faster to build and more flexible for business users because they build on all the capabilities included in SharePoint.

Around the same time, the Internet was offering a richer user experience. Page refreshes became passé in favor of pages that were interactive. This drove a number of client-side technologies for bringing pages to life right within a web page. Silverlight was making a name for itself ...