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Using Silverlight for Conservation

Al Pascual

Redlands, CaliforniaMarch 8th – 9th, 2010

Web Mapping for Conservation Organizations Workshop

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Web Mapping for Conservation Organizations Workshop 2

What Is Silverlight?

• Browser plug-in for creating rich interactive web applications.

• .NET-based API (subset of full .NET framework)• XAML-based UI (mostly compatible subset of WPF)• Microsoft’s response to Adobe Flex• Available on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux• Microsoft fully supported framework for Rich Internet

Applications.

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Why Silverlight

• Many of the same advantages as Flex– Stateless. No server-side session means less burden on server.– Client-side power means fewer server roundtrips, better scalability.– Rich Internet Application (RIA) experience with high-performance

graphics and multimedia.• For organizations with existing .NET skills it is the natural choice.• Full integration with the Microsoft stack: Visual Studio 2008 for

development, SharePoint web-part, ESRI MapIt for fast and simple integration with SQL Server 2008.

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Why not Silverlight

5Web Mapping for Conservation Organizations Workshop

Getting started with Silverlight 3.0

• Free Tools–Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with SP1

• Professional Tools–Visual Studio 2008 SP1

orMicrosoft Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9442B0F2-7465-417A-88F3-5E7B5409E9DD&displaylang=en

–Optional (but recommended!)• Silverlight Toolkit

http://www.codeplex.com/silverlight

• Microsoft Expression Blend 3

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Features of the API

• Custom GIS Tools(OPEN Source repository at) http://esrisilverlight.codeplex.com/

– Bookmark– FeatureDataGrid– Magnifyer– MagnifyingGlass– MapProgressBar– MapTip– Navigation– OverviewMap– Toolbar

• Out of the boxTask– Find– Identify– Query– Address Locator– Geoprocessing– Routing

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• Demos

http://serverapps.esri.com/silverlightdemos/showcase/

http://maps.esri.com/Police/Default.aspx

http://serverapps.esri.com/SilverlightDemos/PrintMapApplication.Web/

Twitter Demo

How to share geographic information?

• Simple RSS with geographic information–Points–Lines–Polygons

• Real time against KML and Shapefiles• GeoRSS is like RSS sorted by time.• GeoAtom?• GeoRSS: georss.org

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What’s the benefits of GeoRSS?

• XML Based• You don’t need to download a complete file before using it?• Time aware• No programming tools required to generate GeoRSS using open

source tools:– http://orchard.codeplex.com/– http://graffiticms.codeplex.com/

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Creating GeoRSS content.

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Let’s create an application!

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<esri:Map x:Name="MyMap" ><esri:ArcGISTiledMapServiceLayerID="StreetMapLayer" Url="http://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/ESRI_StreetMap_World_2D/MapServer"/> </esri:Map>

GeoRSS sample and code

• http://alpserver/georss/index.html

• Open project:– C:\Projects\GeoRSSSilverlight

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Where to go from here?

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Microsoft Silverlight Program Manager Tim Heuer has 7 part series of blog posts on Getting Started with Silverlight development:

http://timheuer.com/blog/articles/getting-started-with-silverlight-development.aspx

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.WCF RIA Services Application Pattern

• Simplifies the traditional n-tier application pattern by bringing together the ASP.NET and Silverlight 3 platforms

• Provides a pattern to write application logic that runs on the mid-tier and controls access to data

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Thank you

• apascual@esri.com• ESRI Professional Services

Questions?

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• Silverlight code is packaged in XAP file• You publish a XAP file + web page referencing the XAP from an

HTML object tag (generated by visual studio / blend)

• Web server must support MIME type– IIS 7 yes– IIS 6 no – setup manually

application/x-silverlight-app

<object data="data:application/x-silverlight," type="application/x-silverlight-2" …<param name="source" value="myapp.xap"/>….</object>

Deploying Silverlight Applications

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BrowserXAP

HTML

Web Server

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Routing

Analyze

Tasks

Geoprocessing

Editing

Publishing Presentation

Sharing

Consuming

Navigation

Geometry

Symbolyzing

Geolocation

Geotagging

Locator