Silverlight is primarily known as a technology for displaying animations, audio and video within a browser-independent environment. The fact that Silverlight also constitutes an excellent platform for the development of business software is demonstrated by IQuality’s Line-of-Business (LOB) Application developed for Safe Concept. It is one of the first applications developed in the Netherlands using Silverlight 3.0.
Safe Concept
The Safe Concept web application is designed to assist small independents in the building industry in managing their customers, preparing estimates, developing proposals, negotiating, planning and executing contracts and preparing invoices. The application is accessible anywhere, easily and rapidly via an internet connection. Companies can subscribe to Safe Concept and choose from among different modules and bundles. Each subscriber is given access to his/her own business administration that includes product and price lists that are already specifically populated for the sector in which he/she operates.
Safe Concept chose IQuality as a conceptually collaborative and innovative development partner. IQuality made use of Silverlight’s RIA Services to level the natural barrier between Browser and Web Server and to seamlessly integrate Save Concept on both sides. User data is presented with the help of Telerik RadControls. With its delivery of the Safe Concept web application, IQuality demonstrates that Silverlight 3.0 is a serious platform for developing LOB applications, while at the same time profiting from Silverlight’s media strengths.
Watch the demo at
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Relevant websites:
Technical Report
(Silverlight 3.0 – Telerik RadControls – RIA Services – LINQ)
Data Management
The ADO NET Entity Framework (EF) was selected for retrieving/storing data from/to the database. A conceptual data model is defined within the EF (.edmx) that contains a representation of the tables in the SQL Server database. The server-side code running on Safe Concept’s web server (IIS 7) uses LINQ to query this conceptual data model. Furthermore, use is made of one or more entity views. Changes to complete entities as well as views are written back to the database using CUD (Create, Update, Delete) operations within the EF framework.
Services
The .NET RIA services (July 2009 Preview Version) are used as the service layer between the Silverlight application within the user’s browser and the EF model. Data is transported asynchronously between the Browser and the Web Server using JSON messages. In contrast to the ATOM or SOAP protocol, JSON does not have any significant overhead. The need for additional overhead for message traffic is redundant with RIA Services, because code is generated on the basis of the metadata on the client (Silverlight) as well as the server (.NET) side. Through RIA Services’ support of ASP.NET authentication, roles and profiles combined with SSL connections it is easy to implement security and separate data from unauthorised access.
User Interface
Telerik RadControls (Q3 2009 version) is used at the front end. This creates a no-nonsense business image for the application. The Telerik controls fit seamlessly into the generated and in-house developed RIA Services domain functionality and make it possible to implement complex business logic. The Presentation and Domain Layers are linked together and the filtering, sorting and pagination of data sets is implemented using the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) design pattern. The filtered, sorted and paginated data is displayed to the user using a Telerik RadGridView. RadScheduler is used for the planning module and provides an Outlook-like calendar for the Safe Concept application.
About IQuality
IQuality assists its customers in creating commercial and strategic added value. The business objectives are the starting point for the design, development and implementation of customised software, internet and media solutions. In this respect, IQuality’s employees combine their highly developed knowledge of modern IT and media techniques with their just as progressive knowledge of functional graphic design and marketing objectives. IQuality has subdivided its services into the 'Software' and 'Internet & Media' branches.