Raffaele will provide a gap analysis and the potential problems or advantages of moving from a Win32 technology to a vectorial technology like WPF/Silverlight. A detailed discussion and samples will be provided to address when to use WPF and when to use Silverlight.

1. From legacy to WPF/SL Migrating applications from Windows Form to WPF/Silverlight Raffaele Garofalo

2. Who am I? Raffaele GarofaloNET Software ArchitectMCP (MCAD, MCSD, MCTS) Blog: http://blog.raffaeu.com Twitter: @raffaeu Company: Nephila Capital Ltd. (www.nephila.com) I am Italian, sorry for my bad English

3. My Books Microsoft APRESS

4. Summary Reasons for migrating Choose the right technology Is Windows Form dead? Choose the right architecture The team Some useful tools

5. Reasons for migrating Legacy application that requires refactoring (partial) Legacy application developed with a very old technology (FoxPro, VB6, …) (re-write) Application that requires a more complex UI (User Interface) not sustainable with Windows Form (partial) Specific request from the Customer (at the end, he has the money …) New project (never start a new project with an old technology!)

6. Always consider the budget! You do not need to re-write everything, you can keep the existing UI and migrate only the new features Windows Form can live in parallel with WPF/SL You can host Windows Form in WPF (WindowsFormHost) and WPF in Windows Form (ElementHost) or SL in Windows Form (embed browser)

7. Is Windows Form dead? No, it is not. There are still thousands of active projects done in Windows Form Win Form is still the following step after VB6 WPF is not intended to replace Windows Forms It is not dead but it is an old technology. It is still available It does not separate UI from code, I can’t employ a designer for the UI

8. Choose the right technology First rule: WPF is for Standalone, Silverlight is for Web, Phones Second rule: WPF works only on Windows OS, Silverlight works on Windows, MAC, Linux Third rule: WPF is a more powerful technology, Silverlight uses a restricted version of the NET Framework but more feasible for Web and Media WPF requires a knowledge of XAML for WPF, Silverlight requires XAML for SL, HTML and JS and WCF

9. What can I do with? WPF Full .NET Framework(i.e. Split() has 6 overrides) UI objects derives from Visual base class Routed events, more control Cryptography more powerful Not a lot of choices for Media management SILVERLIGHT Restricted version of .NET(i.e. Split() has 3 overrides) UI objects derives from Control Routed events, less control SL supports only 4 hash algorithms Great support to Media management and streaming

10. What Microsoft suggests? SL If you're just starting out, and there's a question as to which technology to choose (Silverlight or WPF) then start with Silverlight. It is generally easier to move up to WPF from Silverlight than it is to move the other way. Silverlight has a smaller API, and is therefore generally considered easier to learn. If you need a desktop application with only basic system integration, consider building a Silverlight Out-of-Browser application. Silverlight 4 Trusted Applications with IDispatch support provide access to many system resources previously unavailable to web technologies. If you need deep system integration, excellent multi-touch support, device access, local resources, and all the other things that go with a solid desktop application, then consider moving up to WPF. If you're a C++ developer, you can choose to go with C++ and MFC, or use C++ with WPF on the front end, like the Expression team did.

11. Still missing … WPF A good designer tool, VS is not cool as Blend The Control toolkit is not exhaustive, you still need a third party control library Silverlight Same thing Interaction with HTML and Javascript still lacks in some parts Still requires to recompile your .dlls

12. Composite Frameworks Create an application using Modules (independent assemblies) Specialize teams in different areas (UI, Presentation, Business) Reusable architecture Increase quality and usability by sharing common services and functionality

13. Composite for WPF/SL Prism Requires observer patterns (message broker) Cool navigation service in V4 Only IoC with Unity (Microsoft) Astonishing resources and documentation caliburn Auto-wiring Transitions between Views Open source with less technology limits Available also for Windows Phone

14. Demo WinForm demo application (MSDN, Telerik) WPF demo application (MSDN, Codeplex) Silverlight demo application (MSDN, Telerik) WPF showcasehttp://windowsclient.net/community/showcase.aspx Silverlight showcasehttp://www.silverlight.net/showcase/

15. Choose the right architecture Layered application or monolithic block? SOA or not SOA? If I work with Silverlight that’s the only choice … TDD or not TDD? What about an O/RM? Entity Framework, Nhibernate or what? What about security, especially if I am working with SL? Design patterns, is M-V-VM mandatory?

16. Layered application, why? Why should I use a layered application if it requires: More code More time More effort More people More money

17. Layered application, why? The application we are designing is complex or it will be complex in the future I need to be able to make my application scalable, maintainable and secure I want to split the project over multiple teams and resources I need to recycle as many code/features as I can I need to cover with test as much surface as I can

18. Layered applications

19. SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) Real reasons We need to hide the datastore and the business logic I need to spread the business logic over different technologies (WPF, Phones, REST) I can’t migrate everything (like AS400 …) so I need a bridge between old/new Developer’s reasons I need to get certified on WCF It is cool and I am the only one that doesn’t use it yet I can write 10 times more code to do the same thing

20. TDD Overview

21. TDD Overview. A good unit test … Run fast (they have short setups, run times, and break downs). Run in isolation (you should be able to reorder them). Use data that makes them easy to read and to understand. Use real data (e.g. copies of production data) when they need to. Represent one step towards your overall goal.

22. TDD Pros and Cons PROS Indicator of project’s health Less time to fix bugs You should write application using functional code Good documentation for you code by function/requirements CONS One change may requires more effort on fixing tests than fixing real code Time to write tests You may not always need to write applications using functional code Wrong test will document wrong requirement

23. O/RM, which one? Nhibernate, Entity Framework are free, others are not Nhibernate is 100% flexible but no IDE EF has an IDE but is not flexible Nhibernate has years and is open source EF is still not mature and it is not open source Nhibernate requires more experience, it is not for newbie

24. O/RM PROS You are not anymore Database technology driven Write applications faster, do not need ton of SQL Easier to test the data layer CONS Less flexibility because you can’t use all the power of a specific RDBMS Devs tend to forget T-SQL/PL-SQL The database become a simple container of data, no more logic in it

25. Security real facts, did you know? Most developers have no clue about security Most of the intranet applications are not secure at all, especially WinForm SOA implies an additional layer of security The database should also be encrypted A web application with “secret” data should be always SSL The NET framework provides tons of utilities and facilities to apply security

26. Security concerns for my application Authentication, how the user will authenticate against the application Authentication with SOA Authorization, are we applying also granular security rights? Logging, do we know what is going on? Do we have a trace? Data protection, is security applied also at the data tier or do we use SA in SQL?

27. M-V-VM Overview

28. M-V-VM Main concepts Provides separation of concerns It is natural pattern for XAML platforms Enables the developer-designer workflow Increases application testability

29. Resources on M-V-VM In the Box Visual Studio integration (SEE DEMO) My Book Gary McLean’s book PRISM documentationhttp://compositewpf.codeplex.com/ Josh Smith http://joshsmithonwpf.wordpress.com/ Karl Shiffletthttp://karlshifflett.wordpress.com/

30. The Team How big is the team I will work with? How much experience do they have?Guru | Some exp. | newbie What was their previous project? Do they know the difference between Client (WPF) and Web (SL)? Is there a technology leader in the Team with some experience?

31. The right one Never put too many seniors: “Too many cooks spoil the dinner” Never use big teams, lot of technical debates and few hours on writing code Put together devs that love the technology they are working with, negativity is a cancer Tools make a developer life easier (documentation, books, controls, …)

32. Make your life easier Choose a set of Controls, learn it and use it! Apply one pattern for the UI, learn it and use it. Do not “experiment” with customer money, do what you know and avoid the unknown Do not over engineer, remember that the Customer can appreciate only what he can see … (a.k.a. no NASA web services) Small steps, small releases, small iterations

33. Some tools Books Guidance Best practices Forums and Communities

34. Books My book  Architecting Applications for the Enterprise PRISM’s Developer Guide (MS PRESS) WPF 4 Unleashed (Adam Nathan) Silverlight 4 Unleashed (L. Bugnion)

35. Guidance Codeplexhttp://wpfslguidance.codeplex.com/ MSDN“Developers Guide to Microsoft PRISM” WPFhttp://windowsclient.net Silverlighthttp://silverlight.net

36. QA?