MrDave's (David Yack) CRM Blog!

I’m pleased to announce that our latest book Silverlight 3 Jumpstart has been released and now available for purchase.  Silverlight 3 Jumpstart is perfect for .NET Developers that want to get started learning about Silverlight.  The book is focused on the key parts of Silverlight that are relevant for business application developers. 

The book is an easy read that you can get through quickly without being intimidated.  Reference books are great, but spending too much time on an obscure feature when you’re getting started wastes your time. Silverlight 3 Jumpstart packages up the things I wish I could have had in a book when I started learning Silverlight a few years back.  Silverlight 3 also introduced a number of new business application friendly features that you learn as part of the book. In addition to covering the basics of Silverlight, we also take time to explore application architecture choices you will be making. 

As a thank you for your continued support - we wanted to offer you an opportunity to get a copy of the new book or an e-book copy. Using the following codes on www.silverlightjumpstart.com you can receive your special offer for the book.

By using code DaveCRMBlogPrint on the checkout page you can get a print copy of the book for only $19.99 or use this link http://www.silverlightjumpstart.com/Specials/SearchKeywordOffer.aspx?OfferCode=DaveCRMBlogPrint

By using code DaveCRMBlogEBook on the checkout page you can get an e-book copy of the book for only $14.95 or use this link http://www.silverlightjumpstart.com/Specials/SearchKeywordOffer.aspx?OfferCode=DaveCRMBlogEbook

Why should a CRM/xRM developer learn Silverlight?  Great question! Let me try to explain why I believe it should be on your top 10 list of technologies to learn now.  As a CRM/xRM developer you’re all about integration and building applications by connecting the dots.  You start with the core CRM platform and customize it to solve business problems.  Microsoft CRM does a good job of giving you a lot of customization points that can be done without writing a single line of code.  In fact, as the vNext version of Microsoft CRM is released I’m sure there will be even more things you can do without writing a line of code.  I also believe that as CRM is used more broadly beyond just customer relationship management that the need for even richer user experiences will continue to increase. 

Silverlight represents the great compromise between the smart client and the web application.  It gives developers the ability to interact with the user like a smart client but have deployment ease like expected with a web application.  In fact, I would hope as new version of products like CRM come out they include first class support for Silverlight.  You’re starting to see that trend already in SharePoint 2010.  You can see a glimpse of that in the following preview - click on the developer preview. http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/default.aspx. In the demo the Silverlight Web Part allows inclusion of Silverlight applications in a SharePoint site.  I think we will see this trend hit all the major integration platforms like CRM that offer easy extensibility.   In fact if you want to this can be done today, it just requires a little more work than might be possible in the future.  Having done both ASP.NET and Silverlight extensions to CRM/xRM solutions I find Silverlight to be much more productive now that I’ve gotten up to speed.

Like any new technology, don’t expect to be an expert overnight.  That’s why I’m suggesting starting now to learn and get comfortable.  You then can use Silverlight for increasingly larger projects as you get more comfortable.  This is a much better approach than all of a sudden trying to use it on some mission critical project with no room for a  learning curve.  Even if you decide you’re not ready to start coding, the Silverlight 3 Jumpstart book is a great way to understand more about how Silverlight fits into your application strategies.