1. Change the Rules
Silverlight 4 – Networking
Mike Taulty, Microsoft UK
mtaulty@microsoft.com
mtaulty.com
@mtaulty

2. browser launched, rich internet apps

3. have limited local access
files hardware
software ...

4. different types of Silverlight 4 apps

5. rich, controlled network access is key
firewall

6. being network aware is useful

7. all network access is asynchronous
your code
not your code

8. network stack sketch

9. lots of capabilities to choose from
• network protocols
– HTTP, TCP, UDP
• data encodings
– text, binary
• data serialization
– XML, JSON, RSS, ATOM
• messaging protocols
– SOAP, REST, OData
• messaging patterns
– request  response, duplex, multicast
• programming models
– raw HTTP, WCF, WCF Data Services, sockets
• security
– cross-site, authentication, cross-scheme

10. and two key classes for HTTP itself
• WebClient
– simple, easier to use
• (Http)WebRequest
– more functionality, slightly more complex code

11. cross-domain security policy

12. there are two http stacks
verbs: GET, POST
automatic cookie management
( restricted ) set of request headers
automatic authentication
status codes: LIMITED ( 200, 400 )
verbs: ALL
manual cookie management
( restricted ) set of request headers
response headers & body
authentication ( code & automatic )
status codes: ALL

13. switching between stacks

14. Change the Rules
demo
reaching out with HTTP

15. lots of capabilities to choose from
• network protocols
– HTTP, TCP, UDP
• data encodings
– text, binary
• data serialization
– XML, JSON, RSS, ATOM
• messaging protocols
– SOAP, REST, OData
• messaging patterns
– request  response, duplex, multicast
• programming models
– raw HTTP, WCF, WCF Data Services, sockets
• security
– cross-site, authentication, cross-scheme

16. sockets
• support for streaming TCP sockets
– Silverlight is a socket client, not a server
– consider WCF netTCP as a better option
• security
– limited to ports 4502 to 4534
– policy file authorisation required - HTTP or TCP download
– these restrictions do not apply to trusted applications

17. sockets
• support for multicast UDP sockets
– both single source & any source multicasting
• programmability is via
– Udp[Single/Any]SourceMulticastClient classes
• security
– port numbers must be above 1024
– policy file authorisation required – UDP download
– these restrictions do not apply to trusted applications

18. multicast security
for any source multicasting, the Silverlight client multicasts to the multicast group on
port 9430 and waits for an authorisation

19. Change the Rules
demo
reaching out with sockets

20. lots of capabilities to choose from
• network protocols
– HTTP, TCP, UDP
• data encodings
– text, binary
• data serialization
– XML, JSON, RSS, ATOM
• messaging protocols
– SOAP, REST, OData
• messaging patterns
– request  response, duplex, multicast
• programming models
– raw HTTP, WCF, WCF Data Services, sockets
• security
– cross-site, authentication, cross-scheme

21. WCF subset in Silverlight for HTTP/TCP
• transports - HTTP(S) and TCP
• encodings - text and binary
• serialization - DataContract* & XmlSerializer*
• protocols - WS-I Basic Profile 1.1
– XML, HTTP, SOAP and WSDL
– SOAP 1.2, WS-Addressing 1.0, WS-Security*
• patterns - req/resp, duplex*, polled duplex*
• privacy - HTTPS
• authN - transport or message credential
• faults - only available on the client stack

22. Change the Rules
demo
reaching out with WCF via HTTP/TCP

23. lots of capabilities to choose from
• network protocols
– HTTP, TCP, UDP
• data encodings
– text, binary
• data serialization
– XML, JSON, RSS, ATOM
• messaging protocols
– SOAP, REST, OData
• messaging patterns
– request  response, duplex, multicast
• programming models
– raw HTTP, WCF, WCF Data Services, sockets
• security
– cross-site, authentication, cross-scheme

24. RESTful services ( generically )
Resources
HTTP Request
URL Res 1
VERB GET Res 2
Payload POST Res 3
PUT Res 4
XML JSON
DELETE
HTTP Response
Status
Payload
XML JSON

25. RESTful services ( more specifically )
• Open Data Protocol ( odata )
– www.odata.org
– published under the Open Specification Promise
• Extends the AtomPub standard to add
– an addressing scheme
– a mechanism for schema
– alternate representation – JSON
– handling for concurrent updates
– handling for batched requests

26. WCF Data Services ( “Astoria” )
• implementation of odata for the client and the server
http://server/customers(‘alfki’)/Orders?$top=20

27. Change the Rules
demo
reaching out with WCF Data Services

28. resources
• Channel 9 Silverlight 4 MEF Screencasts
– channel9.msdn.com/tags/SL4Networking
• Silverlight .NET
– www.silverlight.net

29. thank you for coming – please provide feedback
 

30. Change the Rules
Silverlight 4 – Networking
Mike Taulty, Microsoft UK
mtaulty@microsoft.com
mtaulty.com
@mtaulty