There has been a fair amount of hype & discussion around “Software As A Service (SAAS)” – and using “the cloud” as an application delivery mechanism. One of the best sessions I attended at last year’s Tech.Ed covered this topic, and the future of “application architecture” in the new Web 2.0 era (here).
The Microsoft terminology has been “Software+Services” – but this has still been a bit of “theory” without much substance.
Later last year, there was some sample code & guidance packages released, termed “Software+Services Blueprints” :
… a series of source code and guidance packages designed to provide an architectural bridge between vision and implementation by making it easier to build S+S applications.
As a starting point for building real solutions by architects and developers, each Software+Services Blueprint includes code and/or utilities, guidance, structured step-by-step workflow and tools delivered within Visual Studio.
Each S+S Blueprint is focused on media/community, eCommerce, Office Business Applications (OBA), mobility or other future S+S application areas.
They range in complexity from rapid development packages to complete end-to-end scenarios.
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More recently, there has been the release of the new “Software-plus-Services Blueprints Manager for Visual Studio 2008” – available from CodePlex.
And there is a blog/wiki at Channel9 detailing any news, or recent happenings.
Lastly (and more importantly ?) is the new Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint.
There are a few sample application & videos available from the ssblueprints site.
There are SIX samples initially available, each with video, doco, setup and source (for Silverlight 1.1 and 2.0)
- Hello Silverlight Web Parts and the SilverlightPart
- Silverlight Navigation Controls
- Silverlight Social Networking WebPart
- Visual How-To Center with Silverlight
- Picture Viewer Sample
- SIlverlight Custom Field Types
Will blog more when I’ve delved into each of these cool samples – and the Blueprints Manager for Visual Studio 2008.
Will be great to see how much Silverlight floods into the core product for SharePoint 14 (probably due next year – SharePoint 2009 ?)