Silverlight 4 Business Intelligence Software

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

About the Author

About the Technical Reviewer

Introduction

Who Should Read This Book?

Silverlight Developers or Architects

BI Professionals

Strategic Decision Makers in Technology

Technical and Nontechnical Audiences

Why Should You Invest in This Book?

Chapter Roadmap

What Is Not Covered in This Book?

Why Aren’t Data Services Covered in This Book?

Following the Coding Exercises in the Book

Software You Need to Follow the Exercises

Companion Web Site

What about Silverlight 3 Support?

Author on the Internet

Chapter 1: Business Intelligence 2.0 Defined

The Need to Make Better Decisions

Decision Support Systems

Business Intelligence Is Born

Business Intelligence Defined

BI Terms

Architecture of a Business Intelligence System

Component Overview of a BI Architecture

Data Feeds

Extract-Transform-Load Process

The Data Warehouse

The BI Presentation Layer (Presentation of Knowledge)

Challenges of Bringing the BI Tiers Together

Business Intelligence 1.0 Implementation

BI 1.0’s Intended Audience

Two Distinct Users of BI 1.0

Proper Understanding of BI Models

Applications

Static and Noninteractive Data

System Design

Business Intelligence 2.0 Implementation

How BI 2.0 Came to Be

Web 2.0

Agile Development Methodologies

Service Orientation

BI 2.0’s Intended Audience

Empowering the BI 2.0 User

Applications

System Design

Comparison of Business Intelligence 1.0 and 2.0

Summary

Chapter 2: Advantages of Applying Business Intelligence 2.0 Using Microsoft Silverlight

Industry Trends

Delivery to Multiple Platforms

The Desktop Platform

The Web Platform

The Mobile Platform

The Tablet Platform

Value in Services

Virtualizing Resources on the Cloud

What Is Silverlight?

The Silverlight Solution

Less Plumbing, More Designing

Leveraging the Power of .NET

It’s All on the Client (Well, Mostly)

Next-Generation Interaction with Multitouch

Multiple Platforms and the Cloud

Silverlight vs. Other RIA Technologies

Current State of RIA Technology

Silverlight’s Position Among RIAs

Silverlight vs. HTML 5

Key New Features of HTML 5

HTML 5 Limitations

Silverlight: The Business RIA

Lessons from the Past

Leveraging Existing Development Investments

Moving to the Cloud More Easily

Integrating with Microsoft Products

Overcoming Silverlight’s Weaknesses

The Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform and Silverlight

SQL Server BI

Microsoft Office BI

What Does Silverlight Have to Offer BI?

Summary

Chapter 3: Silverlight as a Business Intelligence Client

Client Distributed Architecture

Distributed Architectures Defined

Problems with N-Tier Architecture

Scaling BI with the Client Tier

Is Business Intelligence on the client viable?

Microsoft Excel

PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel 2010

Pivot for Silverlight

Disconnected MOLAP

Summary

Business Logic on the Silverlight Client

First-Class Data Structures and Querying

Local Access to the DOM

Isolated Storage

Multithreading

Open and Save Dialogs

Visual Intelligence

OData Support

COM Automation Support

Printing Support

F# Language Support

Improvements to Expression Blend 4

Common Scenarios Handled with Silverlight

Coding Scenario: Working with Business Data

Querying Large Data Sets with LINQ

Lessons Learned

Coding Scenario: Decoupling Business Algorithms

Applying Business Logic with Data Binding and Value Converters

Lessons Learned

Coding Scenario: Persisting Local Data

In-Memory and Isolated Storage Caching

Lessons Learned

Summary

Chapter 4: Adding Interactivity to Business Intelligence Data

User Interactivity

Importance of Good User Interactivity

Touch Interactivity

Silverlight and Interactivity Support

Interactivity with Business Intelligence Data

Types of Data Interactivity

Sorting

Data Paging

Filtering

Searching

Grouping and Pivoting Data

Applying Interactivity in Business Intelligence with Silverlight

Common Silverlight Controls for Data Lists

Data Grid

List Box

Tree View

Coding Scenario: Lazy Loading List Box Data

Importance of Lazy Loading

Lessons Learned

Coding Scenario: Interactive Data Paging with the Slider Control

Lessons Learned

Possible Enhancements

Coding Scenario: Fluent Data Filtering with the Slider Control

Lessons Learned

Possible Enhancements

Coding Scenario: Searching Data with the AutoCompleteBox Control

Lessons Learned

Summary

Chapter 5: Introduction to Data Visualizations

What Are Data Visualizations?

Characteristics of a Data Visualization

Respect the Data

Simple and to the Point

Animations and Transitions

Interactivity

Widgets and Dashboards

Data Visualizations and Business Intelligence 2.0

BI for the Masses

Controlled Analysis

Ease of Use

Rich Interfaces

Challenges of Implementing Data Visualizations

Custom Controls

Need for Designers

Reinventing the Insight Wheel

Presenting Proper Insight

Not Knowing the Target Audience

Data Visualizations Might Not Be Enough

Data Visualizations and Silverlight

Out-of-the-Box Data Visualizations

Rich Rendering Engine and Design Tools

Data-Centric Processing

Integration with Microsoft Enterprise Services

Descry Framework

Coding Scenarios

Chart Data Visualizations

Lessons Learned

Building a Tag Cloud

Lessons Learned

Possible Improvements

Using Geographic Visualizations

Lessons Learned

Summary

Chapter 6: Creating Data Visualizations for Analysis

Choosing a Visualization for Analysis

Determining Types of Analysis for Silverlight Visualizations

Comparing Parts of a Whole

Visualizing Trend Analysis

Comparing Ratios (Before and After)

Text Data

Geographical Data

Hierarchical Data

Other Visualization Types

Comparing Metrics to Organizational Goals

Reference Lines

Creating Visual KPIs for Scorecard Dashboards

Word-Sized Chart Visualizations

Types of Word-Sized Chart Visualizations

Sparklines

Column Charts

Data Bars

Other Candidates for Word-Sized Charts

Summary

Chapter 7: Enhancing Visual Intelligence in Silverlight

Workflow Visualizations

Workflows in Silverlight

Using Graphical Symbols

Creating Graphical Assets

Visualization Layout

Creating Composite Visuals for Analysis

Creating a Cross-Tab Data Visualization

Silverlight Cross-Tab Implementation

Why a Cross-Tab Implementation?

Improving the Implementation

Visualizations for the Environment

Comparing Non-Silverlight Solutions

Other Development Environments

Visual Intelligence Vendors

Silverlight as a Visual Intelligence Engine

Coding Scenario: Providing the User Visualization Options

Lessons Learned

Possible Improvements

Summary

Chapter 8: Applying Collective Intelligence

What Is Collective Intelligence?

Collective Intelligence and Web 2.0

The User Is Always Right

Content Is the User

Classifying Collective Intelligence Data

Collective Intelligence as BI 2.0 Applied

Advantages of Applying Collective Intelligence

Measuring Collective Intelligence

Collecting and Displaying User Content

Collecting User-Generated Data

Keeping It Simple

Explicit Data Collection

Implicit Data Collection

Data Collection in Silverlight

Displaying User-Generated Data

Example of Collective Intelligence in Blogs

Collective Intelligence UIs with Silverlight

Collective Intelligence in the Enterprise

Coding Scenarios

Coding Scenario: Working with the Rating Control

Lessons Learned

Possible Improvements

Summary

Chapter 9: Predictive Analytics (What-If Modeling)

What Is Predictive Analytics?

Predictive Analytics Overview

Classic Predictive Analytics with What-If Analysis

Delivering Predictive Analytics Faster with BI 2.0

Choosing Correct Data Sets for Predictive Models

Implementing the Proper Tier for Predictive Analysis

Benefits of Applying Predictive Analytics

Bringing Out Additional Value to Existing Data

Translating Assumptions into Decisions

Being Proactive Instead of Reactive

Gaining Competitive Advantage

Applying Forward-Looking Models in Silverlight

Using a Functional Language (F#)

Designing Predictive Models Using Silverlight

Predictive Models with Aggregated Data Sets

Building the Profit Forecast Control

Communicating Between Local Controls

Key Highlights

Deployment Using the Plug-In Model

Coding Scenario: Applying a Statistical Model to Predict Future Behavior

Part 1: Creating the UI and Applying a Static Predictive Model

Part 2: Creating an Interactive and Visual Predictive Model

Lessons Learned

Possible Improvements

Summary

Chapter 10: Improving Performance with Concurrent Programming

Concurrent Programming Defined

Processor Architecture Shift to Multiple Cores

Taking Advantage of Multicore Architectures

Multithreading vs. Parallelism

Multithreading

Parallelism

Silverlight Concurrent Programming Features

Multithreading Support

Silverlight Multithreading Essentials

Using the BackgroundWorker Class

Asynchronous Workflows in F#

Using the Network Stack Asynchronously

Concurrency and Rendering

Improving Business Application Performance

Silverlight Concurrent Programming Limitations

No Parallel Extension Support

Missing Concurrency Programming Essentials

Do Not Block the UI Thread

Missing Implementations in the Framework

Coding Scenarios

Coding Scenario: Improving the Performance of the UI

Lessons Learned

Possible Improvements

Coding Scenario: Improving Computational Processing Performance

Part 1: Getting the Project Ready for Concurrency

Part 2: Designing a Two-Thread Solution to Improve Performance

Part 3: Dynamic Concurrency and Performance Analysis

Lessons Learned

Possible Improvements

Additional Coding Scenarios on the Companion Web Site

Summary

Chapter 11: Integrating with Business Intelligence Systems

Architecting for Business Intelligence Systems

Infrastructure and Software Requirements

Non-Microsoft Infrastructures

New BI 2.0 Applications

Integrating with Existing BI Investments

Basic Integration

Communicating Between Separate Silverlight Applications

Silverlight in the SaaS Model

SaaS for BI

SaaS Features Implemented in Silverlight

Centralized Management of Service Delivery

SaaS Maturity Model

SaaS in the Virtualized Cloud

Summary

Chapter 12: Mobile Intelligence

What Is Mobile Intelligence?

Mobile Intelligence for the Consumer

Silverlight Mobile Intelligence Platforms

Windows Phone 7

Developing for the Windows Phone 7

Windows XP OS and Windows 7 OS Tablets

Windows Embedded Compact 7

Other Platforms

Implementing Silverlight Mobile Intelligence

Adding Interactivity

Word-Sized Visualizations

Mobile Dashboards

Leveraging Microsoft Services and Components

Coding Scenarios

The Bing Maps Silverlight Control on Windows Phone 7

Lessons Learned

Concurrent Programming on Windows Phone 7

Lessons Learned

Summary

Chapter 13: Surfacing Silverlight Business Intelligence in SharePoint

Why SharePoint for Business Intelligence?

SharePoint 2007 Business Intelligence Capabilities

SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence Capabilities

SharePoint 2007 and Silverlight Integration

Object HTML Tag

Custom Web Parts

Two Types of Web Parts

The Relationship between Silverlight and Web Parts

Why Silverlight Web Parts?

SharePoint 2010 and Silverlight Integration

Silverlight Web Part

Client Object Model

SharePoint 2010 Development Story

Implementing Silverlight Business Intelligence Scenarios in SharePoint

Adding Silverlight to an existing SharePoint BI SharePoint Site

Exposing Complete Silverlight BI tools in SharePoint

Communication Between Silverlight Web Parts

Coding Scenarios

Coding Scenario: Self-Service Silverlight Application Hosting

Lessons Learned

Summary

Chapter 14: Using the Silverlight PivotViewer

What Is the PivotViewer?

Which Pivot Technology Is this?

PivotTable

Power Pivot

PivotViewer Components & Architecture

Installing the PivotViewer Platform

Prerequisites

PivotViewer & Pivot Collection Tools

Running the Sample Silverlight PivotViewer Application

PivotViewer User Interface

PivotViewer User Interface Components

Top Bar

Filter Panel

Imagery Canvas

Info Panel

PivotViewer Collections

Learning Coding Scenario: Consuming an existing PivotViewer Collection

Learning Coding Scenario: Using the Pivot Collection Tool for Microsoft Excel

PivotViewer and Business Intelligence 2.0

Summary

Appendix A: Prototyping Applications with Dynamic Data

Blend’s Dynamic Data Tools

Defining New Sample Data

Customizing Sample Data Sources

Customizing Properties

Customizing Collections

Generating data from image collections

Behind the Scenes of Dynamic Data

Autogenerated Files

Using the Dynamic Data

Summary

Appendix B: Creating a Bullet Graph User Control

What Is a Bullet Graph?

Using the Bullet Graph to Gain Business Intelligence Insight

Comparing the Bullet Graph to Traditional Gauges

Specification of the Silverlight Bullet Graph

Implementation Roadmap

Mashing Up the Control with Silverlight Controls

Creating a Fluid Layout

Leveraging the Silverlight Layout Controls

Bullet Graph Configuration Properties

Implementing Dependency Properties

Implementing the Bullet Graph in Silverlight

Bullet Graph Layout and Adding Main Components

Starting the Project

Building the Layout

Adding the Bullet Graph Components

Styling Qualitative Ranges & Adding Dynamic Content

Styling the Qualitative Ranges

Adding the Quantitative Scale

Implementing Dependency Properties & Design-Time Logic

Adding Category & Property Descriptions

Additional Calculations and Notes

Using the Bullet Graph Control

Proving Business Intelligence Scenarios

Data Binding & Animations

Alternate Implementations

Summary

Index