Sliverlight Blueprint for SharePoint

From internal correspondance regarding the announcement of Sliverlight Blueprint for SharePoint.

Today Microsoft announced the Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint at the SharePoint Conference in Seattle. This will allow SharePoint Developers building web parts to take advantage of Silverlight user interface components.

The Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint is source code and guidance for developers describing how to use Microsoft Silverlight and Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies together in business applications and Internet Web sites. SharePoint applications that use Web Parts can now be built using Silverlight user interface elements. This capability enables a fresh look at data exposed through SharePoint Products and Technologies using the modern graphics capability in Silverlight.

It’s important to note that this is not a new supported Microsoft product and doesn’t necessarily represent future product direction it works with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Silverlight 2.0. However we think it will be extremely useful for customers building the latest generation of SharePoint sites. It’s a sample that directly enables the use of Silverlight with SharePoint. This is being implemented as more than a sample since Blueprints also include guidance for developers that is integrated into Visual Studio and the completed blueprint will be released on CodePlex soon.

You can read about it on the MSDN Library here which includes a link to the downloads including screencasts and examples of Web Parts build with Silverlight. This is also included in the press release with the SharePoint Conference and will be announced in the keynote tomorrow. There is also a Channel 9 video and a few other cool resources if you check out the link.