Developing Smart Client Applications For The Enterprise Keith Elder Team Leader / Sr. Software Engineer Quicken Loans Blog:

About Quicken Loans  Originally founded in 1985 as Rock Financial by Dan Gilbert  Grew to one of the largest independent mortgage banks in the country  1998 IPO  1999 Launched Rockloans.Com  1999 Intuit, Inc (makers of TurboTax and Quicken) purchased Rock Financial.  July 2002 Dan Gilbert purchased Quicken Loans back from Intuit. Retained Quicken Loans branding and marketing initiatives.  4500 employees  Largest online retail home loan lender

Take Aways  What is a Smart Client?  Why you should consider Smart Clients over Web Applications for internal use within the Enterprise.  How to deploy a Smart Client using ClickOnce.  How to provide your end users with automatic updates.

Part 1: What is a Smart Client?

Remember Mainframes? Single Architecture – Mainframes – Dumb Terminals

Remember Thick Clients? Mid 80’s Personal Computers (dual tier) – Thick Clients

Remember How The Web Solved Everything? Web Applications Solve Everything!

Aren’t we really back to where we started?

Smart Client Tough to deploy Heavyfootprint “DLLHell” Networkdependency Reduced Reduced User UserExperience Complex to develop Web services and offline/online support Deviceadaptability Broad reach Easy change management Easy to deploy Rich User Experience High developer productivity ResponsiveUI

Smart Client Architecture SQL 2005 Clients Web Services Cluster  Benefits  Provides connection pooling to database  Allows for updates to business layer without affecting clients  Disconnected / Connected Business Logic Documentation

Disclaimer(s)!  Are Smart Clients just related to.Net?  No – Smart Clients can be built on top of any operating system  Ok fine but are Smart Clients a technology or an architecture?  Both! It is a combination.  SmartClient yourApp =.Net + SOA + Winforms + Windows  SmartClient yourApp = (Java or Python) + SOA + (GTK or QT) + *Nix

Smart Client Benefits (1/2)  Local resources  Direct display and peripheral access  Responsive graphics, printers, digital camera’s, smart phones, pda, etc.  Use of installed applications  Word, Excel, VSTO  Connected  Access to network resources  Web services, SQL Databases  Less payload on server than web application  Minimal training

Smart Client Benefits (2/2)  Offline capable  Cache online data  Update when connected  Datasets in smart documents  Intelligent deployment and update  Easy non-administrator deployment  Automatic updates  Rich / easy developer experience

.Net Smart Client (what do you need to build one?)  Visual Studio 2005  Download:  Provides rich visual designer support  Integrated ClickOnce testing and deployment  Visual Studio Tools for Office .NET Framework 2.0 or 3.0  Windows Forms  ClickOnce deployment  Web server to deploy web services and ClickOnce deployment  Total Cost to Leverage This Technology: $4.95 / month hosting account  Visual Studio Express – Free .NET Framework – Free  Web Server - $4.95 / month

Smart Client (GUI) Intro to.Net 2.0 WinForms and Sample Application - Enterprise Desktop (sorta)

Part 2: Deploying a Smart Client with ClickOnce

ClickOnce Deployment Overview  ClickOnce application deployment published on a web or file server  Client follows link to server  Application deployed locally in user’s profile directory & executed  Subsequent executions check for updates & execute local install Server Client application files

ClickOnce  Smart Client deployment technology  Provides web-deployment simplicity  End User  Provide web-deployment flexibility  Publisher  Automatic update of application  System.Deployment  Security isolation and optional restricted permissions  Non-administrative installs and uninstalls

ClickOnce Deployment

Application Updates  Auto-update deployment options  Before application launch, or  Update check occurs after app-launch  Scheduled update checks  Weekly, monthly, etc.  System.Deployment == Customize it to suit your business needs

ClickOnce Auto-update (Versioning)

Smart Client Summary  Rich features easier than ever to implement  Windows Forms 2.0 new controls  Windows Forms 2.0 improved data integration  Installation and update easier than ever  ClickOnce web-style simplicity  ClickOnce web-style security  SmartClient rich feature-set  Customers access existing and new application features easily  Customers access your application with or without network connectivity

Resources  My Blog     Resources    Patterns and Practices   Smart Client Software Factory  Enterprise Library  Web Services Software Factory  Mobile Software Factory