Database Reference
In-Depth Information
WPF) for the web. The tool of choice for developing these applications was
Expression Blend, and the world was a happy place for developers. The key for
development was creating markup for the design of the application using a
language called XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language), separating
the design from the functional code.
worldwIde TelesCoPe (wwT) BuIlT In sIlVerlIghT
As seen in Figure 9-1, Silverlight (and to an even greater extent WPF) allows
for full customization of the graphics within an application. This kind of
visualization extends far beyond the traditional BI visualizations.
FIguR e 9 -1
A Silverlight astronomy visual tool
The broad success of the iPhone and the iPad changed everything. Suddenly,
cross-platform support became a much bigger issue than it had been, and
the myriad of business intelligence (BI) apps released for the iPad became
competition for the Microsoft tools, although some worked with the Microsoft
platform as a whole (RoamBI is one example; you can find it at
www.roambi.
com/
). The challenges of developing for the Apple iTunes store are mostly politi-
cal in nature, as evidenced by the dispute between Amazon.com and Apple
around the Kindle app. Amazon.com had to remove a link to its online store
in the app, and users had to buy content through Apple—with 30 percent of
the purchase price going to Apple.
App is a shortening
of the word applica-
tion and is typically
used in the context of
smartphones where
apps are available
from “app stores.”
This use has spread to
Windows and Office
with the launch of
app stores for the
Microsoft platform.
Amazon.com's response was to build an HTML5 application that didn't go
through the Apple store. This approach is simpler when you consider the wider
(and growing) world of non-iOS tablets—Android as well as WinRT.
