Silverlight 2 lays a great foundation for building line of business applications, but there is still a good chunk of grunt work when it comes to validation and workflow... but what if you had all of the power of XAML and the .NET framework _and_ the ease of rapid development like the Client/Server tools of the 90's gave us?

Well, it looks like Microsoft is hard at work to make this happen! Check out this Sneak Preview from Jamie Cool, recorded at PDC 2008, where he shows off a future set of project templates for Silverlight business app development:

http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC11/

You might want to fast-forward about 30 minutes into the talk, where Jamie starts talking about "Silverlight Futures." Here are some interesting points from the video:

• Jamie uses a prototype Silverlight template to add a new "Silverlight Business Logic Class" to a web project, and then instantly use that class from the Silverlight project (without adding a web service reference).
  
• He uses an "ObjectDataSource" class to bind results from a Business Logic class to a DataGrid...And add sorting and paging... with no code!
  
• He shows a DataForm control and by setting a DataContext property, gets instant default validation type checking and feedback
  
• By adding MetadataType attributes to a server-side class, the Silverlight client automatically picks up those validation changes on the client - so by writing the validation logic in one place, it carries out to both client and server.
  
• He makes a single SubmitChanges() call to synchronize changes on the client to the server.
  
• He uses something called a "Frame" control and StackPanel to create a navigation workflow --- including Browser History!
  
• He adds a Login control to immediately generate a Login screen, and then uses an attribute on his business logic class to lock down access to data based on role.

Here is the session summary for Jamie's talk:

Silverlight Futures: Building Business Focused Applications
What if you could develop your solutions with the ease pioneered by Microsoft Office Access, deploy them like an Internet application, and take advantage of the power of Microsoft .NET? Learn about an exciting new technology that is all about making business applications for RIA (Rich Internet Applications) much easier to build. In this session, hear how we've made n-tier application development as simple as traditional 2-tier, provided application level solutions to developers, and how we're doing all of this with the same .NET platform and tools on both the client and server.