DotNetNuke and Silverlight Chatter done!

I finally have a framework up for logins and other mundane albeit necessary web things. Using DotNetNuke, I will be having an optional login for my silverlight games. You can check out how to plug silverlight modules in DotNetNuke right here:
http://dnnsilverlight.adefwebserver.com/Silverlight20/tabid/65/Default.aspx

I wanted to take a very minimalist approach, deferring most of the page space to the hosted silverlight module, rather than slamming my viewers with clumsy div boxes that seems to be standard for enterprise web pages. You can check it out below (ignore the placeholder silverlight button):



I custom skinned the Dnn portal which was extremely easy. Don't fall for the lazy trap and buy off-the-shelf skins, they tend to be garbage anyways. Here's a great site to learn how to skin Dnn sites:
http://www.dotnetnukerocks.com/tabid/3167/Default.aspx

If you are just starting off, remember, only edit the .htm files. The "parse skin package" will generate the .ascx file for you to manipulate later. You'll know what I talk about after reading / watching the tutorial linked above.

To get my silverlight app to benefit from the user login received by DotNetNuke, I pass the information as InitParams to the Silverlight module. I leaned away from marshalling data back and forth between JavaScript and Silverlight because of the added difficulty of doing this inside a DotNetNuke module. I might exploit that capability in the future, but for now, I'm just happy with a unique username that I can plug into my own database to create a personal gaming experience perhaps even across multiple games.

As for my associate Vargo, he's been silent lately, probably waiting to have something substantial to show in his next post. Don't wait up.