Composite UI: Dynamic loading of modules

Introduction to Composite UI

I am currently working on a project that utilizes Composite Application Guidance for WPF and Silverlight codename Prism. However, in this article we will use the term Composite UI. One of the primary concepts of the project is to allow decomposition of a Rich Internet Application (RIA) into modules. Let's imagine that you need to build a large application that should display data as plain text, in tabular format, display graphs and charts, allow for data entry, enforce application security through mechanisms of authentication and authorization. This means that the application has to include all of the libraries required to implement all pieces of functionality. However, depending on the user role, only certain pieces of functionality may be available to users in certain roles. E.g. a guest may have access to the home page only that does not display any data other than information about the company, news and commercial ads. Therefore, there is no need to bring components that are going to be unavailable to the user.

The Composite UI brings the ability to segment application into modules that can be loaded only when required. It also opens up possibilities of creating application plug-ins to extend existing functionality on production servers without the need to re-deploy the entire application.