The Generations Network (TGN), through its flagship Ancestry.com Web site, is the world’s leading resource for online family history, providing services to millions of users worldwide. To enhance the appeal of its Web sites, TGN wanted to revamp its Family Tree Viewer application to provide a graphically rich experience and fast performance—a combination that was hard to deliver with its existing development tools. The company decided to become an early adopter of the Microsoft® Silverlight™ browser plug-in, which is based on development tools that TGN is already familiar with such as Microsoft Visual Studio® Team System 2008 Team Suite and Microsoft Visual C#®. TGN used Silverlight to create a prototype of the application an estimated 30 percent faster than it would have taken using Adobe Flash. TGN expects the rich Internet application to keep the company ahead of its competitors.

Situation

The Generations Network includes a strong family of Web sites dedicated to helping people discover their own unique family stories. Best known for its Ancestry.com Web site, TGN operates local sites in nine countries. It has digitized and put online more than 8 billion names and 28,000 historical records collections since its original Web site launched in the United States in 1996. Ancestry.com, a subscription-based service, has about 3.5 million users and records an average of 355 million page views every month.

With Silverlight as our programming tool, we probably reduced our time on the prototype by about 30 percent compared to what it would have required using Flash.  Craig Codling Lead Developer for International Web Sites The Generations Network

TGN wanted to find ways to enhance its service to attract new customers and maintain its competitive advantage. It focused on two areas: improving the performance of the site for users when they are editing and browsing large family trees, and adding functionality that can attract younger customers.

“Our first online application, called Online Family Tree, was launched in 1999 and allowed our subscribers to enter family information,” says Doug Reid, Director of Development for TGN. “In 2006, we created Member Trees, which is the application that you see now on Ancestry.com. With more features, such as the ability to upload photos and stories, it has contributed greatly to the growth of our service. However, we’ve had performance challenges that go along with that growth.”

For example, the company used Adobe Flash–based technology for a Family View that was designed to let users zoom in and out of “nodes”—the individuals listed in a family tree—to see photos, information, and other people related to the individual. But the feature was not poplular, in part because of performance limitations.

“With the kind of new features being requested, we knew that users could experience performance problems as trees grew in size,” says Reid. “We have many trees with more than 100 nodes, and some are in the thousands. We even have a few that have more than 200,000 nodes. The technologies that we were using were limited in providing the kind of functionality and performance that we wanted to implement.”

In addition, TGN wanted to enhance its offerings to attract a younger customer base. “Genealogy is not something that the younger generation thinks about very much,” says Ivan Sanchez, Architect for Tree Development at TGN. “We wanted features that could provide more of a ‘Wow’ factor and attract younger people. For example, richer graphics and animation, and the networking services that younger audiences are familiar with. It would be like combining the features of traditional genealogy research with Facebook, with the goal of letting users interact with family members.”

TGN also had to consider cost and logistics. The company did not have enough internal expertise to do extensive Flash-based work, so it outsourced a portion of that work to a development firm. Outsourcing the work, however, resulted in delays and extra expenses.

Solution

The IT team at The Generations Network began evaluating what kind of tools would be best to revamp its Family Tree Viewer application. Discussions were under way in 2008 when Microsoft released its early version of the Microsoft® Silverlight™ browser plug-in that works with several popular browsers on both the Windows® and Mac OS X operating systems to deliver rich, interactive applications for the Web. The company compared Silverlight and Adobe Flash to determine which tool would be the better fit for future development of the “tree” features on Ancestry.com and other company Web sites. The team chose Silverlight.

“It made a lot more sense to use Silverlight even though it was a relatively new product,” says Craig Codling, Lead Developer for International Web Sites for TGN. The company uses many Microsoft technologies, including the Microsoft .NET Framework and the Microsoft Visual Studio® Team System 2008 Team Suite development system, including the Microsoft Visual C#® development tool. It also uses Microsoft Expression Blend™, a design tool used with Silverlight that helps to quickly combine code with graphically rich elements of the user interface.

We wanted features that could provide more of a ‘Wow’ factor and attract younger people.  Ivan Sanchez Architect for Tree Development The Generations Network

“We felt Silverlight would have a much easier time communicating with our other back-end services that are built on the .NET Framework and the other Microsoft development tools,” Codling says. “Just as important, it meant that we could do a lot more development work in-house, instead of outsourcing the work like we had done in the past with Flash.”

TGN worked internally on developing a prototype in the third quarter of 2008. At the end of the year, the company engaged with InterKnowlogy, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner based in Carlsbad, California. InterKnowlogy specializes in developing rich interactive applications that take advantage of new and emerging technologies, including Silverlight. The goal was to refine the software and add more features throughout 2009. A subsequent product launch would include very fast panning and zooming through large family trees; easy uploading and access to photos and other information; the ability to quickly display and navigate through very large trees on a computer screen; and social networking features.

Benefits

Silverlight helped The Generations Network speed its development by offering familiar tools and processes that integrate tightly with other Microsoft development products. Prototype development was 30 percent faster than it would have been using Flash-based technology. Because features in Silverlight are easy to maintain and update, the TGN IT team can make rapid changes when they receive feedback, and they save time and money by keeping maintenance work in-house. Tests conducted on initial versions of the Family Tree Viewer also show that it can simultaneously deliver rich features and fast performance for users, which will help the company in its effort to differentiate its offerings from the competition while attracting a younger customer base.

Expedited Development

The decision by TGN to use Silverlight began paying off in the early stages of development on the new Family Tree Viewer. “Even though we had a learning curve with Silverlight, it was a small one. We only had to learn about the features of Silverlight and not a new programming environment, so we were able to get the prototype done by the end of 2008,” says Codling. “If we had gone to the Flash-based tools, we would have had to learn an entirely new programming model. With Silverlight as our programming tool, we probably reduced our time on the prototype by about 30 percent compared to what it would have required using Flash.”

The tight integration of Silverlight technology with other Microsoft tools and products used by TGN also expedites development. For example, TGN developers could take previously created code and easily rebuild it in Silverlight. If they had been using the Flash-based environment, they would have had to translate existing code into Adobe ActionScript, a scripting language used in Flash-based applications.

Silverlight made it quick and easy to reuse code, and it saved us both time and money because we did not have to learn or outsource the process of translating the code into Adobe ActionScript.  Doug Reid Director of Development The Generations Network

“We were able to take a number of the back-end functions that we had already created and drop them into Silverlight with very little modification to the existing code,” says Reid. “Silverlight made it quick and easy to reuse code, and it saved us both time and money because we did not have to learn or outsource the process of translating the code into Adobe ActionScript.”

TGN also benefits from the integration between Silverlight and Expression Blend. With these two tools, code development and design work can happen simultaneously and quickly. For example, the TGN team uses Expression Blend to automatically generate Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) from user interface elements; the XAML is then opened in Visual Studio Team System Team Suite for further development. “Using a tool that the entire team is familiar with makes the process easy,” says Codling.

Easy Maintenance and Updates

The familiar tools and functionality in Silverlight also make it easier for the TGN IT team to implement changes and updates to the Family Tree Viewer features. This benefit will extend to maintenance of the application after it is launched.

“We expect that the long-term maintenance of the Family Tree Viewer will be easier and also less costly than if we had used the Flash-based environment,” says Sanchez. “If a product is outsourced to begin with, that means we will have to outsource the maintenance as well. That, in turn, means additional costs and delays caused by having to communicate with outside developers, exchanging application programming interfaces and data, and working with the developers to put data feeds into the application.”

Compelling Performance

The TGN development team is using Silverlight to create an application that they expect will deliver a visually rich, high-performance experience. Internal tests done by the team illustrate how Silverlight technology can provide compelling performance for users, even when they are navigating through a graphically rich and information-intensive application.

“For example, one advantage of using Silverlight and the other Microsoft development tools is the ‘threading’ of data, which allows us to load just enough code for a family tree to show properly on a computer display,” says Codling. “In the background, additional information continues to be downloaded. However, the user does not see that background activity. By using Silverlight, we can deliver a great experience to the user in which the application appears in an instant. There is no waiting for the tree to appear on the screen.”

The developers are using other tools and features to build high-performance features such as fast-moving animations that eliminate the slower-moving animation that jumps and skips around depending on a user’s Internet connection and PC hardware. Fast animation is being used for features such as moving one person from a branch to the root of a family tree when the person’s name is clicked, then quickly adjusting the location on the tree of his or her relatives accordingly.  TGN is also creating social networking capabilities so that people can easily add information on living relatives, with the goal of encouraging more interaction between younger customers and extended family.

“Microsoft Silverlight is, hands down, the best approach for building rich Internet applications, because it brings enhanced experiences to users with great graphics, interactivity, streaming media, and powerful data-binding capabilities,” says Rodney Guzman, Chief Technology Officer for InterKnowlogy. “When combined with Visual Studio Team System Team Suite and Expression Blend, Silverlight gives developers the power to create rich, interactive user experiences on the Web with technologies that are familiar, helping us to speed development while cutting time and expense.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about InterKnowlogy products and services, call (760) 930-0075 or visit the Web site at:
www.interknowlogy.com 

For more information about The Generations Network products and services, call (800) 573-8508 or visit the Web site at:
www.tgn.com

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is the world's most popular development environment for designing, developing, and testing next-generation Windows®-based solutions and Web applications and services. By improving the development experience for Windows, the Web, mobile devices, and Microsoft Office, Visual Studio 2008 helps organizations deliver a variety of solutions more productively than ever before. Visual Studio Team System expands the product line with new software tools that enable greater communication and collaboration throughout the development life cycle. Interaction between developers and designers is enhanced through the use of Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft Expression® Studio. With Visual Studio 2008, businesses can deliver modern service-oriented solutions more efficiently.

For more information about Visual Studio 2008, go to:
www.msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published June 2009

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