Introducing Silverlight 4

Introducing Silverlight 4 brings you up to speed with version 4 of Silverlight quickly and efficiently. The book builds off your understanding of the basics of .NET coding and WPF, allowing your journey to Silverlight 4 proficiency to be as quick and painless as possible. The text highlights where coding techniques are similar to other, more established areas of the .NET framework. Likewise, when your existing coding habits lead you to a syntax or conceptual ’gotcha,’ the text points that out, too. This book provides you with fast-track coverage of all the most important elements of the Silverlight 4 technology ranging from XAML to standard controls, from dealing with media to networking, from testing to deployment. It also reveals features introduced with Silverlight 4 and offers guidance on how to best utilize them. The book concludes with a pair of fully worked sample applications for you to follow through, because nothing reinforces your understanding of how concepts fit together as much as looking at finished code. It is assumed that readers are already be comfortable with the workings of the .NET framework. Knowledge of Expression Blend is useful, but not mandatory: you’ll learn the Blend techniques that you need to know as you go through the book. By the end, you will have followed a sound, concise path to mastery of Silverlight 4.

The growing popularity of Web 2.0 applications is increasing user expectations for high-quality web site design, presentation, and functionality. It is into this climate that Microsoft is releasing Silverlight 4, the third and latest iteration of its cross-browser web presentation technology. Beginning Sliverlight 4 in C# brings you to the cutting-edge of Web 2.0 application design and includes plenty of practical guidance to get you started straightaway. Silverlight design tools have important differences compared to those used to create Ajax and JavaScript functionality. Robert Lair takes you on a tour of all the tools, including: Microsoft Expression Design, which plays an important part in creating Silverlight assets. Microsoft Expression Blend, which is used to build user interaction for Silverlight elements. Microsoft Visual Studio, which manages the interaction between designers and developers, providing the coding environment for “nuts and bolts” wiring. Once you’ve mastered the basics, you'll move on to gaining a more in-depth knowledge of some of the new features introduced with Silverlight 4, including H.264 protected content, right-click event handling, a new printing API, and support for the Managed Extensibility Framework.

Over 80 practical recipes for creating rich, data-driven business applications in Silverlight with this book and eBook.

Silverlight 5 has the potential to revolutionize the way we build business applications. With its flexibility, web deployment, cross-platform capabilities, rich .NET language support on the client, rich user interface control set, small runtime, and more, it comes close to the perfect platform on which to build business applications. It’s a very powerful technology, and despite its youth, it’s moving forward at a rapid pace and is gaining widespread popularity. This book guides you through the process of designing and developing enterprise-strength business applications in Silverlight 5 and C#. You'll learn how to take advantage of the power of Silverlight to develop rich and robust business applications—from getting started to deployment, and everything in between. In particular, this book will serve developers who want to learn how to design business applications. It will introduce the patterns you'll use, the issues you’ll face, and how to resolve them. Author Chris Anderson, who has been building line-of-business applications for years, demonstrates his expertise through a candid presentation of how to tackle real-life issues, rather than just avoiding them. Developers will benefit from his hard-won expertise through business application design patterns that he shares throughout the book. With this book in hand, you will: Create a fully-functional business application in Silverlight Discover how to satisfy the general requirements that most business applications need Develop a business application framework

Full Color Code samples appear as they do in Visual Studio and Expression Blend! Printed entirely in color, with helpful figures and syntax coloring to make code samples appear as they do in Visual Studio and Expression Blend! Silverlight is Microsoft’s new web-based User Interface (UI) technology, based on Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), which is introducing many revolutionary concepts in the world of UI development. Silverlight uses XAML, with tools like Expression Design and Expression Blend, to create astonishing UI effects (such as gradients, compositions, and animations.) In addition to the richness of the UI elements, Silverlight 2 allows the use of C# or VB in addition to JavaScript to automate web pages. With Silverlight, you have the power of .NET on multiple platforms (IE and Firefox on Windows, Firefox and Safari on Macintosh, and Firefox on Linux). The author brings you up to speed very quickly with numerous hands-on examples. Use XAML to create state-of-the-art user interfaces Create XAML transforms and animations Design compelling user experiences with Microsoft Expression Blend Integrate media into your rich Internet applications Program Silverlight with both JavaScript and .NET languages Deploy Silverlight content to web pages Encode videos with Expression Media Encoder Make the most of Silverlight elements, resources, and styles Use templates to quickly change your application’s look and feel Efficiently debug Silverlight code Use design tools to create graphics that import seamlessly into Silverlight Laurent Bugnion has been a software engineer since 1996. He has worked with many programming languages and environments, including C, C++, Java, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and, since 2002, the Microsoft .NET platform. He has been honored twice as a Microsoft MVP: first for ASP.NET and now for Client Application Development. He blogs about Silverlight and related technologies at http://blog.galasoft.ch. ON THE WEB: Download all examples and source code presented in this book from informit.com/title/9780672330148 Category: Microsoft Programming/Web Programming Covers: Microsoft® Silverlight 2 User Level: Beginning—Intermediate

Printed entirely in color, with helpful figures and syntax coloring to make code samples appear as they do in Visual Studio and Expression Blend! Using Silverlight 4, you can build richer and more powerful applications than ever before, and deploy them seamlessly in browsers, on desktop computers, and even on Windows Phone 7. In Silverlight 4 Unleashed, Microsoft Silverlight MVP Laurent Bugnion covers everything you need to do all this, and much more. The only full-color, example-rich guide to Silverlight 4 for experienced Microsoft developers, Silverlight 4 Unleashed illuminates the entire development process: from installing Silverlight tools to building great user experiences, managing data to optimizing application performance. You’ll master core Silverlight features such as controls and properties; communicating with web services; efficiently creating data-oriented line-of-business applications; working with external frameworks, and more. Bugnion concludes by showing how to use advanced features such as 3D-like effects and multitouch to deliver an even smoother, richer experience. Install and use Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio Extend Silverlight applications with user and custom controls Group, sort, filter, page, bind, and validate data Take full advantage of the Model-View-ViewModel Pattern in Silverlight Access Web resources and services Control the application’s appearance with resources, styles, templates, and Expression Blend Sketch user experience and build iterative prototypes by easily getting feedback from end users Create data-oriented applications more easily with the WCF RIA Services framework Adapt Silverlight desktop applications for Windows Phone 7 Integrate effects and media into your applications Use Unity, MEF, and the MVVM Light Toolkit to write more maintainable, extensible software Optimize performance by reducing download size and memory footprint, and increasing execution speed

Silverlight 2 in Action devotes extensive coverage to flexible layout components, the extensible control model, the communication framework, and the data-binding features-all cornerstones of software development. Author and Microsoft MVP Chad Campbell also describes rich media and vivid graphical and animation features. The final chapters include a variety of Silverlight deployment scenarios.In addition to the fundamentals of Silverlight, you'll be introduced to architectural components such as the Silverlight object model. The book addresses the developer/designer collaboration model Silverlight enables, showing the developer how to include the designer effectively in the project workflow. This model is illustrated throughout the examples. · Introducing Silverlight· Silverlight: Harmony with the Web· Managing the basics· Handling user interaction · Working with data · Networking and communication · Managing multimedia · Getting a grip on graphics· Let's get animated· Skinning · Content delivery and storage· Share the Light: Distribution and deployment

Silverlight is Microsoft's cross-browser technology for creating rich user experiences on the Web. Like its predecessor, Silverlight 4 rides atop the .NET framework for maximum ease of use and coding efficiency. The technology carries forward much of the work that has been done before and augments it in many important respects, including support for H.264 video, major improvements to the graphics engine (including true 3D rendering), and much richer data-binding options for interfacing with other applications. Pro Silverlight 4 in VB is an invaluable reference for professional developers who want to discover the features of Silverlight. Author Matthew MacDonald's expert advice guides you through creating rich media applications using Silverlight in the environment you're most productive in—no matter what the target platform. As you learn about the features that put Silverlight in direct competition with Adobe Flash, such as rich support for 2D and 3D drawing, animations, and media playback, you'll experience the plumbing of .NET and the design model of WPF through Silverlight—all of the same .NET technology that developers use to design next-generation Windows applications. In this book, MacDonald provides a comprehensive tutorial written from professional developer to professional developer.