Silverlight 2 Unleashed

by Bugnion, Laurent

• ISBN13: 9780672330148
• ISBN10: 0672330148
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-15
• Publisher: Sams Publishing

Summary

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 Microsoftrs"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 applicationrs"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: Microsoftreg; Silverlight 2 User Level: Beginning-Intermediate $49.99 USA / $54.99 CAN / pound;31.99 Net UK

Author Biography

Laurent Bugnion works as a senior software developer and architect in Switzerland, where he lives with his wife, Chi Meei, and his two daughters, Alise (2001) and Laeticia (2004). Originally an electronics engineer from the Engineering School of Yverdon (Switzerland), his interests quickly moved to software, and he achieved a post-graduate degree in software engineering in 1999 in the Engineering School of Rapperswil (Switzerland). Currently, his interests are very much set on WPF, Silverlight, and other .NET 3.5 technologies, which he helped introduce, teach, and coach at Siemens for the past three years. Prior to that, he first wrote embedded C/C++, and then moved to desktop computers in Java, JavaScript, and eventually .NET (WinForms and ASP.NET). After more than 12 years spent developing various software products at Siemens, Laurent is employed since December 2008 by IdentityMine, one of the world’s leading firms in WPF and Silverlight development and design.

 

Privately, Laurent has also been active, developing websites and web applications in HTML, JavaScript, CSS, ASP, and currently ASP.NET. He has done his best to contribute to various developers communities, first in the JavaScript newsgroups, and then in Microsoft’s forums related to ASP.NET, C#, WPF, and Silverlight. He blogs regularly on http://blog.galasoft.ch and publishes articles, prototypes, and demos related to the mentioned technologies. Laurent became a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in 2007 for ASP.NET and then in 2008 for Client Application Development. In 2008, he also earned an MCTS for Windows Presentation Foundation.

 

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
About Code in This Book	p. 1
One Year Older	p. 2
Introducing Silverlight 3
Where Does Silverlight Come From?	p. 4
Automating Web Pages with JavaScript	p. 4
Cascading Style Sheets	p. 5
Progressing to DHTML	p. 6
Communicating in a Richer Way with AJAX	p. 7
Using Third-Party Plug-Ins	p. 7
Using Java Applets	p. 7
Using ActiveX Controls	p. 8
Using Flash Applications	p. 8
Running on Multiple Platforms	p. 9
Making the Web Application Secure	p. 10
Introducing Silverlight.net	p. 11
What Do You Need to Run Silverlight?	p. 11
Updating Your Runtime-Automatically	p. 12
Trying Silverlight Demos	p. 12
Playing Chess Against Silverlight	p. 13
Planning Your Trips with the Airline Application	p. 14
DeepZooming into the Hard Rock Cafeacute;	p. 15
Finding More Demos	p. 15
What Do You Need to Develop Silverlight?	p. 16
Expression Studio	p. 16
Visual Studio 2008	p. 17
Reading the Documentation	p. 17
Browsing the Online Reference	p. 18
Finding More Documentation	p. 18
Learning with Tutorials	p. 18
Looking into Silverlightrsquo;s Future	p. 19
Is ASP.NET/HTML/JavaScript Dead?	p. 19
Summary	p. 20
Understanding XAML 21
Using XML for Data	p. 21
Using XML for User Interfaces	p. 23
Understanding XML Namespaces	p. 23
Defining Additional Namespaces	p. 24
Creating a Canvas with Children	p. 25
Attaching Properties: Canvas.Left and Canvas.Top	p. 26
Documenting Your Markup with XML Comments	p. 27
Testing XAML Markup	p. 27
Using SilverlightPad	p. 27
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Introduction IntroductionWith the release of Windows Presentation Foundation (a new graphical user interface framework for Windows desktop applications) in 2006 and of Silverlight in 2008, client application development took a turn for the best. Microsoft boldly decided to abandon some concepts and technologies that had been used since the first release of Windows and to do something new and better. While it sometimes seems difficult to keep up with the pace of change imposed on software developers, this one is really worth it. Microsoft's bet on Silverlight and WPF is huge, and it cannot fail. These technologies represent the future of client application development.Because it runs on multiple platforms in a web browser plug-in that will soon be available on most of the rich clients accessing the Internet, because it can be deployed as easily as any web content and be served from any web server without additional infrastructure, and because of the rich graphic interfaces it allows to be built and the amazingly easy connectivity to remote services that it offers, Silverlight will be a major player in the world ofrich interactive applications(RIA). Silverlight is also a gateway to Windows Presentation Foundation, the client application technology that represents the future of Microsoft Windows programming for desktop computers.In a World Wide Web where Adobe Flash currently has a leading edge, Silverlight represents much more than just an alternative: It is the .NET way! Every .NET programmer will feel at home with Silverlight, because the libraries, the programming languages (C#, VB.NET, Ruby, Python), and the development environment (Visual Studio, Expression Studio) are the same. In addition, new concepts developed and refined in Windows Presentation Foundation are made available to Silverlight programmers, such as data binding, separation of behavior and looks, lookless controls that can be styled and templated at will in powerful design tools such as Expression Blend, a rich animation system, media integration, and so on. XAML, the new XML-based Application Markup Language developed by Microsoft, can be leveraged as a bridge between developers and designers to enable new workflows.This book is not and was never intended to be a complete reference of the Silverlight platform. Honestly, I am not even sure that you need a book for this: The Internet is at your disposal and has a better, more complete, and more actual reference base than any book can ever offer. No, this book is here to help you discover why programming is fun and why Silverlight is even more fun, and to contaminate you with the Silverlight virus. Complex concepts are explained in simple terms, with many hands-on demos and figures so that beginners as well as advanced developers quickly will feel at home. About Code in This BookWe tried to keep formatting as consistent as possible throughout the book and to make the code look like it does in Visual Studio. The code is color coded to help you work faster and recognize key concepts in XAML, C#, JavaScript, and HTML in Studio and in Expression Blend.The source code lines are only numbered where it is relevant, for example, when the text makes explicit reference to a line number.The whole source code for this book is available online at http://www.galasoft.ch/SL2U/Code . For C# code, a translation in VB.NET is also available, courtesy of this book's technical editor, J. Boyd Nolan. One Year OlderI started working on this book in September 2007, and I am now exactly one year older. Professionally speaking, it has been the most interesting year of my life. Since I started working as a developer in 1996, I have worked with many client technologies and programming languages, including C, VB, Java, HTML, CSS, Java