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Overview
Foundation Expression Blend 4 with Silverlight takes you through your first steps in creating rich Internet applications (RIAs) using the latest release of Microsoft’s technology. You’ll explore features such as custom user controls that you can reuse throughout your projects and the media element that allows you to easily add sound and video to your applications. Silverlight 4 enables you to rapidly develop compelling, cross-platform RIAs using the extensive .NET 4 libraries, the powerful, design friendly Blend 4 integrated development environment (IDE), and an enhanced workflow that allows designers and developers to work on the same set of files at the same time. At the end, you’ll put everything you have learned together to create a sample Silverlight 4 website.
Whether you’re an experienced .NET or web developer, or you’re just starting out, this book will provide you with all you need to create RIAs with Expression Blend 4.
- Develop stunning RIAs in a short time using Blend 4 and Silverlight 4.
- Learn basic object-oriented programming principles.
- Get familiar with the Blend 4 development environment.
- Learn the Blend 4 and Visual Studio 2010 IDEs.
- Learn how to create stunning animations using Silverlight 4 Storyboards and incorporate video and sound into your RIAs with the Silverlight MediaElement.
- Learn how to develop quickly and efficiently using Silverlight 4’s reusable resources such as UserControls, ControlTemplates and DataTemplates.
- Learn about the Visual State Manager and the State panel in Blend 4 to easily add MouseEnter and MouseLeave states to your UserControls.
- Put everything you have learned together to create a sample Silverlight 4 website.
Web designers and developers wanting to learn Expression Blend 4 from the ground up. Those who have a background in the development of RIAs and want to learn this new technology.
Table of Contents
- Setting Up the Silverlight Development Environment
- The Blend Integrated Development Environment
- C#, XAML, and Object-Oriented Programming
- Layout Controls: Including the New Silverlight 4 Controls: Viewbox, RichTextBox, FlowDirection Property, and Improved Data Binding
- Timed Storyboards: Creating a Newton Cradle Application
- Using VSM and Blend 4’s State Panel to Create a Silverlight Media Player
- Behaviors in Silverlight
- The Silverlight MediaElement: Create a Video Player with a Custom UserControl, XML De-serialization, and Behaviors
- Events and EventHandlers
- Classes and Interfaces
- Styles, Control Templates, and Custom UserControls
- Writing a Custom Content Panel
- Writing a Silverlight 4 Out-Of-Browser Application with Elevated Trust and the New Silverlight 4 COM API
- Creating a Photobooth Application with the Silverlight 4 Webcam API
- MVVM: Model-View-ViewModel
- SketchFlow Prototyping
- New Features of Silverlight 4
Synopsis
In this book, you'll learn how to: Set up the Silverlight development environment using Blend 4 and Visual Studio Use popular controls such as the MediaElement to create a video player Place content controls such as Grids and Canvases to build flexible User Interfaces Create complex animation via Storyboards Drag and drop complex functionality with Behaviors
Foundation Expression Blend 4 with Silverlight
This book will lead you through your first experiences with Blend 4, starting from setting up the development environment and learning the tools you need to develop your own stunning Silverlight applications. Foundation Expression Blend 4 with Silverlight is full of step-by-step walkthroughs of real-world sample programs that you can follow to learn the basics, and then adapt to create your own Silverlight RIAs.
In addition to the Blend development environment, the book also covers the essentials of Visual Studio, and many of the sample applications are developed by switching between the two environments, making the most of Blend's design tools, and Visual Studio's advanced C# coding capabilities. After learning the basics of each tool, you are introduced to more complex concepts, such as adding animation via Storyboards, adding multimedia via the MediaElement, creating re-usable UserControls, and adding dynamic functionality via drag and drop Behaviors.
Silverlight is rapidly gaining traction on the web, and Silverlight developers are more in-demand than ever. This book contains all you need to build your portfolio and kickstart your RIA-building career.