Silverlight 4 Unleashed

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

Table of Contents:
Foreword xxiii Introduction 1 1 Three Years of Silverlight 7 Discovering Silverlight 4 7 Learning Silverlight Is Betting on the Future 8 How Can They Be So Fast? 9 How About Compatibility with Older Versions? 9 Cross-Browser and Cross-Platform Compatibility 10 Windows and Macintosh 11 Linux 12 Alternatives to Silverlight 12 In the Web Browser 12 Out of the Browser 13 Legacy Technologies 14 A Short History of Silverlight 15 Silverlight 1.0 16 Silverlight 2 16 Silverlight 3 16 And Silverlight 4 17 Previewing the Future of Silverlight 17 Installing Silverlight 4 as a User 18 Opening a Silverlight 4 Application 19 What to Do If Silverlight Is Not Installed? 19 Exploring Silverlight 4 Demos 19 Deep Zooming the Matterhorn 19 Getting Involved Socially with Sobees 20 Navigating with Bing Maps Streetside and PhotoSynth 21 Visualizing Information with the Pivot Viewer 23 Drawing on the Web with Fantasia 25 How Can You Get Involved? 25 Summary 26 2 Setting Up and Discovering Your Environment 27 Installing Visual Studio 27 Visual Studio 2010 27 Visual Web Developer Express 28 Installing the Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 28 Verifying the Installation 29 Inspecting the Application 31 Unpacking an XAP File 32 Using the Visual Studio Designer 32 Implementing Hello Silverlight 33 Checking the Properties Editor 34 Adding Some Text 36 Using Design Time Width and Height 39 Saving the Application 40 Installing Expression Blend 40 Creating a New Silverlight Application 40 Opening Hello Silverlight 41 Adding an Effect 42 Creating a Pulse Animation 44 Triggering the Storyboard 45 Testing the Application 46 Summary 47 3 Extending Your Application with Controls 49 Extending XAML 49 Mapping a Prefix to a CLR Namespace 49 Why Is a Prefix Not Always Needed? 52 Adding a Namespace to Any Element 52 Defining Your Own URI and Mapping CLR Namespaces 52 What’s a Control? 53 User Controls 53 Custom Controls 63 Summary 73 4 Investigating Existing Controls 75 Reviewing the Basics 75 Show Me Some Code! 76 Changes in Existing Controls 77 Mouse Wheel Support 77 Localizing for Right-to-Left Languages 77 Getting a Control Template’s Current State 78 Adding SelectedValue and SelectedValuePath 79 Adding Command and CommandParameter 79 Presenting and Editing Text with the RichTextBox 84 Zooming with the Viewbox 85 Opening a ChildWindow 87 Finding More Information 90 Where to Find Additional Controls? 90 Do You Really Need a Control? 90 The Silverlight Toolkit 91 Installing the Silverlight Toolkit 92 Third-Party Providers 101 Summary 102 5 Understanding Dependency Properties 103 Inheriting DependencyObject 104 Threading 104 Accessing a Dependency Property’s Value 105 Using a DependencyObject as Data Item 105 Registering Dependency Properties 108 Defining Metadata 109 Initializing Dependency Objects 111 Understanding Attached Properties 114 Using Attached Properties for Values 114 Registering an Attached Property 115 Using Custom Attached Properties in XAML 118 Implementing an Attached Behavior 118 Building on Attached Behaviors with Blend Behaviors 122 Adding a New Property with Snippets 123 Installing the Snippets for Silverlight 123 Using the Snippets 124 Calculating a Dependency Property’s Value 124 Getting the Property’s Base Value 126 Reading the Local Value 126 Summary 127 6 Working with Data: Binding, Grouping, Sorting, and Filtering 129 Diving into Data Bindings 130 Understanding a Binding’s Elements 130 Understanding the Namescope 132 Setting the Source 133 Refining the Path 136 Flowing in Two Directions 138 Converting the Values 138 Changing the Format 139 Handling Special Cases 141 Property Trigger 142 Validating Input 142 Using the Visual Studio Binding Dialog 146 Using the Expression Blend Binding Dialog 148 Debugging Data Bindings 149 Checking the Output Tab 149 Creating a Test Converter 150 Grouping, Filtering, and Sorting Data 151 Working with the CollectionViewSource 151 Using a PagedCollectionView 154 Binding Directly to the Source 154 Summary 155 7 Understanding the Model-View-ViewModel Pattern 157 About Design Patterns 157 Separating the Concerns 158 Why Is Separation Good? 158 Classic Separation Patterns 158 History of MVVM 159 Developing Expression Blend 160 Presentation Model for WPF and Silverlight 160 Architecture of MVVM 160 Translating to Silverlight 161 Two Kinds of View-models 162 Binding the View to the View-model 163 Understanding the Data Context 163 Inheriting the Data Context 164 Binding to the View 164 Building a Sample Application 168 The Model’s Interface 168 Building a CustomerViewModel 170 Calling the Service in the MainViewModel 172 Binding to Results 174 Testing the Application 177 Bridging the Separation 178 Implementing a ViewModelBase Class 178 Using Commands 180 Sending Messages 183 Using an MVVM Framework 184 What Could Be Better? 184 Summary 184 8 Using Data Controls 187 Filtering and Paging with the PagedCollectionView 188 Preparing the Sample 188 Building the PagedCollectionView 190 Filtering Data 192 Paging Through Data 194 Optimizing Data Handling 195 Implementing Custom Sorting 195 Adding a DataPager Control 196 Customizing the Display 197 Validating Data Input 197 Using Interface-Based Validation 198 Validating with Data Annotations 201 Validating Before or After the Data Is Set 203 Validating on the Client and on the Server 203 Reviewing the DataGrid 204 Using the DataGrid with Automatic Columns 204 Choosing Between DataGrid and ListBox 208 Editing Data in the DataForm 208 Adding a Description 210 Validating the Input 211 Committing Changes Manually 211 Defining Fields Manually 212 Getting More Information 213 Making a Simple Property Editor 213 Summary 214 9 Connecting to the Web 215 Getting Information from Cross-Domain Servers 216 Checking Whether a Policy File Exists 216 Working Around Cross-Domain Restrictions 217 Placing Simple Calls 218 Informing the User 218 Learning with a Sample 219 Downloading Strings 219 Detecting Errors, Checking the Result 223 Opening a Resource for Reading 224 Uploading a String 225 Opening a Resource for Writing 227 Accessing Headers 231 Sending Complex Messages 231 Posting a File to the Server with HttpWebRequest 231 Discovering the New Networking Stack 234 Using the Client HTTP Stack 235 Using Other HTTP Methods 236 Using the CookieContainer 236 Handling Responses 237 Handling XML Responses 238 Handling JSON Responses 238 Communicating with WCF 239 Setting Up a Service 239 Connecting the Client Application 241 Updating the Code on the Server 244 Publishing the Service 244 Summary 245 10 Creating Resources, Styles, and Templates 247 Working with Resources in XAML 248 Using Local Resources 248 Merging Dictionaries 249 From the Same Assembly 250 From a Different Assembly 251 Resolving Resources 254 Working with Resources in Blend 256 Merging a Resource Dictionary 256 Creating New Resources 257 Selecting a Resource for a Property 257 Using the Resources Panel 257 Cleaning Up Unused Resources 259 Using the Pistachio Tool 259 Styling a Control 260 Using Implicit Styles 261 Creating a Hierarchy of Styles 263 Creating a New Style in Blend 264 Templating a Control 265 Copying a Template in Blend 265 Creating a Custom Easing Function 269 Making a Control in Blend 270 Applying a Theme 271 Summary 272 11 Mastering Expression Blend 273 What Is Blend, Exactly? 274 Working as a Tool for Integrators 274 Editing XAML Markup 274 When Should You Use User Controls? 274 Making an Application Blend 275 Why Is Some Code Not Executed? 275 Why Does Some Code Fail? 275 Detecting the Cause of an Exception 276 Isolating Code in Design Mode 278 Creating Design Time Data in Blend 280 Understanding the Design-Time Data Context 288 Using Blend Behaviors 289 Behavior, Trigger, or Action? 292 Adding a Blend Behavior in Code 293 Creating a New Blend Behavior 293 Finding More Information 300 Summary 300 12 Sketching User Experience 301 Sketching as a Discovery Process 301 Using Sketching and Wireframing Tools 302 Other Kinds of Sketching 303 Discovering SketchFlow 304 Creating a New SketchFlow Application 305 Checking the Panels 305 Creating and Connecting Screens 305 Building the UI 308 Creating a Component Screen 309 Using Sketch Controls 310 Exploring the Sketch Controls 313 Creating States and Transitions 318 Building an Animation 321 Deploying the SketchFlow Application 323 Running the Prototype 323 Giving Feedback 324 Importing and Managing User Feedback 325 Importing and Exporting 325 Importing from Photoshop and Illustrator 326 Importing from PowerPoint 326 Exporting to Word 326 Integrating and Collaborating 327 Integrating into SharePoint 327 Integrating into Team Foundation Server 327 Summary 328 13 Creating Line-of-Business Applications 329 Preparing the Server-Side 331 Prerequisites 332 Preparing the Server-Side Application 332 Creating the Silverlight Client 333 Bringing the Client and the Server Together 334 Adding a Domain Service 334 Inspecting the Domain Service Class 335 Inspecting the Metadata 336 Creating a New Server-Side Query 336 Working with the Visual Designer 338 Understanding the DomainDataSource 339 Calling a Query with Parameter 339 Sorting the Data 341 Adding a Pager 341 Refactoring the Application to MVVM 342 Adding a View-model 342 Adapting the XAML Markup 345 Customizing the Columns 346 Localizing the User Interface 347 Adding a RelayCommand Class 348 Executing the CRUD Operations in Code 348 Displaying Messages from the View-model 351 Deleting an Order 354 Validating the Values 357 Filtering the Data 360 Showing Feedback While Processing 362 Sharing Code 363 Summary 363 14 Enhancing Line-of-Business Applications and Running Out of the Browser 365 Enhancing LOB Applications 365 Adding Paging 365 Showing Errors 369 Reconciling Data 371 Copying and Pasting Rows 373 Printing 373 Taking Silverlight Out of the Browser 382 Setting Up the Application 383 Uninstalling the Application 384 Debugging the OOB Application 385 Looking Under the Hood 386 Changing the Settings 387 Updating the Application 391 Installing from the Code 393 Saving Files 395 Working Offline 398 Summary 399 15 Developing Navigation Applications and Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 401 Navigating with Silverlight 401 Should You Always Use a Navigation Application? 404 Creating a New Navigation Application 404 Accessing Navigation Information 412 Providing Custom Navigation 413 Adding Navigation to a Non-Navigation Application 414 Developing with Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 415 Getting Hardware 416 Targeting a Specific Audience 416 Developing for Windows Phone 7 416 Developing for a Uniform Hardware Platform 417 Designing for the Phone 418 Installing the Tools 419 Selling Your Applications 420 Building Compatible Applications for the Desktop and the Phone 420 Continuing the Exploration 432 Summary 432 16 Using Effects and Recording Media 435 Creating Effects with Pixel Shaders 435 Writing, Finding, and Compiling Shader Files 436 Creating and Modifying Shaders with Shazzam 437 Integrating Shaders in the Application 438 Adding Properties and Animating Shaders 440 Using Shaders for Transitions in the VSM 443 Accessing the Webcam and the Microphone 443 Getting the List of Devices 444 Enabling Access 448 Displaying the Video Output 448 Detecting Whether Other Applications Use the Device 449 Capturing Audio 450 Converting to a WAV File 450 Creating a Sink 450 Using the SaveFileDialog 452 Using the Sink and Adding Commands 454 Wiring the Commands 456 Testing Audio Recording 457 Writing to a Bitmap 457 Saving the Picture to a PNG File 459 Manipulating Pixels 460 Extending WriteableBitmap 462 Using the Open File Dialog 464 Learning About News in Media 465 Summary 466 17 New Transforms, Right Click, HTML Browser, WebBrowserBrush, and Isolated Storage 467 Transforming Elements in a Projection 467 Setting Additional Properties 469 Using a Matrix3DProjection 470 Animating the PlaneProjection 470 Composing Transforms 472 Handling the Right-Click Event 473 Handling a Routed Event 473 Displaying a Context Menu 476 Hosting an HTML Browser (Out-of-the-Browser Only) 478 Understanding the Limitations 479 Building a Simple Web Browser 480 Loading HTML Content from Memory 484 Invoking JavaScript 485 Writing and Reading in the Isolated Storage 485 Saving to the Isolated Storage 485 Reading from the Isolated Storage 492 Deleting Files 495 Using the IsolatedStorageSettings 496 Trusting the Isolated Storage or Not 499 Painting with HTML 499 Summary 501 18 Drag and Drop, Full Screen, Clipboard, COM Interop, Duplex Polling, Notification Windows, and Splash Screens 503 Dragging and Dropping 503 Dragging Files on the Silverlight Application 504 Drag-and-Drop Restrictions 505 Working in Full Screen 507 Getting Keyboard Support in Full-Screen Mode (Elevated Permissions) 507 Using Full Screen on a Monitor While Working on Another 509 Copying to and from the Clipboard 510 Working with COM (Elevated Permissions) 512 Understanding the Restrictions 512 Communicating with Microsoft Office 512 Communicating over Duplex Polling 519 Implementing the Server-Side Service 519 Unregistering a Client 524 Configuring the Service 524 Implementing the Client 525 Unsubscribing and Resubscribing 528 Testing the Application 529 Displaying Notification Windows 530 Understanding the Restrictions 530 Adding a Notification Window 531 Queuing Notification Windows 533 Interacting with the Main Window 533 Creating a Custom Splash Screen 534 Summary 537 19 Authentication, Event to Command Binding, Random Animations, Multitouch, Local Communication, and Bing Maps Control 539 Logging In with Authentication 539 Creating a New Website 540 Adding and Managing Users 541 Configuring the Authentication Web Service 542 Checking the Access 544 Adding References to the Services 544 Implementing the Client 545 Binding an Event to a Command 547 Executing a Command When a TextBox Loses Focus 548 Building Random Animations 554 Creating the Base Animation in Blend 554 Randomizing the Animation 555 Implementing Multitouch in Silverlight 557 Getting the Right Computer 558 Investigating Existing Elements 559 Using Multitouch Libraries 560 Scaling, Rotating, and Translating 560 Implementing a Multitouch Application 561 Using Multitouch in Windows Phone 7 Applications 563 Finding More Information 563 Enabling Local Communication 563 Understanding the Restrictions 564 Building a Receiver 564 Building a Sender 565 Testing the Application 567 Mapping with the Bing Maps Control 567 Adding the Map 568 Getting Location Information and Marking It 569 Getting More Information 571 Summary 571 20 Building Extensible and Maintainable Applications 573 Inverting Dependencies with Unity 573 Refactoring to Smaller and Simpler Classes 575 Setting Up the Services 578 Calling the Setup Method and Wiring Up 582 Discovering More About Unity 583 Composing an Application with MEF 583 Exporting and Importing 584 Downloading on Demand 594 What About Prism? 603 Using an MVVM Framework 604 Discovering the Components 604 Sending Messages 604 Summary 607 21 Optimizing Performance 609 Improving the XAP Download Time 609 Loading Content on Demand 611 Caching Common Assemblies 615 Virtualizing the User Interface 616 Virtualizing the ItemsControl 617 Unvirtualizing the ListBox 619 Simplifying the DataTemplate 619 Creating Items in Batches 620 Working in Threads 621 Accelerating the User Interface 624 Enabling Hardware Acceleration in the Browser 624 Enabling Hardware Acceleration Out of the Browser 628 Accelerating with Care 629 Accelerating in the Windows Phone 7 630 Using a Code Profiler 630 Avoiding Memory Leaks 631 Saving an Object on the Stack or the Heap 631 Collecting Garbage and Leaking Memory 632 Living a Shorter Life 635 Unregistering Event Handlers 635 Disposing Objects 637 Using Weak References 637 Finding a Leak 638 Summary 639 22 Advanced Development Techniques 641 Using New C# and NET Features 641 Using Modern Programming Syntax 641 Creating Extension Methods 645 Consuming Dynamic Objects 646 Using Named/Optional Parameters 646 Localizing Applications 647 Adding a Resource File 647 Making an Application Localizable 648 Using Tools 651 Downloading Resource Applications on Demand 652 Encrypting and Decrypting 652 Understanding the Encryption/Decryption Mechanism 652 Multithreading 653 What Is a Thread? 653 Using the ThreadPool 654 Dispatching Back to the UI Thread 657 Creating and Using a BackgroundWorker 660 Locking Critical Resources 663 Enhancing Multithreaded Code 666 Unit Testing the Application 667 Installing a Unit Test Framework 668 Adding Functionality with TDD 668 Using Code Coverage 673 Unit Testing Windows Phone 7 Applications 673 Summary 674 Conclusion 675 Index 677