Microsoft Silverlight 4 for Dummies (ISBN - 0470524650)

387 Pages·2021·5.58 MB·English

Mahesh Krishnan
Philip Beadle

Learn to:
• Develop seamless cross-platform,
cross-browser Web applications

• Design visually rich user interfaces
with ease

• Use Expression Blend™ and Visual
Studio® with Silverlight

• Deliver application data efficiently
with WCF RIA Services and ADO.NET

Silverlight

™ 4

Making Everything Easier!™

Visit the companion Web site at www.dummies.com/go/
silverlight4fd to find all the code used in this book and
save yourself time and effort

Open the book and find:

• How Silverlight delivers a rich user
experience

• Clear examples of XAML

• Tips on drawing shapes and doing
animation

• Advice on the best tools to use
with Silverlight

• Effective ways to work with
controls

• How to customize controls and
create your own

• Ten ways to get more from
Silverlight

• How to connect to your data on
demand

Mahesh Krishnan develops Web applications using Microsoft technologies
and speaks regularly at conferences. He is very active within the .NET
and Silverlight communities. Philip Beadle is a Senior Developer at
DotNetNuke and speaks at numerous conferences. He is a coauthor of
DotNetNuke For Dummies and has contributed to other books. Both are
senior consultants at Readify.

$29.99 US / $35.99 CN / £21.99 UK

ISBN 978-0-470-52465-7

Technology/Graphics Programming

Go to Dummies.com®

for videos, step-by-step examples,
how-to articles, or to shop!

Make your rich Internet
applications shine on multiple
browsers and platforms

Silverlight makes stunning Web effects — animation,
streaming media, audiovisual playback — easier than you
could have imagined. Whether you’re new to Web design
or just to Silverlight, this book is packed with all the info you
need to start creating applications using Visual Studio and
Expression Blend.

• Getting started — find out what you need to get started with
Silverlight and download the necessary tools

• Gain control — style and manipulate Silverlight controls such as
text boxes and buttons, and create your own

• Make it move — enrich your user interface with animations that
upload fast and don’t devour bandwidth

• Stick things together — understand data binding and how it
supports your applications and streamlines programming

• Much ADO about data — work with ADO.NET Data Services and
WCF RIA Services to create versatile business applications

Krishnan
Beadle

spine=.768”

Microsoft®

Silverlight

™ 4

Microsoft
®

Mobile Apps

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www.Dummies.com/go/iphone/apps from your phone.

spine=.768”

Start with FREE Cheat Sheets

Cheat Sheets include

• Checklists

• Charts

• Common Instructions

• And Other Good Stuff!

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Get More and Do More at Dummies.com®

To access the Cheat Sheet created specifically for this book, go to
www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/silverlight4

by Mahesh Krishnan and Philip Beadle

Silverlight

™ 4

FOR
DUMmIES

‰

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Silverlight™ 4 For Dummies®

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit-
ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written
permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the
Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone].
Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley
& Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://
www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the
Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything
Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/
or its affi liates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission.
Silverlight is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any
product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO
REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF
THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITH-
OUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE
CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES
CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE
UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR
OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF
A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE
AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION
OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FUR-
THER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFOR-
MATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE.
FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE
CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care
Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may
not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010924585

ISBN: 978-0-470-52465-7

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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About the Authors

Mahesh Krishnan has been a geek all his life and proud of it. He works
as a Principal Consultant at Readify and is passionate about Software
Architecture and new technologies. He has been working in the IT industry
since 1992 and has worked on a range of projects, from shrink-wrapped prod-
ucts to large-enterprise applications across the globe. He is currently based
in Melbourne, Australia, and runs the local .NET Developer user group. He
also helped start the Silverlight Designer and Developers Network, a group
that focuses on spreading the Silverlight message to both the developer and
designer communities. He blogs at blogesh.wordpress.com, is very active
in the developer community, and has presented a number of times at user
groups, hands-on days, code camps, and Tech.Ed. He is married to Lakshmi
and they have a wonderful three-year-old daughter, Riya.

Philip Beadle is a founding member of the DotNetNuke Core Team, a
DotNetNuke Trustee, a Microsoft Certifi ed Application Developer, and
a Microsoft Certifi ed Trainer. Philip now works for the DotNetNuke
Corporation, an open source content management system built in ASP.NET,
and was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award in
ASP/ASP.NET in 2004. Philip also helped start the Silverlight Designer and
Developers Network with Mahesh Krishnan and Jordan Knight. He speaks at
many conferences, including Tech Ed, ReMIX, and DotNetNuke OpenForce,
and speaks at local user group gatherings as well. Philip and Lorraine have a
beautiful one-year-old daughter, Allegra Rose. You can visit Philip’s Web site
at http://www.philipbeadle.net.

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Dedication

To my loving parents, without whom I wouldn’t be who I am today, my
daughter Riya, who constantly kept closing my notebook while writing the
book so that I could play with her, and to my wife, Lakshmi, for putting up
with me while I spent all my spare time on the book.

Mahesh Krishnan

To my wife, Lorraine, who supports me in all my endeavors, and to my
darling daughter, Allegra Rose, who always brings a smile to my face and joy
to my day.

Philip Beadle

Acknowledgements

Writing a book is hard. Writing a book for Dummies is even harder — trying
to articulate something in a way for someone with very little or no knowl-
edge of the topic to understand is not easy. Making the book easy to read
and ensuring that it is technically correct is, as I said, hard. Thankfully, I had
some help along the way.

First and foremost, I would like to thank Susan Christophersen, the Project
Editor, for hand holding me through the entire process. Susan, thanks for
the guidance and all the work you’ve put into this book. The book is a huge
improvement from the fi rst cut that I sent you and most of the credit for that
should go to you.

I would also like to thank Jordan Knight and Russ Mullen for diligently read-
ing through the content and looking for technical errors, as well as providing
valuable feedback.

A big thanks also to Katie Feltman and Wiley Publishing for providing me an
opportunity to write this book.

Mahesh Krishnan

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Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com.
For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974,
outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions and Editorial

Project Editor and Copy Editor:
Susan Christophersen

Acquisitions Editor: Katie Feltman

Technical Editors: Jordan Knight, Russ Mullen

Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen

Media Development Project Manager:
Laura Moss-Hollister

Media Development Assistant Project
Manager: Jenny Swisher

Media Development Associate Producers:
Josh Frank, Marilyn Hummel,
Douglas Kuhn, Shawn Patrick

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Graham

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cartoons: Rich Tennant
(www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Katherine Crocker

Layout and Graphics: Joyce Haughey,
Christin Swinford, Erin Zeltner

Proofreaders: Laura Albert, Laura Bowman,
John Greenough

Indexer: BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

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Contents at a Glance

Introduction ................................................................ 1

Part I: Illuminating Silverlight ...................................... 7

Chapter 1: Adding Silverlight to Your Web Development Toolkit ...............................9
Chapter 2: Getting Started in Silverlight .......................................................................23
Chapter 3: Enhancing the User Interface ......................................................................49

Part II: Managing Your Silverlight Controls ................. 81

Chapter 4: Working with Controls for UI Interactions ................................................83
Chapter 5: Laying Out Controls ...................................................................................107
Chapter 6: Styling and Skinning Controls ...................................................................127
Chapter 7: Creating Your Own Controls .....................................................................149
Chapter 8: Creating Animations in Silverlight ............................................................171
Chapter 9: Updating Data the Easy Way with Data Binding .....................................191

Part III: Connecting with Data .................................. 211

Chapter 10: Accessing Data in Silverlight ...................................................................213
Chapter 11: Using WCF Data Services to Store and Manage Data ...........................249
Chapter 12: Using WCF RIA Services in Silverlight ....................................................285
Chapter 13: Accessing Data with WCF RIA Services .................................................297

Part IV: The Part of Tens .......................................... 319

Chapter 14: Ten Cool Controls for Collecting and Displaying Data ........................321
Chapter 15: Ten Ways to Get More Out of Silverlight ...............................................329
Chapter 16: Ten Handy Tips for Writing Silverlight Applications ...........................343

Index ...................................................................... 351

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