Book description
The fun and easy guide for building Silverlight 4 applications!
Silverlight is a Web browser plugin that enables functions such as animation, streaming media, vector graphics, and audio-video playback that characterize rich Internet applications. It only requires a simple download, after which most end-users are not even aware that it's running. This helpful guide covers everything you need to know in order to start creating applications in Silverlight 4 and then moves on to key topics such as controls, data binding, skinning, using Visual Studio tools, and more.
Whether you have just the most basic programming skills and are interested in learning to develop Silverlight apps or you are an experienced developer looking for an understandable guide on the newest version of Silverlight, Microsoft Silverlight 4 For Dummies is ideal for a wide audience.
The Silverlight plugin enables animation, streaming media, vector graphics, and audio-video playback
Shows you how to create applications in Silverlight 4
Covers important Silverlight topics including controls, data binding, skinning, animations, and more
Discusses how to best use the offering of tools from Visual Studio
Get enlightened and start creating Silverlight 4 applications with this book by your side.
Table of contents
- Copyright
- About the Authors
- Acknowledgements
- Publisher's Acknowledgments
- Introduction
-
I. Illuminating Silverlight
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1. Adding Silverlight to Your Web Development Toolkit
- 1.1. Obtaining and Running Silverlight
- 1.2. Checking Out Some Silverlight-Enhanced Sites
- 1.3. Grasping the Potential of Silverlight
- 1.4. Hosting a Silverlight Application in a Web Page
- 1.5. All the Stuff You Need to Create Silverlight Applications
- 1.6. Creating Rich User Experiences in Silverlight
- 1.7. Silverlight Plays Well with Others
- 1.8. Silverlight Has More to Offer Than Just a Pretty Face
- 2. Getting Started in Silverlight
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3. Enhancing the User Interface
- 3.1. Getting to Know the Properties Panel
- 3.2. Drawing Shapes on the Artboard
- 3.3. Shaping, Sizing, and Positioning Your Object
- 3.4. Rotating, Projecting in 3-D, and Doing Other Funky Things with Shapes
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3.5. Painting Colors with Brushes in the Properties panel
- 3.5.1. Filling an object with color
- 3.5.2. Using the Eyedropper tool
- 3.5.3. Mixing colors
- 3.5.4. Applying gradients for color transitions
- 3.5.5. Using the Gradient tool instead of setting gradients through the Properties panel
- 3.5.6. Manipulating gradients further with the Brush Transform tool
- 3.5.7. Adding special effects
- 3.6. Playing Around with Some Special Effects
- 3.7. Adding Video and Audio to Your Pages
-
1. Adding Silverlight to Your Web Development Toolkit
-
II. Managing Your Silverlight Controls
- 4. Working with Controls for UI Interactions
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5. Laying Out Controls
- 5.1. Understanding Layout Containers
- 5.2. Laying Out Controls in Rows and Columns
- 5.3. Stacking Controls Horizontally and Vertically
- 5.4. Wrapping Controls
- 5.5. Arranging Controls by Absolute Positioning Using the Canvas Control
- 5.6. Using the ScrollViewer to Scroll Through the Contents
- 5.7. Using the Viewbox to Fit the Contents Snugly
- 5.8. Grouping Controls into a Tabbed Page
- 5.9. Docking Controls
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6. Styling and Skinning Controls
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6.1. Applying Styles to Controls
- 6.1.1. Creating default styles for a control
- 6.1.2. Creating named styles for controls
- 6.1.3. Understanding the Style property
- 6.1.4. Understanding the XAML behind Style resources
- 6.1.5. Understanding styles as resources in the Resources panel
- 6.1.6. Applying styles to existing elements
- 6.1.7. Creating controls with existing styles
- 6.1.8. Creating new styles based on existing styles
- 6.2. Skinning a Control
- 6.3. Using Themes to Change the Look of All Controls
-
6.1. Applying Styles to Controls
- 7. Creating Your Own Controls
- 8. Creating Animations in Silverlight
- 9. Updating Data the Easy Way with Data Binding
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III. Connecting with Data
- 10. Accessing Data in Silverlight
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11. Using WCF Data Services to Store and Manage Data
- 11.1. Getting Started with WCF Data Services
- 11.2. What, Exactly, Is WCF Data Services?
- 11.3. Creating a WCF Data Service
- 11.4. Using the WCF Data Service in a Silverlight Application
- 11.5. Handling Data Concurrency
- 11.6. Using Query and Change Interceptors to Control Data Querying and Updates
- 11.7. Controlling Access to Entity Sets
- 12. Using WCF RIA Services in Silverlight
- 13. Accessing Data with WCF RIA Services
-
IV. The Part of Tens
- 14. Ten Cool Controls for Collecting and Displaying Data
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15. Ten Ways to Get More Out of Silverlight
- 15.1. Using SketchFlow to Prototype Your Application
- 15.2. Using Deep Zoom Composer
- 15.3. Creating Designs Using Expression Design
- 15.4. Importing Designs from Other Applications
- 15.5. Creating Your Own Behaviors
- 15.6. Running Silverlight Out of the Browser
- 15.7. Calling Silverlight code via JavaScript
- 15.8. Accessing HTML from Silverlight
- 15.9. Storing Data Locally in the Client
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16. Ten Handy Tips for Writing Silverlight Applications
- 16.1. Resources about Silverlight Beyond This Book
- 16.2. Ten Handy Expression Blend Shortcuts
- 16.3. Ten Handy Visual Studio Shortcuts
- 16.4. Debugging Silverlight Applications
- 16.5. Looking Out for Performance Pitfalls
- 16.6. Building for Accessibility
- 16.7. Internationalization and Localization
- 16.8. Build Composite Applications Using Prism
- 16.9. Use the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) Pattern to Manage Large Applications
- 16.10. Handy Tools
Product information
- Title: Silverlight™ 4 For Dummies®
- Author(s):
- Release date: April 2010
- Publisher(s): For Dummies
- ISBN: 9780470524657
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