Silverlight 2 Recipes (eBook)

Jit Ghosh is an industry architect with the Developer Platform Evangelism team at Microsoft, working on digital media solutions. Jit has over 16 years of solutions architecture and software engineering experience with the last few years focused on the broadcast, digital content publishing and advertising space. You can read more about Jit's current work at http://blogs.msdn.com/jitghosh.

Contents at a Glance 5
Contents 6
Foreword 16
About the Authors 18
About the Technical Reviewer 19
Acknowledgments 20
Introduction 21
Who This Book Is For 21
How This Book Is Structured 22
Prerequisites 22
Downloading the Code 22
Contacting the Authors 22
A Quick Tour of Silverlight 2 Development 23
1-1. Setting Up the Silverlight 2 Environment 26
1-2. Integrating the Silverlight 2 SDK Documentation 27
1-3. Understanding the Structure of a Silverlight Solution 27
1-4. Understanding the Developer/ Designer Workflow 35
1-5. Understanding the Basics of Expression Blend 2 SP1 39
1-6. Accessing Source Control 45
1-7. Running Silverlight 2 on a Mac 45
1-8. Running Silverlight 2 on Linux 46
Application Design and Programming Model 47
2-1. Adding a Custom Class 48
2-2. Adding a Custom Control 53
2-3. Using the FindName Method 56
2-4. Dynamically Loading XAML from JavaScript 60
2-5. Dynamically Loading XAML from Managed Code 65
2-6. Persisting Data on the Client 66
2-7. Opening a Local File from a Silverlight Application 72
2-8. Accessing XML Data with an XmlReader 76
2-9. Accessing XML Data with LINQ 79
2-10. Managing Unhandled Exceptions 83
2-11. Executing Work on a Background Thread with Updates 85
2-12. Updating the UI from a Background Thread 94
2-13. Managing XAML Resources 98
2-14. Managing Embedded Resources 103
2-15. Creating Silverlight Ruby, Python, or JScript 107
Developing User Experiences 112
3-1. Importing from Expression Design 113
3-2. Working with Color and Gradients 115
3-3. Positioning UI Elements with a Canvas 124
3-4. Positioning UI Elements with a StackPanel 127
3-5. Positioning UI Elements with a Grid 131
3-6. Using Shapes to Draw 136
3-7. Using Paths to Draw 141
3-8. Using Geometries to Draw 147
3-9. Providing Scrollable Content 152
3-10. Applying a Border to Elements 154
3-11. Using Simple Animations with Objects 159
3-12. Animating UI Elements with Keyframes 166
3-13. Transforming an Object 176
3-14. Creating a Simple Cartoon Scene 181
3-15. Handling Keyboard Input 191
3-16. Working with Ink 197
Data Binding 203
4-1. Binding Application Data to the UI 203
4-2. Binding Using a DataTemplate 210
4-3. Receiving Change Notifications for Bound Data 217
4-4. Converting Values During Data Binding 230
4-5. Validating Input for Bound Data 241
Controls 255
A Word About the Samples 256
5-1. Customizing a Control’s Basic Appearance 256
5-2. Replacing the Default UI of a Control 258
5-3. Customizing the Default ListBoxItem UI 273
5-4. Displaying Information in a Pop-up 281
5-5. Displaying Row Details in a DataGrid 291
5-6. Applying Custom Templates to a DataGrid Cell 300
5-7. Creating Custom Column Types for a DataGrid 305
5-8. Creating a Composite User Control 312
5-9. Creating a Custom Layout Container 324
5-10. Creating a Custom Control 337
5-11. Defining a Custom Visual State 349
Browser Integration 360
6-1. Hosting Silverlight in HTML on Any Platform 360
6-2. Hosting Silverlight in ASP.NET 365
6-3. Setting Focus for Keyboard Input 367
6-4. Implementing a Full-Screen UI 373
6-5. Calling a JavaScript Method from Managed Code 380
6-6. Calling a Managed Code Method from JavaScript 388
6-7. Exchanging Data between Multiple Plug-ins 399
6-8. Embedding Silverlight within a Vista Gadget 404
Networking and Web Service Integration 419
A Quick Word About the Samples 420
7-1. Consuming a WCF Service 420
7-2. Exchanging XML Messages over HTTP 439
7-3. Using JSON Serialization over HTTP 450
7-4. Accessing Resources over HTTP 455
7-5. Using Sockets to Communicate over TCP 477
7-6. Enabling Cross-Domain Access 505
Integrating Rich Media 509
8-1. Adding Video to a Page 509
8-2. Creating a Complete Video Player 514
8-3. Adding Streaming Media Support 541
8-4. Using Playlists to Package Media 575
8-5. Using Markers to Display Timed Content 581
Index 596