Silverlight 4 Unleashed 0672333361, 9780672333368

Citation preview

Laurent Bugnion

Silve rligh t ™

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVU

4

I UN LEASH ED

8 0 0 East 9 6 t h St reet , Indianapolis, Indiana 4 6 2 4 0 USA

Si l verl i ght ™ 4 Unleashed

Ed i t o r -i n -Ch i ef zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Ka r e n Ge t t m a n

Co p yr i gh t © 2 0 1 1 by Pe ar so n Ed u cat i o n All r i gh t s r e se r v e d . No p ar t of t h i s b o o k sh al l b e r ep r o d u ced , st o r e d In a r et r ieval sy st e m , or t r an sm i t t e d by an y m e a n s, el ect r o n i c, m e ch an i cal , p h o t o co p yi n g, r eco r d i n g, or o t h er w i se, w it h o u t w r it t en p e r m i ssi o n f r o m t h e p u b lish er . No p at en t liabilit y Is a ssu m e d w it h r e sp e ct t o t h e u se of t h e In f o r m at i o n co n t ai n e d h er ei n . Al t h o u gh ever y p r ecau t i o n h a s b e e n t ak e n In t h e p r ep ar at i o n of t h i s b o o k, t h e p u b l i sh er an d au t h o r

Exe cu t i ve Ed i t o r N e i l Ro w e

De ve l o p m e n t Ed i t o r M a r k Re n f r o w

a ssu m e no r esp o n si b i l i t y f or er r o r s or o m i ssi o n s. Nor Is an y liabilit y a ssu m e d f or d a m a g e s r esu l t i n g f r o m t h e u se of t h e In f o r m at i o n co n t ai n e d h er ei n .

M a n a g i n g Ed i t o r

I SBN - 1 3 : 9 7 8 - 0 - 6 7 2 - 3 3 3 3 6 - 8

Kr i st y H a r t

I SBN - 1 0 : 0 - 6 7 2 - 3 3 3 3 6 - 1

Pr o j ect Ed i t o r Li b r ar y of Co n g r e ss Cat al o gi n g-l n -Pu b l l cat i o n Dat a

A n d y B e a st e r

Bu gn l o n , Lau r en t .

Co p y Ed i t o r

Si l ver l i gh t 4 u n l e a sh e d / Lau r en t Bu gn i o n .

Ke i t h Cl i n e

p. cm . I n cl u d e s In d ex.

I n d e xe r

I SBN 9 7 8 - 0 - 6 7 2 - 3 3 3 3 6 - 1 1.

Si l ver l i gh t (El ect r o n i c r e so u r ce ) 2 .

M u l t i m ed i a sy st e m s. 3. Ap p l i cat i o n so f t w ar e —

Dev el o p m en t . 4. W eb si t e d evel o p m en t . 5 . (Co m p u t er sy st e m s)

In t er n et p r o gr am m i n g. 6 .

User In t er f aces

I. Tit le.

Br a d H e r r i m a n

Pr o o f r e a d e r Je n n i f e r Ga l l a n t

Q A 7 6 . 5 7 5 . B8 3 9 2 0 1 1 006.7' 6— d c22

Te ch n i ca l Ed i t o r 2010040175

Pe t e r Br o m b e r g

Pr i n t ed In t h e Un it ed St a t e s o n Am e r i ca

Pu b l i sh i n g

Fi r st Pr in t in g Oct o b er 2 0 1 0

Co o r d i n a t o r

Tradem ark s

Ci n d y Te e t e r s

All t e r m s m en t i o n ed In t h i s b o o k t h at ar e kn o w n t o b e t r a d e m a r k s or se r v i ce m a r k s h ave b e e n ap p r o p r i at el y cap i t al i zed . Sa m s Pu b l i sh i n g can n o t at t est t o t h e accu r acy of

B o o k De si g n e r

t h i s In f o r m at i o n . U se of a t er m In t h i s b o o k sh o u l d not b e r egar d ed a s af f ect i n g t h e

Ga r y A d a i r

val i d i t y of an y t r ad e m ar k or se r v i ce m ar k .

Co m p o s i t i o n

Warning and Disclaim er

Gl o r i a Sc h u r i c k

Ever y ef f o r t h a s b e e n m ad e t o m ak e t h i s b o o k a s co m p l e t e an d a s accu r at e a s p o ssi b l e, but no w ar r an t y or f i t n e ss Is i m p l i ed . Th e In f o r m at i o n p r o vi d ed Is o n an " a s i s" b a si s. Th e au t h o r an d t h e p u b l i sh er sh al l h ave n eit h er liabilit y nor r esp o n si b i l i t y t o an y p e r so n or ent it y w it h r e sp e ct t o an y l o ss or d a m a g e s ar i si n g f r o m t h e In f o r m at i o n co n t ai n e d In t h i s b o o k or f r o m t h e u se of t h e p r o gr am s acco m p an y i n g It .

Bulk Sales Sa m s Pu b l i sh i n g o f f er s excel l en t d i sco u n t s o n t h i s b o o k w h en o r d er ed In q u an t i t y f o r b u l k p u r ch a se s or sp e ci a l sa l e s. For m o r e In f o r m at i o n , p l e ase co n t act

U.S. Corp ora t e a nd Gove rnm e nt Sa le s 1 -8 0 0 -3 8 2 -3 4 1 9 corp sa le s@p e a rson t e ch grou p .com For sa l e s o u t si d e of t h e U . S. , p l e ase co n t act

I nt e rna t iona l Sa le s int e rna t iona l@pe a rsone d.com

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJ

Conte nts at a Gla nce

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGF

Foreword

xxiii

Introduction

1

1

Three Years of Silverlight

7

2

Setting Up and Discovering Your Environment

27

3

Extending Your Application w ith Controls

49

4

Investigating Existing Controls

75

5

Understanding Dependency Properties

103

6

Working w ith Data: Binding, Grouping, Sorting, and Filtering

129

7

Understanding the Model-View-ViewModel Pattern

157

8

Using Data Controls

187

9

Connecting to the Web

215

10

Creating Resources, Styles, and Templates

247

11

Mastering Expression Blend

273

12

Sketching User Experience

301

13

Creating Line-of-Business Applications

329

14

Enhancing Line-of-Business Applications and Running Out of the Browser

15

365

Developing Navigation Applications and Silverlight for Windows Phone 7

401

16

Using Effects and Recording Media

435

17

New Transforms, Right Click, HTML Browser, WebBrowserBrush, and Isolated Storage

18

Drag and Drop, Full Screen, Clipboard, COM Interop, Duplex Polling, Notification Windows, and Splash Screens

19

467 503

A uthentication, Event to Co mmand Binding, Random A nimations, Multitouch, Local Co mmunicatio n, and Bing Maps Control

539

Building Extensible and Maintainable Applications

573

21

Optimizing Performance

609

22

Advanced Development Techniques

641

Conclusion

675

Index

677

20

Table of Conte nts

Foreword

1

xxiii

Introduction

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 A bout Co mpatibility w ith Older Versions? Cross-Brow ser and Cross-Platform Co mpatibility

9 10

Windo w s and Macinto sh

11

Linux

12

A lternatives to Silverlight

12

In the Web Browser

12

Out of the Browser

13

Legacy Techno lo gies A Sho rt History of Silverlight

14 15

Silverlight 1.0

16

Silverlight 2

16

Silverlight 3

16

A nd Silverlight 4

17

Preview ing the Future of Silverlight

17

Installing Silverlight 4 as a User

18

Opening a Silverlight 4 A pplication W hat to Do If Silverlight Is Not Installed? Exploring Silverlight 4 Demo s Deep Z o o ming the Matterho rn

19 19 19 19

Getting Involved Socially w ith Sobees

20

Navigating w ith Bing Maps Streetside and Pho to Synth

21

Visualizing Info rmatio n w ith the Pivot Viewer

23

Draw ing on the Web w ith Fantasia

25

How Can You Get Involved?

25

Summary

26

Co n t e n t s

2

Se tting Up and Discovering Your Environm ent

Installing Visual Studio

27 27

Visual Web Developer Express

28

Installing the Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio

28

Verifying the Installatio n

29

Inspecting the A pplication

31

Unpacking an XAP File

32

Using the Visual Studio Designer

32 33

Checking the Properties Editor

34

Adding So me Text

36

Using Design Time Wid th and Height

39

Saving the A pplication

40

Installing Expression Blend

40

Creating a New Silverlight A pplication

40

Opening Hello Silverlight

41

Adding an Effect

42

Creating a Pulse A nimatio n

44

Triggering the Storyboard

45

Testing the A pplication

46

Summary

47

Extending Your Applica tion with Controls

49

Extending XAML

49

Mapping a Prefix to a CLR Namespace

49

W hy Is a Prefix Not Always Needed?

52

Adding a Namespace to Any Element

52

Defining Your Own URI and Mapping CLR Namespaces W hat's a Co ntro l?

4

27

Visual Studio 2010

Implementing Hello Silverlight

3

v

52 53

User Co ntro ls

53

Custo m Co ntro ls

63

Summary

73

Investiga ting Existing Controls

75

Review ing the Basics

75

Show Me So me Code!

76

Changes in Existing Co ntro ls

77

Mouse W heel Support

77

Localizing for Right-to-Left Languages

77

Getting a Co ntro l Template's Current State

78

zyxwvutsrqponm

vi

Si l v e r l i g h t 4

Un l e a s h e d

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Adding zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Se l e c t e dVa l ue and Se l e c t e dVa l ue Pa t h 79 Adding Comma nd and Comma ndPa r a me t e r

79

Presenting and Editing Text w ith the Ri c hTe xt Box

84

Z o o ming w ith the Vi e wbox

85

Opening a Chi l dWi ndow

87

Finding More Info rmatio n

90

W here to Find A dditional Co ntro ls?

90

Do You Really Need a Co ntro l?

90

The Silverlight Toolkit

91

Installing the Silverlight Toolkit Third-Party Providers

5

Summary

102

Understa nding Dependency Properties

103

Inheriting De pe nde nc yObj ect

104

Threading

104

A ccessing a Depend ency Property's Value

105

Using a De pe nde nc yObj ect as Data Item

105

Registering Depend ency Properties Defining Metadata Initializing Depend ency Objects Understanding A ttached Properties

108 109 Ill 114

Using A ttached Properties for Values

114

Registering an A ttached Property

115

Using Custo m A ttached Properties in XAML

118

Implementing an A ttached Behavior

118

Building on A ttached Behaviors w ith Blend Behaviors Adding a New Property w ith Snippets

122 123

Installing the Snippets for Silverlight

123

Using the Snippets

124

Calculating a Depend ency Property's Value Getting the Property's Base Value Reading the Local Value

6

92 101

124 126 126

Summary

127

W orking with Da ta : 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

Co n t e n t s

vii

Flow ing in Two Directio ns

138

Co nverting the Values

138

Changing the Format

139

Handling Special Cases

141

Property Trigger

142

Validating Input

142

Using the Visual Studio Binding Dialog

zyxwvutsrqponm

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 w ith thezyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Col l e c t i onVi e wSour c e 151

7

Using a Pa ge dCol l e c t i onVi e w

154

Binding Directly to the Source

154

Summary

155

Understa nding the M odel-View-ViewM odel Pa ttern

157

A bout Design Patterns

157

Separating the Co ncerns

158

W hy Is Separation Go o d?

158

Classic Separation Patterns

158

History of MVVM

159

Developing Expression Blend

160

Presentatio n Model for WPF and Silverlight

160

A rchitecture of MVVM Translating to Silverlight Two Kinds of View -models Binding the View to the View -model

160 161 162 163

Understanding the Data Co ntext

163

Inheriting the Data Co ntext

164

Binding to the View

164

Building a Sample A pplication

168

The Model's Interface

168

Building a Cus t ome r Vi e wMode l

170

Calling the Service in the Ma i nVi e wMode l

172

Binding to Results

174

Testing the A pplication

177

Bridging the Separation Implementing a Vi e wMode l Ba s e Class

178 178

Using Co mmand s

180

Sending Messages

183

viii

Si l v e r l i g h t 4

8

Un l e a s h e d

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Using an MVVM Framew ork

184

W hat Could Be Better?

184

Summary

184

Using Data Controls

187

Filtering and Paging w ith thezyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Pa ge dCol l e c t i onVi e w 188 Preparing the Sample

190

Filtering Data

192

Paging Thro ugh Data

194

Optimizing Data Handling

195

Implementing Custo m Sorting

195

Adding a Da t a Pa ge r Co ntro l Custo mizing the Display Validating Data Input

196 197 197

Using Interface-Based Validation

198

Validating w ith Data A nno tatio ns

201

Validating Before or After the Data Is Set

203

Validating on the Client and on the Server

203

Review ing the Da t a Gr i d

204

Using the Da t a Gr i d w ith A uto matic Co lumns

204

Cho o sing Betw een Da t a Gr i d and Li s t Box

208

Editing Data in the Da t a For m

9

188

Building the Pa ge dCol l e c t i onVi e w

208

Adding a Description

210

Validating the Input

211

Co mmitting Changes Manually

211

Defining Fields Manually

212

Getting More Info rmatio n

213

Making a Simple Property Editor

213

Summary

214

Conne cting to the W eb

215

Getting Info rmatio n fro m Cross-Domain Servers

216

Checking W hether a Policy File Exists

216

Working A round Cross-Domain Restrictions

217

Placing Simple Calls

218

Info rming the User

218

Learning w ith a Sample

219

Do w nlo ading Strings

219

Detecting Errors, Checking the Result

223

Opening a Resource for Reading

224

Uploading a String

225

Co n t e n t s

Opening a Resource for Writing A ccessing Headers Sending Co mplex Messages

ix

zyxwvutsrqponm

227 231 231

Posting a File to the Server w ithzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDC Ht t pWe bRe que s t 231 Discovering the New Netw orking Stack

234

Using the Client HTTP Stack

235

Using Other HTTP Metho d s

236

Using the Cooki e Cont a i ne r Handling Responses Handling XML Responses

238

Handling JSON Responses

238

Co mmunicating w ith WCF

239

Setting Up a Service

239

Co nnecting the Client A pplication

241

Updating the Code on the Server

244

Publishing the Service

10

236 237

244

Summary

245

Crea ting Resources, Style s, and Tem plates

247

Working w ith Resources in XAML

248

Using Local Resources

248

Merging Dictio naries

249

From the Same A ssembly

250

From a Different A ssembly

251

Resolving Resources

254

Working w ith Resources in Blend

256

Merging a Resource Dictio nary

256

Creating New Resources

257

Selecting a Resource for a Property

257

Using the Resources Panel

257

Cleaning Up Unused Resources Using the Pistachio Tool Styling a Co ntro l

259 259 260

Using Implicit Styles

261

Creating a Hierarchy of Styles

263

Creating a New Style in Blend Templating a Co ntro l

264 265

Copying a Template in Blend

265

Creating a Custo m Easing Functio n

269

Making a Co ntro l in Blend

270

Applying a Theme

271

Summary

272

x

Si l v e r l i g h t 4

11

Un l e a s h e d

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

M a stering Expression Blend

273

W hat Is Blend, Exactly?

274

Working as a Tool for Integrators

274

Editing XAML Markup

274

W hen Sho uld You Use User Co ntro ls? Making an A pplication Blend W hy Is So me Code Not Executed?

275

W hy Does So me Code Fail?

275

Detecting the Cause of an Exceptio n

276

Isolating Code in Design Mode

278

Creating Design Time Data in Blend

280

Understanding the Design-Time Data Co ntext

288

Using Blend Behaviors

12

274 275

289

Behavior, Trigger, or A ction?

292

Adding a Blend Behavior in Code

293

Creating a New Blend Behavior

293

Finding More Info rmatio n

300

Summary

300

Sk etching 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 A pplication

305

Checking the Panels

305

Creating and Co nnecting Screens

305

Building the UI Creating a Co mp o nent Screen

308 309

Using Sketch Co ntro ls

310

Exploring the Sketch Co ntro ls

313

Creating States and Transitions

318

Building an A nimatio n

321

Deploying the SketchFlow A pplication

323

Running the Prototype

323

Giving Feedback

324

Impo rting and Managing User Feedback

325

Impo rting and Exporting

325

Impo rting from Pho to sho p and Illustrator

326

Impo rting from Pow erPoint

326

Exporting to Word

326

Co n t e n t s

Integrating and Co llabo rating

13

327

Integrating into SharePo int

327

Integrating into Team Fo undatio n Server

327

Summary

328

Crea ting Line-of-Business Applica tions

329

Preparing the Server-Side

331

Prerequisites

332

Preparing the Server-Side A pplication

332

Creating the Silverlight Client

333

Bringing the Client and the Server Together

334

Adding a Do main Service

334

Inspecting the Do main Service Class

335

Inspecting the Metadata

336

Creating a New Server-Side Query Working w ith the Visual Designer

336 338

Understanding the Do mainDataSo urce

339

Calling a Query w ith Parameter

339

Sorting the Data

341

Adding a Pager

341

Refactoring the A pplication to MVVM

342

Adding a View -model

342

A dapting the XAML Markup

345

Custo mizing the Co lumns

346

Localizing the User Interface

347

Adding a RelayCo mmand Class

348

Executing the CRUD Operatio ns in Code

348

Displaying Messages fro m the View -model

351

Deleting an Order

354

Validating the Values

357

Filtering the Data

360

Show ing Feedback W hile Processing

362

Sharing Code

363

Summary 14

xi

363

Enha ncing Line-of-Business Applica tions and Running Out of the Browser

365

Enhancing LOB A pplications

365

Adding Paging

365

Show ing Errors

369

Reco nciling Data

371

Copying and Pasting Rows

373

Printing

373

zyxwvutsrqponm

xii

Si l v e r l i g h t 4

Un l e a s h e d

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Taking Silverlight Out of the Browser

382

Setting Up the A pplication

383

Uninstalling the A pplication

384

Debugging the OOB A pplication

385

Looking Under the Hood

386

Changing the Settings

387

Updating the A pplication

391

Installing fro m the Code

393

Saving Files

395

Working Offline Summary 15

398 399

Developing Navigation Applica tions and Silverlight for W indows Phone 7

401

Navigating w ith Silverlight

401

Sho uld You Always Use a Navigation A pplication?

404

Creating a New Navigation A pplication

404

A ccessing Navigation Info rmatio n

412

Providing Custo m Navigation

413

Adding Navigation to a Non-Navigation A pplication Developing w ith Silverlight for Window s Pho ne 7

414 415

Getting Hardware

416

Targeting a Specific A udience

416

Developing for Windo w s Pho ne 7

416

Developing for a Unifo rm Hardware Platform

417

Designing for the Pho ne

418

Installing the Tools

419

Selling Your A pplications

420

Building Co mpatible A pplications for the Desktop and the Pho ne Co ntinuing the Explo ratio n

16

420 432

Summary

432

Using Effects and Recording M edia

435

Creating Effects w ith Pixel Shaders

435

Writing, Finding, and Co mpiling Shader Files

436

Creating and Modifying Shaders w ith Shazzam

437

Integrating Shaders in the A pplication

438

Adding Properties and A nimating Shaders

440

Using Shaders for Transitions in the VSM

443

Co n t e n t s

A ccessing the Webcam and the Micro p ho ne

xiii

443

Getting the List of Devices

444

Enabling Access

448

Displaying the Video Output

448

Detecting W hether Other A pplications Use the Device

449

Capturing Audio Co nverting to a WAV File

450 450

Creating a Sink

450

Using the SaveFileDialog

452

Using the Sink and Adding Co mmand s

454

Wiring the Co mmand s

456

Testing Audio Recording Writing to a Bitmap

457 457

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

New Transform s, Right Click , HTM L Browser, W ebBrowserBrush, and Isola ted Stora ge

467

Transforming Elements in a Pro jectio n

467

Setting A dditional Properties

469

Using a Matrix3DPro jectio n

470

A nimating the PlanePro jectio n

470

Co mpo sing Transforms

472

Handling the Right-Click Event

473

Handling a Routed Event

473

Displaying a Co ntext Menu Hosting an HTML Browser (Out-of-the-Brow ser Only) Understanding the Limitatio ns

476 478 479

Building a Simple Web Browser

480

Loading HTML Co ntent from Memo ry

484

Invo king JavaScript

485

Writing and Reading in the Isolated Storage Saving to the Isolated Storage

485 485

Reading fro m the Isolated Storage

492

Deleting Files

495

Using the IsolatedStorageSettings

496

Trusting the Isolated Storage or Not

499

Painting w ith HTML

499

Summary

501

zyxwvutsrqponml

xiv

Si l v e r l i g h t 4

18

Un l e a s h e d

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Drag and Drop, Full Screen, Clipboa rd, COM Interop, Duplex Polling, Notifica tion W indows, and Spla sh Screens

503

Dragging and Dropping

503

Dragging Files o n the Silverlight A pplication

504

Drag-and-Drop Restrictions

505

Working in Full Screen

507

Getting Keyboard Support in Full-Screen Mode (Elevated Permissions) Using Full Screen on a Mo nito r W hile Working on A no ther Copying to and from the Clipboard

510

Working w ith COM (Elevated Permissions)

512

Understanding the Restrictions

512

Co mmunicating w ith Micro so ft Office

512

Co mmunicating over Duplex Polling

19

507 509

519

Implementing the Server-Side Service

519

Unregistering a Client

524

Co nfiguring the Service

524

Implementing the Client

525

Unsubscribing and Resubscribing

528

Testing the A pplication

529

Displaying No tificatio n Windo w s

530

Understanding the Restrictions

530

Adding a No tificatio n Wind o w

531

Queuing No tificatio n Windo w s

533

Interacting w ith the Main Windo w

533

Creating a Custo m Splash Screen

534

Summary

537

Authentica tion, Event t o Com m and Binding, Random Anim a tions, M ultitouch, Loca l Com m unica tion, and Bing M a ps Control

539

Logging In w ith A uthenticatio n

539

Creating a New Website

540

Adding and Managing Users

541

Co nfiguring the A uthenticatio n Web Service

542

Checking the Access

544

Adding References to the Services

544

Implementing the Client

545

Binding an Event to a Co mmand Executing a Co mmand W hen a TextBo x Loses Focus Building Random A nimatio ns

547 548 554

Creating the Base A nimatio n in Blend

554

Rando mizing the A nimatio n

555

Co n t e n t s

Implementing Multito uch in Silverlight

558

Investigating Existing Elements

559

Using Multito uch Libraries

560

Scaling, Rotating, and Translating

560

Implementing a Multito uch A pplication

561

Using Multito uch in Window s Pho ne 7 A pplications

563

Finding More Info rmatio n

563

Enabling Local Co mmunicatio n

563

Understanding the Restrictions

564

Building a Receiver

564

Building a Sender

565

Testing the A pplication

567 567

Adding the Map

568

Getting Lo catio n Info rmatio n and Marking It

569

Getting More Info rmatio n

571

Summary

571

Building Extensible and M aintainable Applica tions

573

Inverting Dependencies w ith Unity

zyxwvutsrqponm

557

Getting the Right Co mputer

Mapping w ith the Bing Maps Co ntro l

20

xv

573

Refactoring to Smaller and Simpler Classes

575

Setting Up the Services

578

Calling thezyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Se t up Metho d and Wiring Up 582 Discovering More A bout Unity Co mpo sing an A pplication w ith MEF Exporting and Impo rting

584

Do w nlo ading on Demand

594

W hat A bout Prism?

603

Using an MVVM Framew ork Discovering the Co mp o nents Sending Messages

21

583 583

604 604 604

Summary

607

Optim izing Perform ance

609

Improving the XAP Do w nlo ad Time

609

Loading Co ntent on Demand

611

Caching Co mmo n A ssemblies

615

Virtualizing the User Interface

616

Virtualizing the I t e ms Cont r ol

617

Unvirtualizing the ListBox

619

Simplifying the DataTemplate

619

xvi

Si l v e r l i g h t 4

Un l e a s h e d

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Creating Items in Batches

620

Working in Threads

621

A ccelerating the User Interface

624

Enabling Hardware A cceleration in the Browser

624

Enabling Hardware A cceleration Out of the Browser

628

A ccelerating w ith Care

629

A ccelerating in the Window s Pho ne 7

630

Using a Code Profiler

630

Avoiding Memo ry Leaks

631

Saving an Object on the Stack or the Heap

631

Co llecting Garbage and Leaking Memo ry

632

Living a Shorter Life

635

Unregistering Event Handlers

635

Disposing Objects

637

Using Weak References

637

Finding a Leak

22

638

Summary

639

Adva nced Developm ent Techniques

641

Using New C# and .NET Features

641

Using Modern Programming Syntax

641

Creating Extensio n Metho d s

645

Co nsuming Dynamic Objects

646

Using Named/ Optional Parameters Localizing A pplications

646 647

Adding a Resource File

647

Making an A pplication Localizable

648

Using Tools

651

Do w nlo ading Resource A pplications on Demand

652

Encrypting and Decrypting Understanding the Encryption/ Decryption Mechanism Multithreading

652 652 653

W hat Is a Thread?

653

Using the ThreadPool

654

Dispatching Back to the UI Thread

657

Creating and Using azyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Ba c kgr oundWor ke r 660 Locking Critical Resources

663

Enhancing Multithreaded Code

666

Unit Testing the A pplication

667

Installing a Unit Test Framew ork

668

Adding Functio nality w ith TDD

668

Co n t e n t s

xvii

Using Code Coverage

673

Unit Testing Windo w s Pho ne 7 A pplications

673

Summary

674

Conclusion

675

Index

677

zyxwvutsrqponmlk

About the Author

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaYWVUTSRQPONMLKIHGFEDCB

Laurent BugnionzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA works as a senior user-experience integrator for IdentityMine, one of the leading companies co mmitted to redefining the user experience and a Microsoft Gold Partner dedicated to easing the adoption and optimal use of Microsoft presentation technologies, including Window s Presentation Foundation (WPF), Silverlight, Window s Phone 7, Surface, and Window s 7.

Originally an electronics engineer, Laurent achieved postgrad credentials in software engineering in 1999. Before IdentityMine, he worked for Siemens for 13 years, introducing WPF and other .NET 3.5 technologies worldwide. His responsibilities involved developing w ith the previously mentio ned technologies, training and coaching his colleagues, coordinating and integrating the graphic-design work, and fostering relationships w ith Microsoft. Before that, he wrote embedded C/ C++, and then moved to desktop computers in Java, JavaScript, and eventually .NET (desktop and ASP.NET). Privately, he codes in Silverlight, WPF, and ASP.NET. He blogs onhttp:/ / blog.galasoft.ch and writes on http:/ / www.galasoft.ch, where he publishes articles, prototypes, and demos related to the previously mentio ned technologies. In 2008, he earned an MCTS for WPF. (In October of that same year, his bookzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIFEDCBA Silverlight 2 Unleashed was published.) This year, 2010, is his fourth year as a Microsoft MVP (Silverlight), and he was selected this year as Silverlight MVP of the year. Laurent is based in Zurich, Switzerland, where he lives w ith his wife, Chi Meei, and his two daughters, Alise and Laeticia.

Dedica tion

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIFEDCBA

Thank you Chi Meei for not killing me when I said I wanted to write a new book. Thank you for supporting me during the 11 months that it took. I love you. To my princesses Alise and Laeticia for bringing light in my life, and for making me keep things in perspective. I love you both so much. To my parents and my grandparents, for helping me become who I am today. Imagination is more important than knowledge. xwvutsrqpnmliecbaSPMJEBA — Albert Einstein

Il nous faut écouter L'oiseau au fond des bois Le murmure de l'été Le sang qui monte en soi Les berceuses des mères Les prières des enfants Et le bruit de la terre Qui s'endort doucement. — Jacques Brel

Ack nowledgm ents zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCB Thanking everyone w ho helped me complete this book would probably take another 700 pages. So, to keep these acknow ledgments concise, I w ant to generally thank everyone w ho helped in any way, w hile specifically calling out a few w ithout w hom I couldn't have completed this work. The Silverlight co mmunity has been no thing short of fantastic. I received w onderful motivation every time I was about to throw in the towel (usually around 2 a.m.). I found documentation about the most cryptic topics in amazingly rich and detailed blog posts, and I had the best reviewers in the world, w ho did all that work w ith just the promise of a "thank yo u" and a beer next time I meet them. It is a wonderful time to develop software. I especially w ant thank the follow ing (in no particular order) and apologize to those I might have forgotten: zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaYWVUTSRQPONMLKIHGFEDCBA At IdentityM ine: Nathan Dunlap, Jo sh Wagoner, Jo sh Smith, Andrew Whidett, and Jo nathan Russ for teaching me all I know (or so it feels); Lu Silverstein, Mark Brown, Chad Brown, and Craig Jaris for encouraging me to write this book and dealing w ith the disturbance.

The designer dream team: Jo nah Sterling, Javier Roca Garcia, Jamey Baumgardt, Stuart Mayhew, Lydia Bagwell, and more w ho help me to think differently. And all the others for making me part of the family. It is a privilege to work w ith you. M y dream team of reviewers: Corrado Cavalli, Laurent Kempe, David Gardner, Peter Bromberg, David Anson, Jo sh Smith, Shawn Wildermuth, Christian Schormann, Colin Blair, Tim Heuer, Rene Schulte, Walt Ritscher, and Glenn Block. Thank you so much.

A very special extra thank you to Laurent Kempe and Corrado Cavalli for jumping in at the last minute to review additional chapters. At M icrosoft: For building these fantastic frameworks and tools, and for answering my frequent pleas for help: Scott Guthrie, Ian Ellison-Taylor, Tim Sneath, Nikhil Kothari, Jo hn Gossman, Jaime Rodriguez, Laurence Moroney, Jesse Liberty, Jo hn Papa, Rob Relyea, Ted Hu, Stefano Malle, Ronnie Saurenmann, Sascha Corti, Pete Brown, Jeff Wilcox, David Anson, Christian Schormann, Pete Blois, Unni Ravindranathan, Kirupa Chinnathambi, Jo anna Mason, David Teitlebaum, Tim Heuer, Glenn Block, Karen Corby, Mike Harsh, Jo e Stegman, Rochelle Benavides, Grant Hinkson, Katrien de Graeve, Lisa Feigenbaum, Mark Boulter, Chad Royal, Chris Koenig, and all the others at the DevDiv. The source of eternal inspiration and support: Dave Campbell, Adam Kinney, Robby Ingebretsen, Kevin Moore, Charles Petzold, Marlon Grech and all the WPF disciples, Shawn Wildermuth, Walt Ritscher, Justin Angel, Davide Zordan, David Yack, Don Burnett,

Erik Mork, Brian Noyes, Ward Bell, Rob Eisenberg, Dan Wahlin, Chad Campbell, Jo hn Stockton, Jo nas Follesoe, Seema Ramchandani, Brian Henderson, Ian Smith, Scott Barnes, Jeremy Likness, Page Brooks, Rick Barraza, Cigdem Patlak, Michael Sync, Victor Gaudioso, David Kelley, Anand Iyer, all the Silverlight MVPs, and the w hole vibrant and amazing Silverlight community. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaYWVUTSRQPONMLKIHGFEDCBA The great team at Sams: And especially Neil Rowe (my editor, mentor, and friend since 2007), Andy Beaster, and Mark Renfrow.

We Want t o Hear from You!

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPON

As the reader of this book,zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIFEDCBA you are our most important critic and commentator. We value your opinion and w ant to know w hat we're doing right, w hat we could do better, w hat areas you'd like to see us publish in, and any other words of wisdom you're willing to pass our way. You can email or write me directly to let me know w hat you did or didn't like about this book—as well as w hat we can do to make our books stronger. Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic of this book, and that due to the high volume of mail I receive, I might not be able to reply to every message.

When you write, please be sure to include this book's title and author as well as your name and pho ne or email address. I will carefully review your co mments and share them w ith the author and editors w ho worked on the book. Email:

[email protected]

Mail:

Neil Rowe Executive Editor Sams Publishing 800 East 96th Street Indianapolis, IN 46240 USA

Rea der Se rvice s Visit our website and register this book at informit.com/ register for co nvenient access to any updates, downloads, or errata that might be available for this book.

Foreword zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA The growth of Silverlight has been perhaps faster than any of us involved in its inception would have predicted. In less than three years, Microsoft has released four desktop releases, each packing a payload of hundreds of features in response to customer feedback. Silverlight is now deployed on somewhere approaching tw o-thirds of all Internetco nnected PCs,1 and it's the primary platform for general-purpose development on the new Windows Phone 7. Silverlight powers all manner of mainstream applications: from high-end media experiences like Netflix, NBC Sports, and Sky Player to the web version of Office. It's in use at top consumer websites like eBay and for mission-critical applications inside the firewall of numerous Fortune 500 companies. In one sense, Silverlight is, of course, just an evolution of the .NET Framework that has been central to Microsoft's developer strategy for the past ten years. It stands on the shoulders of giants like Window s Presentation Foundation (WPF,) the big-sister techno logy that preceded it and laid the groundwork—with an architecture and XAML format that had already proved itself in real-world implementations. When we started building Silverlight, one of the greatest constraints was size. We knew we needed something that was lightw eight and easy to deploy w ithout requiring a big download or dependencies on other prerequisites. At the same time, we w anted to ship a high-quality product as quickly as possible. There was a lot of debate internally about w hether we should start w ith the existing .NET codebase and "take away" code or w hether we should "build up" by starting w ith a clean slate and gradually adding features until we had an attractive product. In the end, we w ent w ith the latter approach, and I think it shows in the final product: Silverlight contains the key things that a developer needs w hile bringing little cruft along for the ride. For me, this is one key reason w hy Silverlight offers a unique sweet spot of power, flexibility, and easy deployment that suits it well for bo th consumer and business usage. But a framework alone isn't sufficient for most pragmatic developers, w ho are less interested in history lessons or arcane details of internal architecture and more concerned w ith w hat they themselves can create quickly and efficiently. Over the last year or two since the lastzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIFEDCBA Silverlight Unleashed book was published, it's true that Silverlight has been expanded and enhanced; but even more important, the palette of tools available to a Silverlight developer has grown tremendously. In particular, the release of Visual Studio 2010 brought true WYSIWYG in-place editing to Silverlight, along w ith WCF RIA Services, a set of classes and design-time tools that offer majo r productivity gains to business application authors. Beyond the core elements of Silverlight, a burgeoning co mmunity has sprung up over the past couple of years bo th inside and outside of Microsoft. The engineering team themselves have released a plethora of open source controls, components, and themes along w ith rich frameworks for media, extensibility, and analytics. Others have contributed libraries and co mpo nents for everything from PDF creation to physics engines and full 3D

xxiv

Si l v e r l i g h t 4

Un l e a s h e d

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

support: CodePlex alone shows nearly 500 projects that are based on Silverlight. And of course, there is an endless supply of great co ntent targeted at Silverlight developers, including the weekly Silverlight TV show at http:/ / silverlight.tv. What of the future of Silverlight? Some have argued that the rapid rise of HTML5 presents a new competitive threat to Silverlight. It's certainly true that the browser wars of old are back, w ith vendors duking it out to deliver the most advanced hardware-accelerated graphics platform for developers while delivering a stable and secure browser for a broader audience. It's also true that HTML in general has the most pervasive reach of any client platform. Indeed, the mo mentum behind Internet Explorer 9 shows that we at Microsoft are also putting a lot of energy into providing first-class support for "standards-based" web development.

A favorite business read among Microsoft executives iszyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIFE Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, w hich highlights how easy it is to be trapped by a false dicho to my (the "tyranny of the 'OR'"). The authors no te how many strategic decisions are framed incorrectly as a choice betw een A or B (but not bo th). Yet often the correct answer is an and rather than an or. In this vein, there need be no fork in the road betw een HTML5 and Silverlight. Both serve key needs that developers have, and bo th have powerful strengths. Even more important, many so-called Silverlight applications are in fact hybrid solutions that combine bo th technologies. Silverlight contains many useful bridging features to enable developers of bo th hues to access code and UIs w ritten in the opposite framework. Silverlight developers should therefore feel confident that their skills have value for the indefinite future and that Silverlight itself has a rosy future. I w ant to close this foreword by no ting my delight to see this update to Laurent's popular predecessor title, Silverlight 2 Unleashed. I've had the privilege of know ing Laurent for some years now, and I can tell you that few in the Silverlight co mmunity co mmand the respect that he does. He combines a passion for writing quality client software w ith a deep, practical, real-world knowledge of the tools and framework. He has had an insider's view of each release of Silverlight as it has been developed, and his feedback has shaped the product for the better. Laurent's own experience developing complex, large-scale Silverlight applications shines through, particularly in the more advanced topics toward the end of the book. I heartily co mmend this book, bo th to new comers to Silverlight as well as to those w ho already have experience w ith early releases of Silverlight and w ant to "upgrade" their knowledge w ith the latest advances. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaYWVUTSRQPONMLKIHGFEDCBA — Tim Sneath Senior Director, Client Platform Evangelism M icrosoft Corp. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

1

attested by our internal data and sites like riastats.com, which measure A syxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaWUSRPOMKIHEDB based on millions of real-world

users.

deployments

of plug-ins

Introduction

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Silv erlig ht 4, released to the public in April 2010, represents a majo r forw ard step in the histo ry of this still-young techno lo gy. A ltho ugh w e'll certainly see later versions of the framew ork w ith additio nal features in the future, the current version is very mature and easy to work w ith. In addition, the to o ls used to develop Silverlight have also grow n and offer the same level of maturity and ease of use.

It is interesting to take a good lo o k at the extended Silverlight co mmunity today. From a niche topic, Silverlight has beco me the source of many discussions on Tw itter and various blogs. Also, since days of Silverlight 2, we have w itnessed the emergence ofzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaXWVUTS design patterns and of po lished external framew orks. It is no w possible to talk to Silverlight experts w ho have developed many professional applications, and w ho kno w w hat w orks best. The bo o k yo u have in your hand s (or on your computer/ e-reader/ tablet/ phone screen) tries to describe the current version of Silverlight version 4) as fully as possible. Doing so represents a difficult task, how ever, because of the multiple facets of this techno lo gy and the number of pro blems it can solve. You w ill find that this bo o k goes into much mo re detail than Silverlight 2 Unleashed. That increased level of detail is intentio nal, and in fact, this bo o k builds on the fo und atio n presented in that earlier publicatio n.

Honing Your Ba sic Sk ills Silverlight is very much a story of co ntinuity betw een versions. Mo st changes are in fact additional features. For developers w ho were already active in earlier versions of Silverlight, the skills that yo u already ow n are going to help yo u advance in Silverlight 4. For developers w ho are co mpletely new to Silverlight, we provide a free co py (as a PDF dow nload) of Silverlight 2 Unleashed. This bo o k was w ritten w ith beginners in mind , and w ill bring yo u up to speed w ith fund amental co ncepts such as XAML, basic co ntro ls, transforms, animatio ns, and more.

W ha t Ca n You Lea rn from vtsrnmlkihgedcaVUSRNMKEA Silverlight 2 Unleashed? The follow ing chapters in Silverlight 2 Unleashed w ill help yo u to understand the basics of Silverlight 4:

If you are already experienced with Silverlight

2 or Silverlight 3 , feel free to sk ip t his st ep • Chapter 1, "Intro d ucing and jum p right into Chapter 1. Silverlight," explains w here Silverlight co mes fro m. A lthough the landscape of web techno lo gies evolved in tw o years, mo st of the info rmatio n in this chapter is still very much valid. Note, how ever, that mo st demos described in Chapter 1 are no t current anymo re. In some cases, yo u w ill get errors, or the page w ill simply no t be fo und anymo re. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

2

Si l v e r l i g h t 4

Un l e a s h e d

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

• Chapter 2, "Understanding XA ML," is still valid. You can learn a lot about the fundamentals of XAML by reading this chapter. • Chapter 3, "Playing w ith XAML Transforms and A nimations," is still valid. All the transforms and animations present in Silverlight 2 work unchanged in Silverlight 4. • Chapter 4, "Expression Blend," refers to Expression Blend 2. Many basic features are still valid, but we will cover Expression Blend 4 in this book. • Chapter 5, "Using Media," is still valid and describes colors, vector graphics, and basic image and video handling. • Chapter 6, "Blending a Little Mo re," is still an interesting read, and provides an overview of functionalities that are still available in Expression Blend 4 (transforms, opacity masks, paths, clipping paths, grouping controls, and making user controls). • Chapter 7, "Deploying to a Web Page," is still valid w ith minor changes. It shows you how to select a provider for your website and how to deploy your Silverlight application to that site. • Chapter 8, "Programming Silverlight w ith JavaScript," is less relevant to Silverlight 4 than it was to Silverlight 2. However, JavaScript is an important skill to have for anyone w ho is involved into creating web applications. • Chapter 9, "Understanding .NET," and Chapter 10, "Progressing w ith .NET," provide a tutorial from scratch about the most important constructs of the C# programming language and of the .NET framework. It is a good read for people w ho come to Silverlight from Flash, for instance, and have never worked in .NET before. • Chapter 11, "Progressing w ith A nimations" is still valid and will teach you how to create animations in Blend, how to start and stop animations in code, and other special kinds of animations. Silverlight 4 and especially Blend 4 build on this and offer additional features that you will discover in the present book. • Chapter 12, "Encoding Videos w ith Expression Encoder," and Chapter 13, "Progressing w ith Videos," are based on Expression Encoder 2. The current version of this software (Expression Encoder 4) available today offers much of the same functionalities, w ith added features and a slightly different look and feel. Note, however, that the Microsoft Silverlight Streaming servers are unfortunately no t available anymore. • Chapter 14, "Letting Silverlight and JavaScript Talk," is less relevant to Silverlight 4, although most of the techniques will still work. • Chapter 15, "Digging into Silverlight Elements," and Chapter 16, "Digging Deeper into Silverlight Elements," are still very much current. In fact, it is almost a mustread before starting to work in Silverlight. • Chapter 17, "Using Resources, Styling, and Templating," is still valid; however, it is possible to store resources in external resource dictionaries in Silverlight 4, w hich was no t the case in Silverlight 2.

Int roduct ion

3

zyxwvutsrqponm

• Chapter 18, "Data Binding and Using Data Controls," will be developed deeper in zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfed Silverlight 4 Unleashed. The section about the DataGrid is still an interesting read if you are working w ith this control. Note, however, that the DataGrid is now part of the core Silverlight framework. • Chapter 19, "Creating User Controls and Custom Co ntro ls," overlaps in part w ith the present book's co ntent. Controls are a very important part of the Silverlight framework, and it is important to understand how they are built and how they work. • Chapter 20, "Taking Silverlight 2 One Step Further," and Chapter 21, "Taking Silverlight 2 Even Further," lists various topics, some of them overlapping w ith the present book's co ntent. • Chapter 22, "Co nnecting to the Web," overlaps in part w ith the present book's co ntent, but also has some interesting techniques to download files and access their co ntent. • Chapter 23, "Placing Cross-Domain Requests and Handling Exceptions," contains information about the topic of cross-domain co mmunicatio n that is still current in Silverlight 4, as well as a tutorial about exceptions and how to handle them.

• Chapter 24, "Silverlight: Continuing the Jo urney," contains various information that can be interesting for Silverlight developers. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJI

About Code in This Book We tried to keep formatting as consistent as possible throughout this book and to make the code look like it does in Visual Studio. The source code is color-coded to help you to work faster and so that you can recognize key concepts in Visual Studio and in Expression Blend. Note that depending on the co ntext where a keyword is used (XAML or C#, Visual Studio, or Expression Blend), the color code might differ. The source code lines are numbered only where relevant (for example, w hen the text makes explicit reference to a line number). The w hole source code for this book is available online at http:/ / www.galasoft.ch/ SL4U/ code. A translation of the C# code into VB.NET is being prepared at the time of this writing.

Adding a Reference to a Na m e spa ce In some listings, classes from other namespaces/ assemblies are added to the code. In some occasions, doing so might cause a compilation error w ith the follow ing message: The type or namespace name 'MyClass' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference? ).

4

Si l ve r l i g h t 4

Un l e a s h e d

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

To correct this, make sure that the assembly in w hichzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFED MyCl as s is defined is added to the References folder in the Visual Studio So lutio n Explorer. If that is no t the case, right-click this folder and select Add Reference fro m the co ntext menu. In the Add Reference dialog, brow se to the missing assembly and add it to the pro ject. If the error persists, yo u must add a reference to the namespace in w hich MyCl as s is placed in the source code file. You can do so by adding an entry at the to p the current page, as follow s (w here Si l ve r l i ght Appl i c a t i onl . Anot he r Na me s pa c e is the namespace in w hich MyCl as s lives): us i ng

Si l v e r l i g h t Ap p l i c a t i o n l . An o t h e r Na me s p a c e ;

In Visual Studio, this step can be auto mated by placing the cursor inside the name MyCl as s and pressing Ctrl+. (Ctrl and a dot) to o pen the co ntext menu. Then, select the first entry of the menu to add a us i ng directive. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE

Se t t ing the Right Proje ct a s St a rt up W hen an existing solution is opened, and this so lutio n co ntains a web pro ject ho sting the Silverlight applicatio n (in the ClientBin folder), the w eb pro ject sho uld be set as Startup. This means that w hen Ctrl+F5 is pressed in Visual Studio, the Silverlight applicatio n w ill be executed in ht t p : co ntext, and no t in the f i l e : co ntext that has mo re restrictions. To ensure that the web pro ject is set as Startup, follow these steps: 1. Check in the So lutio n Explorer w hether the w eb pro ject is represented in bo ld. If that is the case, skip to Step 3. 2. If that is no t the case, right-click the w eb pro ject's name and select Set as StartUp

Pro ject fro m the co ntext menu. 3. Right-click the HTML test page name (usually named [YourSilverlightA pplicationjTestPage.html or ind ex.html) and select Set as Start Page fro m the co ntext menu.

Using the zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA v an Keyword Since Silverlight 3, it has been possible to use the var keyw ord to implicitly type a local variable. For example, in the follow ing code, bo th expressions are exactly similar after the code is co mpiled: va r myVa r i a bl e l

= ne w But t on( ) ;

But t on my Va r i a b l e 2 = ne w But t on( ) ;

There is a lo t of discussion in the .NET co mmunity abo ut the usage of the var keyw ord. Cho o sing to use the keyw ord or no t is very much a matter of personal preference, and there is unfo rtunately no w ay to please everyone in this matter. In this bo o k, the var keyw ord is used co nsistently as show n here.

Int roduct ion

Happy Coding!

5

zyxwvutsrqponm

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Now it's time to start! I wish you a successful journey in this book, and I am anxious to hear from you on Twitter (@LBugnion). I canno t promise to reply to every message, but I will definitely do my best, and I am very open to criticism (as long as it is constructive) and questions. Enjo y the trip, and happy coding! Laurent Stafa, Switzerland, September 2010

This page intentionally left blank

CH A P TER

1

Three Years o f Silverlight

I n three short years, Silverlight has co me a very lo ng way. In this chapter, we review w hat Silverlight is, w here it co mes from, and try to peek into the future of this techno logy, illustrated by the "shiny lo go " show n in Figure 1.1.

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONML I N TH I S CH A P TER , W E W I LL: •

Discuss wha t happened since Silverlight 2 Unlea shed cam e out.

•

Talk about cross-browser and cross-pla tform com pa tibility for Silverlight 4 .

•

Consider a lterna tives to Silverlight, both in the browser and out-of-thebrowser.

•

Look at the earlier versions of Silverlight 1 .0 , 2 and 3 and ta k e a look into the future of this technology.

•

Install Silverlight 4 as a user

Discove ring Silve rlight 4

It seems like yesterday that we published zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIFEDCBA Silverlight 2 and explore a few dem os. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedc Unleashed and intro duced it at the Professional Developer Co nference 2008 in Los A ngeles just a few days after Silverlight 2 had been released to the Web. A nd yet here we are talking abo ut Silverlight 4 already! In these less than tw o years, the Silverlight team at Micro so ft has been very active listening to the co mmunity's feedback and implementing new features to transfo rm w hat was an already solid, yet basic platfo rm into a very rich framew ork, able to acco mmo d ate mo st client applicatio n developers' needs.

8

CH A P TER 1

Th r e e Ye a r s o f Si l v e r l i g h t

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE

The very first public glimpse of Silverlight 4 beta was offered at the Professional Developer Co nference 2009, w hen Sco tt Guthrie (Corporate Vice President, .NET Developer Platform, Micro so ft) gave o ne of the exciting talks full of demos for w hich he is famous. A lthough still in beta stage, we were already able to clearly see the direction that the techno lo gy was taking. Even mo re impo rtant, we were to ld o ften that Silverlight is the future of client applicatio ns at Micro so ft!

W ith this new release, the border betw een web applicatio ns and desktop applicatio ns is beco ming much thinner. For FIGURE 1 .1 example, Silverlight 4 can no w install applicatio ns "o ut of the Silverlight logo. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZ bro w ser," w ith a sho rtcut in the Start menu or on the desktop. A ltho ugh these applicatio ns have fewer privileges and features than full-blow n desktop applications, they have the W h a t Ab o u t W i n d o w s P re se n t a t i o n huge advantage to be cross-platform Fou n d a t i on ? (you can run them on Apple computers, The richer (but running on Windows only) "big to o ) and provide a very elegant w ay to sist er" of Silverlight called Windows offer rich functio nality in o nline and Presentation Foundation (WPF) is still actively also o ffline mo d e. We talk a lot mo re developed and extended by Microsoft, abo ut out-of-the-brow ser applicatio ns in although in a m aybe less-glam orous way. See this bo o k. the sect ion "Alternatives to Silverlight," later in this chapter.

A lo t of o ther features, w hich we discuss later to o , help the developers to build so-called line-of-business (LOB) applicatio ns (for example, rich data applicatio ns for businesses, catalogs for products, data visualization screens, and many more). Silverlight is o ften mistaken for yet ano ther media framew ork, w hen it is in fact much mo re than this. This new release makes the p o int very clear, and sho uld help to put Silverlight in the fo cus of enterprise applicatio ns developers w hile co ntinuing to build on the success it already has for multimed ia applications.

Lea rning Silve rlight Is Be t t ing on the Future W ith all this in mind, it is quite clear that learning Silverlight is a perfect w ay to advance in the future of client application develo pment: • For w eb developers, it adds impo rtant skills to your arsenal that w ill help enrich your web pages. Silverlight is no t replacing classic w eb techno lo gies such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and JavaScript, but it enhances them and plays an impo rtant role in the w ay that w ebsites are evolving always mo re fro m d o cument presentatio n to rich interactive applications.

D i s c o v e r i n g Si l v e r l i g h t 4

9

zyxwvutsrqponm

• For "classic" desktop developers in the Window s w orld (w ith techno lo gies such as Micro so ft Fo undatio n Classes [MFC] or Windo w s Forms), it teaches yo u a mo dern and exciting framew ork w ith revo lutio nary features such as the fantastic data bind ing system, rich animatio ns and graphics, media integratio n, and so on. • For WPF developers, yo u leverage a lo t fro m w hat yo u already know and gain crossplatfo rm co mpatibility for your applications, easy web deplo yment, and exposure to a wider audience.

One impo rtant thing to keep in mind is that Silverlight is no t a replacement for HTML web pages, and w ill abso lutely no t kill HTML. Silverlight is here to enhance your w eb pages w ith richer co ntent, and w ith the out-of-the-brow ser feature, to create lightw eight applicatio ns that can functio n o nline or o ffline. Learning Silverlight does no t mean that yo u should avoid w riting HTML code, or that yo u sho uld stop investing in techno lo gies such as ASP.NET. But it means that yo u can no w realize applicatio ns that were impossible (or very difficult) to do in HTML/ CSS/ JavaScript, and that yo u can use the same languages (and in some cases reuse code) o n the server and on the client. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPO

How Ca n The y Be So Fa st? There are a few aspects that explain ho w new versions of Silverlight can hit the market so fast, and yet be so stable: • Silverlight is developed in an agile manner. W ith short iteratio ns and early releases, the team is able to react quickly w hen pro blems are fo und in the code or new features are suggested. This explains w hy we had three releases in less than three years. • Silverlight is taking advantage of the experience gathered by the Window s Presentatio n Fo undatio n team. Many features are similar, and some code can even be reused. Other features are re-implemented in a different w ay based o n custo mer feedback. The teams are co mmunicating to leverage the experience gained since WPF was released. Th e Co m m u n i t y Co u n t s!

• The co mmunity is invo lved in an interactive manner. Your input co unts! We w ill talk about ways to get invo lved in this chapter.

Did you know that approxim ately 70% of the features requested by the Silverlight com m unity have been im plem ented in Silverlight 4!

How About Com pa t ibilit y wit h Older Ve rsions? An agile team at work for Silverlight provides a great basis for a rich feature set evolving very fast. W ith version 4, we can say that Silverlight is reaching maturity. There will, of course, be additional versions in the future, but it is obvious that versions 3 and 4 were

10

CH A P TER 1

Th r e e Ye a r s o f Si l v e r l i g h t

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE

majo r steps for this platform, w hich explains Microsoft's enthusiasm at the conferences where early versions were show n. Note, however, that a lot of effort has been put into backward compatibility: • If you open a Silverlight 2 (or 3) project in the Silverlight 4 development environment, a lot of your code will work as is. Some of it will need to be updated, but the changes are, in general, painless ones. Note that the project files (*.CSPROJ) will be updated to the new environment, though. • If you run a Silverlight 2 (or 3) application on a PC w ith Silverlight 4 installed, it will run w ithout glitches, because the runtime environment is fully backward compatible.

In fact, your Silverlight 2 (or 3) applications should run even better in a Silverlight 4 runtime environment, because of the improvements brought to the core and to the plugin. This history of backward compatibility is most certainly going to continue w ith future versions, so w hat you learn now is going to be a major skill for your future as a developer. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgf

Cross-Browse r and Cross-Pla tform Com pa tibility The version of Silverlight developed by Microsoft is available on a wide variety of platforms, bo th on the Windows and Macintosh operating systems. This plug-in will run on all these platforms w ith the same feature set (with one exception that we will discuss in Chapter 18, "Drag and Drop, Full Screen, Clipboard, COM Interop, Duplex Polling, Notification Windows, and Splash Screens," namely the COM integration that is of course available only on Windows operating systems). In addition, Novell is working on a version named Moonlight, available for certain distributions of Linux. The effort by Novell is encouraged by Microsoft but is conducted independently. This is w hy the version releases are no t necessarily coordinated, and there might be some discrepancies in the feature set, to o . However, a great effort is being expended to create a plug-in that is largely compatible w ith the one developed by Microsoft. Finally, we will also take a look in Chapter 15, "Developing Navigation Applications and Silverlight for Windows Phone 7" at Silverlight for the mobile platform. After announcing that they w anted to support the mobile platform, Microsoft did no t communicate much and encountered a few technical difficulties that took longer than expected to solve. This year, however, we finally heard much more about support for the mobile platform, and we will take a first look at w hat will be available in the near future. In short, Silverlight is your best bet if you w ant to run .NET-based code on a large number of platforms!

Cross-Brow ser and Cross-Plat f orm Com pat ibilit y

11

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgf

W indows and M a cint osh zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA The follow ing table show s in detail w hat is and is no t possible w ith the plug-in implemented by Micro so ft.

TI P Th i n gs Are M o vi n g Fa st

Table 1.1 is a snapshot at the tim e of t his writing. The situation keeps changing, with new browsers and platform s being added. To get the latest inform ation, make sure to visit the Silverlight.net website!

v

/

TABLE 1 .1

1

Cross-Platform and -Browser Com patibility

OS

IE8

IE7

IE6

FF3

Safari3

Safari4

Chrom e

Windows 7

Yes

Yes

n/ a

Yes

n/ a

n/ a

Yes

Windows Vist a

Yes

Yes

n/ a

Yes

n/ a

n/ a

Yes

Windows Server 2008

Yes

Yes

n/ a

Yes

n/ a

n/ a

Yes

Windows Server 2 0 0 8 R2

Yes

n/ a

n/ a

n/ a

n/ a

n/ a

Yes

Windows XP SP2 and SP3

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

n/ a

n/ a

Yes

Windows 2000 SP4 1

n/ a

n/ a

Yes

n/ a

n/ a

n/ a

n/ a

Windows Server 2003

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

n/ a

n/ a

n/ a

Mac OS 1 0 .4 .8 and later (Intel based)

n/ a

n/ a

n/ a

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes yxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaW

Windows 2000 requires the installation

of an update (KB 891861) to execute Silverlight

applications.

Note the follow ing restrictions: • The Opera w eb brow ser is no t officially supported at the time of this w riting. • Pow erPC-based Apple co mputers support o nly Silverlight 1.0.

12

CH A P TER 1

Th r e e Ye a r s o f Si l v e r l i g h t

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE

Linux zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA For Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris operating systems, things are changing fast, so the best thing to do is to check the info rmatio n o n the Novell Mo o nlight w ebsite at http:/ / w w w .galasoft.ch/ sl4-moonlight.

Alt e rna t ive s to Silve rlight Because Silverlight 4 can run inside or outside of the w eb browser, its alternatives cover a wider landscape. Interestingly, tho ugh, no t many techno lo gies allow yo u to program just o nce but run o n multiple platforms and in multiple mo des (offline/ online, in the browser/ out of the brow ser). In that sense, Silverlight is pretty unique.

In the W eb Browse r Silverlight is traditio nally a co nnected applicatio n running w ithin a web browser. In that field, the landscape didn't really change much since Silverlight 2, w ith the exceptio n maybe of XHTML, w hich is barely mentio ned anymo re and co nsidered already o bso lete no w that HTML5 is beco ming a trending to pic. Adobe Fla sh

This is the obvious co ntender, the o ne techno lo gy that is mo st o ften mentio ned w hen Silverlight is co mpared to o ther framew orks. Adobe Flash is installed o n a huge number of co mputers and various operating systems. It is also a w ell-kno w n enviro nment, and many co mpanies develop applicatio ns in Flash for the Web. As mentio ned w hen Silverlight 2 was released, Flash is no t going to be killed by Silverlight, and in fact this was never Micro so ft's intentio n. Rather, Silverlight provides a w elco med alternative to firms w ho do no t w ant to invest in tw o very different techno lo gies for the desktop and the Web. In that sense, Silverlight is a great cho ice because it is developed w ith the same languages and the same tools as the w ell-know n Window s Forms, ASP.NET, and WPF. Silverlight and Flash are co existing on the Web, so metimes even in the same w eb pages. Thankfully, this is easy to realize, and there is even a possibility to let these mixed applicatio ns co mmunicate to gether thro ugh JavaScript. This allows a gradual mo d ificatio n of existing w ebsites fro m Flash to Silverlight, w itho ut breaking the functio nalities or forcing the users to adapt to large-scale changes. We actually saw some striking examples of this at Micro so ft itself, w ith existing Flash applicatio ns being gradually co nverted to Silverlight w itho ut disruptions. D HTM L a nd AJAX

DHTML (Dynamic HTML) and AJAX (A synchronous JavaScript and XML) are o ften used to gether on w eb pages to create a mo re interactive experience. This was made popular w ith w eb developers by the release of JavaScript framew orks such as j Query.

A l t e r n a t i v e s t o Si l v e r l i g h t

13

zyxwvutsrqponml

The advantage of these framew orks is that they standardize the JavaScript functio ns by providing a layer on to p of Usi n g j Qu e r y in ASP . N ET the various imp lementatio ns available in Did you know that Microsoft support s jQuery different w eb brow sers o n different platdevelopm ent by contributing to t his open forms. j Query can be extended by plugsource project, and including it in ASPNET ins that are available for the user MVC (Model, View, Controller) projects in experience itself (for example, to create Visual Studio, v / smo o ther animatio ns), or at a low er level to enhance the co mmunicatio n w ith the web server, and so o n. Also, they do no t require an additional co mp o nent in the w eb brow ser to run. However, pro gramming in JavaScript is no t an easy task. The d ynamic nature of the language makes it mo re difficult to offer advanced d evelo pment tools (such as IntelliSense in Visual Studio) and to find and correct bugs. Also, the HTML platfo rm is limited: A dvanced and smo o th animatio ns w ith high frame rates are impossible to realize, it is impossible to create certain transfo rmatio ns for graphic elements, and so fo rth. Note, how ever, that using Silverlight o n a web page do esn't prevent yo u fro m using j Query or ano ther JavaScript-based framew ork—on the contrary. Here, to o , these techno lo gies co mp lement each other. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA HTM L5

This new revision of HTML intend s to provide a wide range of rich functio nality, allow ing developers to reduce the use of third-party plug-ins. In this matter, it po sitio ns itself as a co ncurrent of Adobe Flash and Micro so ft Silverlight. A lthough it is true that plug-ins cause problems, they also solve some. One big issue w ith HTML is that different web brow sers have different imp lementatio ns of the standard. This is a w ell-know n issue: Testing a web page for all majo r web brow sers on all majo r operating systems can be a real hassle. On the o ther hand, Silverlight as a plug-in is guaranteed to run the same in every supported web browser. It is the old "w rite o nce, run anyw here." The majo r issue that HTML5 faces is that a wide ado ptio n w ill take a lo t of time. Also, if we learned anything fro m the past, it is that each brow ser is likely to offer a slightly different feature set. So me features w ill simply be missing fro m some brow sers; o ther features w ill be imp lemented in a different manner. Co mpatibility w ill take a lo t of time, if it is ever achieved. In the meantime, and until we kno w w hether HTML5 really delivers w hat it promises, Silverlight offers a real alternative.

Out of the Browse r Running a Silverlight applicatio n out of the brow ser is similar to running a desktop applicatio n. Therefore, Silverlight can be seen as an alternative to any desktop techno lo gy, including "classic" MFC and Window s Forms applicatio ns on Window s or Mac applicatio ns o n Mac OS. Let's just take a lo o k at tw o mo dern desktop techno lo gies.

14

CH A P TER 1

Th r e e Ye a r s o f Si l v e r l i g h t

W indow s Pre se nt a t ion Founda tion

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

W hen Silverlight functio nalities are no t eno ugh to acco mplish w hat yo u w ant, the answer is pro bably to lo o k into WPF, Silverlight's "big sister." Even tho ugh the co nvergence is always greater betw een these tw o techno lo gies, and Silverlight beco mes richer and steps o n WPF's playground, there are still some scenarios for w hich Silverlight is no t suitable.

TI P D e p loyin g W P F on t h e W e b

Did you know that WPF applications can be deployed and installed from a web server using the ClickOnce technology? See http:/ / www.galasoft.ch/ sl4 -click once. Also, a WPF application can be deployed and run inside som e web browsers on Windows, and provide an interesting alternative to Silverlight. See http:/ / www.galasoft.ch/ sl4 -xbap.

The biggest disadvantage of WPF w ith regard to Silverlight is that it runs o nly on Windo w s systems. Also, it requires the co mplete .NET framew ork (instead of the Silverlight subset), w hich is larger and takes mo re time to install o n the target machine if it is no t already present. Finally, altho ugh WPF is richer than Silverlight, this richness also makes it mo re co mplicated to learn. It is easier to start w ith Silverlight. Note that thanks to the co mbined efforts of the Silverlight team and the WPF team at Microsoft, the co mpatibility betw een bo th techno lo gies has never been greater, and it is in fact possible to co nvert a Silverlight applicatio n to WPF w ith a large po rtio n of shared code. Generally speaking, how ever, and because Silverlight is a subset of .NET, it is easier to start in Silverlight and extend the applicatio n to WPF than the co ntrary. Similarly, it is also easier to start learning Silverlight and then to mo ve to WPF. Adobe AI R

A less w ell-kno w n platfo rm developed by Adobe is called AIR and allow s creating desktop applicatio ns. As such, it is no t a co ncurrent of "in-bro w ser" Silverlight, but rather of the out-of-the-brow ser applications. For users, AIR applicatio ns are kno w n to be heavy in memo ry co nsumptio n, and require an additional framew ork that must be installed the first time yo u run an AIR applicatio n (even if yo u have Flash already installed). This can be a problem on corporate netw orks, w here IT departments are o ften reluctant to install new co mp o nents o n users' PCs. Silverlight, on the o ther hand, is installed o nce and gets the out-of-the-brow ser capabilities immediately.

Le ga cy Te chnologie s So me techno lo gies are still running inside some web brow sers, but are beco ming o bso lete w ith time. The tw o mentio ned in this section are no t the o nly ones, but they are the best kno w n, and it is possible that a developer starting a new pro ject w ill be asked to consider these in the variant analysis.

A S h o r t H i s t o r y o f Si l v e r l i g h t

Ja va Apple t s

15

zyxwvutsrqponm

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Java as a plug-in is quite w idespread and allows small applicatio ns kno w n as applets to run in the web browser. Java was revo lutio nary in that w ay w hen it was released, but it suffers fro m a lo t of issues: • Java is no to rio usly slow. It's slow to install on a new computer, and especially slow to start. • Java applets have a bad reputatio n w hen it co mes to security. This claim might no t be as true in new er versions as it used to be, but Java's ado ptio n in the corporate w orld has suffered a lot fro m this co ncern. • Java is cumberso me for .NET developers. The to o ls and the language are unusual and require additio nal training. Silverlight addresses these co ncerns and offers a co nvincing alternative to Java applets. Perhaps the mo st co mpelling argument is thatzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIFEDCBA Silverlight is .NET. If your developers already kno w .NET-based client applicatio n techno lo gies (WPF, Windo w s Forms, ASP.NET, and so on), they w ill feel at ho me very fast w ith Silverlight, and have a solid fo und atio n to build on. M icrosof t Act ive X

Similarly to Java applets, A ctiveX co ntro ls were o nce very popular to enrich a web page, but are rendered pretty much o bso lete now adays by the many impro vements made to new techno lo gies, and especially Silverlight. If yo u are a developer or maintainer of A ctiveX co ntro ls, it is pro bably time to consider mo ving to the new er, richer, and safer platfo rm that Micro so ft is developing. A ctiveX co ntro ls suffer from the same pro blems as Java applets regarding security and restrictio ns in the enterprise w orld; in addition, they run o nly on Window s-based operating systems, w hich prevents a large user base from using them. Silverlight differs significantly fro m A ctiveX, and co nverting existing applicatio ns to this new techno lo gy is no t the easiest task a developer can dream of. W ith this step, how ever, yo u w ill offer a newer, richer, and much friendlier interface to your users, and make a big step tow ard the future of softw are develo pment.

A Short Hist ory of Silve rlight The d evelo pment of Silverlight has been co nsistently incremental. Silverlight 4 is a superset of Silverlight 3, w hich is a superset of Silverlight 2. So me of the code might no t be co mpletely co mpatible betw een versions, mo stly because w hen some things were missing developers had to use w orkarounds. After a feature has been added in a later version, how ever, the w orkarounds might no t w ork properly anymo re, and it is time to upgrade the code to the proper imp lementatio n. In some rare cases, the interface to some functio nality might have changed because the team came up w ith a better imp lementatio n. These o ccurrences are rare, how ever, and upgrading an applicatio n to a new er version of Silverlight sho uld be easy eno ugh.

16

CH A P TER 1

Th r e e Ye a r s o f Si l v e r l i g h t

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE

Silve rlight 1 .0 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA This early release of Silverlight (May 2007) was far fro m co mplete, and in fact did no t support any .NET code; it had to be pro grammed in JavaScript. It did, how ever, support a small subset of XAML (extensible A pplication Markup Language), the language used to define the user interface of Silverlight applicatio ns.

TI P Vi d e o a s a n I n ce n t i ve

St udies have shown that a user is m ost likely going to accept installing a new plug-in on his com puter to watch videos. This is why the m ain focus has been put on video in Silverlight 1 .0 .

v

/

The main purpose of Silverlight 1.0 was to rapidly create a base of installatio n for the Silverlight plug-in. Other features were, how ever, supported in Silverlight 1.0. For example, yo u could already create some animatio ns. There were no built-in co ntro ls (apart from the TextBlock), but using shapes, yo u could create butto ns and o ther basic building blo cks for your Co d e N a m e W P F / E applicatio n that w ould trigger You m ight have heard the nam e Windows JavaScript-based code. For instance, Presentation Foundation Everywhere, or some video players still available to day WPF/ E. This was the code nam e under which o n the Web are entirely w ritten in Microsoft developed Silverlight, in reference Silverlight 1.0, w itho ut any .NET code. Now adays it is clear that Silverlight 1.0 was just a step o n the road to rich interactive applications, and very so o n the fo cus shifted to Silverlight 2, the first .NET-based version.

to Windows Presentation Foundation, the rich desk top program m ing fram ework included in .NET 3 .0 and later. Very soon, however, this nam e was abandoned in favor of the catchier Silverlight. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIH s,

Silve rlight 2 For a very short time, this version was named Silverlight 1.1, but considering the majo r changes implemented (and also to simplify the versio ning process), it made sense to change the version number to a full digit instead. Silverlight 2 (released sho rtly before the Professional Developer Co nference in Octo ber 2008) was revo lutio nary because it bro ught for the very first time the .NET framew ork (as a subset) to o ther platforms than Window s. It also included a rich set of controls, enhanced video, new to o l support, and many o ther exciting features. W hen yo u study Silverlight 4, yo u w ill use a lo t of features that were already available in Silverlight 2.

Silve rlight 3 This version (again a full-digit increment) was released in July 2009, a mere nine mo nths after Silverlight 2. In this short time, the team managed to bring Silverlight to a mo re mature version.

>

P r e v i e w i n g t h e Fu t u r e o f Si l v e r l i g h t

17

zyxwvutsrqponml

Controls and features were added, and the data layer extended to provide a stable foundation for more business-oriented scenarios. At the same time, the existing media layer was extended w ith new formats being supported, and new powerful effects (known as pixel shaders) being introduced. On the user experience level, it was now possible to transform 2D elements into the 3D space (what was sometimes called "pseudo 3D" or "2.5D"). A nimations were pushed further, w ith smoother and more lifelike mo vement. Some steps were also taken to enable hardware acceleration (which is a real challenge on mixed platforms such as the ones supported by Silverlight). It's also in Silverlight 3 that we saw the out-of-the-brow ser (OOB) feature for the first time. It was still rather incomplete: For example, the OOB application still couldn't get any additional permission, so it was pretty limited in its actions. It was also no t possible to give a custom look and feel to the OOB window. Still, it was an intriguing first step, and the community's response was very encouraging. In short, we w anted mo re... zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

And Silve rlight 4 ... And here we are! Silverlight 4 will no t be the final version of this technology, but one thing is sure: If you were still hesitating to invest in Silverlight, now is a great time to start. We know a lot about w hat Silverlight is, w hat it can do and canno t do, and we have a quite clear vision of w hat will happen in the near future. We also have Silverlight experts w ith (in some cases) two or three years of experience w ith this technology. Silverlight 4 is a very stable release. What we predicted w hen Silverlight 2 was published is proven true today: Silverlight is here to stay, and Microsoft is betting a lot on this technology. In these three years, it w ent from "Flash contender" to major user interface technology. According to recent numbers, the Silverlight installation basis grew very fast since Silverlight 2 was released, and you can count on approximately 60% of all the connected computers having Silverlight 3 or Silverlight 4 already installed.2

Pre vie wing the Future of Silve rlight The next burning question, of course, is where Silverlight is going. As usual, predicting the future of any techno lo gy is a difficult exercise, as the past few years have proven. The situation on the .NET front is a bit clearer now than it was two years ago, though; so w hat did we learn? • Silverlight has strong support at Microsoft. They are pushing it very hard; they release new features at a fast pace, and managed in just a few years to create a very rich framework. This is no t going to stop w ith Silverlight 4; more is coming.

• A convergence is occurring betw een Silverlight and WPF. More and more features are shared. The mo vement is toward compatibility, w ith Silverlight becoming a complete subset of WPF. Not just compatibility of interfaces, but also binary compatibility. We will probably see this happening in the next few years. yxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaWUSRP 2

Source:

http:/ / riastats.com

18

CH A P TER 1

Th r e e Ye a r s o f Si l v e r l i g h t

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE

TI P N ot Co m p l e t e l y Co m p a t i b l e Ye t

Today, Silverlight is already in great part a subset of WPF in term s of interfaces. Many classes that are in Silverlight also exist in WPF. However, som e new classes have been added to Silverlight 3 and 4 ; som e of them have m ade it into WPF 4 , som e of them are still m issing. The situation is not as clean as one would want. Also, even though we see first st eps in that direction, the binary com patibility is still lim ited,

v

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfed /

• There is already a large ado ptio n of Silverlight by developers and firms w orldw ide. We saw lots of interesting pro jects in the past few years, and mo re are co ming. We also see a lot of firms that were reluctant to mo ve to WPF embracing Silverlight for their rich applicatio n d evelo pment because it is easier to learn. • Finally, the installatio n base has literally exploded, going fro m appro ximately 25% for Silverlight 2 to 60% for Silverlight 3 and 4. The smo o th update mechanism makes it painless to upgrade Silverlight if needed; and as new applicatio ns are being published o n the Web, mo re users are installing Silverlight to access them. Here's a quo te from Pete Brow n, w ho w orks for Micro so ft as client applicatio n evangelist (http:/ / w w w .galasoft.ch/ sl4-convergence): In the future, it is very likely that both Silverlight and WPF will be a single technology with a single codebase.

So here it is, the probable future of Silverlight and WPF: A co ntinuum framew ork that can be used on the desktop (very rich clients w ith full features / rich clients w ith fewer features and permissions) and in the web brow ser (very similar to w hat we have now, but w ith added functio nality).

Insta lling Silve rlight 4 as a Use r Installing Silverlight 4 is very easy. For many users, a version of Silverlight might in fact be already installed on their computer. For instance, if yo u install o ne of the applicatio ns distributed under the label Window s Live (such as Live Messenger, Live Writer, and so o n) and keep the default options, Silverlight w ill be installed o n the target PC. Similarly, Silverlight can be installed by the Window s Update program. This enables administrato rs to make sure that the latest versions of Micro so ft applicatio ns are consistently installed in a corporate netw o rk. For ho me users, Window s Update is a great w ay to make sure that yo u get no tified w hen a new version of a driver, an application, or a framew ork (such as Silverlight) is available. That said, because it is so new, yo u might no t have the latest version of Silverlight and w ill need to upgrade w hen yo u navigate to a Silverlight 4 applicatio n in your w eb browser. Or, yo u might no t have Silverlight installed at all, and here to o yo u w ill be no tified w hen yo u reach the page yo u w ant to see.

Ex p l o r i n g Si l v e r l i g h t 4 D e m o s

19

zyxwvutsrqponm

Opening a Silve rlight 4 Applica t ion zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE Silverlight applicatio ns are always embedded in an HTML page. Opening a Silverlight applicatio n for the first time is always a matter of navigating to a w eb page in a supported web browser. W ith the possibility of saving Silverlight applicatio ns lo cally and to run them o ut-o f-thebrowser, the startup p o int might no t be a web page anymo re, but mo re classically a shortcut in the Start menu or on the desktop. However, an applicatio n may o nly be installed lo cally follow ing a user actio n (for example, a click on a butto n or a right-click on the applicatio n and selecting Install fro m the Silverlight co ntext menu). It always starts on the web page!

W ha t to Do If Silve rlight Is Not Insta lle d? If Silverlight is no t installed at all on the co mputer yo u are using (no t even an earlier version), yo u w ill see an image asking yo u to install Silverlight, as show n in Figure 1.2. Note, how ever, that this experience can be customized, and yo u might see different pages w ith elaborate designs.

I nstall

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPO

M icrosoft " Silverlight

t o experience this site

4 MB download yxwvutsrponmlkjihgfedcbaYXWVUTSRQPOM Click t o I nst all 10 s e c o n d in s t a ll

FIGURE 1 .2 Silverlight.

Install Microsoft

Exploring Silve rlight 4 Dem os Now that Silverlight 4 is a little older, it is possible to see some nice samples o n the w eb. To see these demos, yo u just need to install Silverlight 4 and to navigate to a URL.

Deep Zoom ing the M a t t e rhorn The Matterho rn Deep Z oom applicatio n was developed by Micro so ft Sw itzerland to celebrate their 20th anniversary in Sw itzerland. It features multiple gigapixel pictures stitched to gether and processed in order to be rendered by the DeepZ oom techno lo gy. We already talked about DeepZ oom in Silverlight 2 Unleashed: A co mpo ser applicatio n prepares a large image by splitting it into a co llectio n of tiles. Multiple reso lutio ns of each tiles are prepared. W hen the image is loaded in the DeepZ oom viewer (pow ered by Silverlight), the user can zo o m in or out (for example using the mo use w heel or, if he has a supported multito uch screen, w ith a "p inch" gesture). W hen the image is zoomed, the DeepZ oom view er dynamically loads the corresponding tiles from the server. To render the experience mo re d ynamic for the user, the tiles are loaded at low reso lutio n first, and then gradually the image is rendered w ith a finer grain until the maximum reso lutio n is reached.

To start the Matterho rn DeepZ oom applicatio n (show n in Figure 1.3), navigate to http:/ / w w w .galasoft.ch/ sl4-matterhorn. Clicking on the demo sets the applicatio n in full screen. Select o ne of the pictures and use the mouse's w heel to zo o m in. No tice ho w the zo o m actio n is smo o th, and ho w the tiles, blurry at first, beco me sharper as mo re zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaY

20

CH A P TER 1

Th r e e Ye a r s o f Si l v e r l i g h t

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE

info rmatio n is loaded by the applicatio n. More info rmatio n about the pictures can be seen by clicking on the "info " butto n, w hich is a nice w ay to enrich a presentatio n.

FIGURE 1 .3

The Matterhorn DeepZoom application.

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHG

Ge t t ing Involved Socia lly wit h Sobe e s In today's World Wide Web, social netw orks have gained in popularity to beco me an unavo idable part of the brow sing experience. Many people, how ever, do no t use the social w ebsites but prefer to use a rich aggregator instead. Sobees offer such applicatio ns for multiple platforms, including o ne built in Silverlight 4 and running either in the brow ser or installed out-of-the-brow ser. The Sobees applicatio n can be used to visualize entries fro m Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and Linkedln w ithin o ne single w indow . It is also possible to perform multiple searches on Twitter. To run the Sobees Silverlight applicatio n (show n in Figure 1.4), navigate to http:/ / sobees.com/ web. Follow the instructio ns to co nnect to the services that yo u w ant to aggregate. In order to install the applicatio n and run it like a no rmal Windo w s (or Mac) application, right click anyw here on the applicatio n's surface and select Install Sobees web alpha o nto this computer. After co nfirming the o peratio n, this creates a shortcut in your Start menu and/ or o n your desktop that yo u can use to run the applicatio n w itho ut starting the web brow ser.

Ex p l o r i n g Si l v e r l i g h t 4 D e m o s

21

I

IyxwvutsrponmlkihgfedcbaYWVUTSRPONMLIHGFEDCBA s o b e s s iSI

SyxwvutsrponmlkjihgfedcbaYXWVUTSRQPOMLKJIHGEDCBA zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA D e r ik W h r t t a k e r

Jonan Ribeit RT ' Jj] ridyiromoz

;i]LUu qn : t,s]Vhurram

R1 in lh a e m u la t o r a n d t h e o n - s c r e e n k e yb o a r d fcs d is p la ye d , p r e s s P a u s e / Bi e a k lu a cliva t u P C k e yb o a r d

< 2 4 h o u r s o f u s in g t h e W P / i c a n s a y t h a t le a vin g m y iP h o o fi fo r a W P 7 wo u ld n ot b e a m a s s i ve i f n i » - th is is w/ out a n y a p p s t o o

wh en

#wp7dev tfwpfou 3 nvnuln agsoljchcj u J* about 9 hum ago R rpttj/uiionht yxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaWUSRPOMKIHEDB Man J u s t go t b a c k fr om b r u n ch in Ba y R t d go . R e h mt Mem R r p l > 0 4 mmu M l ogc [ - _ Rrply Rrt-vi-i-t Mirjr lndyTromo7 RT Rngninn @khurram w h e n in Ih ft e m u la lo f 1 susandelaney a n d t h e o n s c r c o n k e yb o a r d is d is p la ye d , p r e s s • sweet freedom - epiraJing joy P a u s e / I 3 r e a k t o a ct iva t e P C k e yb o a r d tt •, p Tde #wp7an (f rluud R hours Ago biowdart Keofy Netrtcct More . W o w la m b h> e x p e n s i v e h e r e Slill, g a l s o m e n i ce c u t s s o In sh S t e w t o d a y, d e s p i t e t h e h e a t } zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA LBugnion 5 minut« ago '

Kepty KclwMt More

1

andlju

i 1

1

l^ nluu) 11 ham ngo

Kcpfy Hetwcc! More

In

Did yo u k n o w yo u c a n run a n d d e b u g W e b P a g e s ( c s h l m l ) fr om with in Vis u a l St u d i o 7 0 10 ? II ju s i

ww tailffwebmatrix Rriwri-tleiUm JRerpty iemydmi

Be r i H a ya t Lot m e k n o w, w h e n yo u n e e d fe e d b a c k lo r e lu m .

igLBugniofi

fa mmults Dflo -

I

t think t o d a y a n d n e xt w u e k ' s l e s s o n in p r o gr a m m in g

Hep l

Tbuj®

FIGURE 1 .4

. © fcn u iia m w h e n in t h e cm u la t o f a n d t h e o n - s cr e e r i k e yb o a r d is d is p la ye d , p r e s s P a u s e / H r e a k lo a ct iva t e P C k e yb o a r d

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCB tt p7ttov

of use

Piwjcy puky

Pie»

tho

t? about 11 I n » ago Rifity Ri*t*ivr More

vtsrnmlkihgedcaVUSRNMKEA

Investors

Jut>t

Contact

Bfeg

Fufcw j el> uri; [j]

Sobees Silverlight application.

Na viga ting wit h Bing M a ps St re e t side and PhotoSynth Bing maps and the Streetside applicatio n are an interesting w ay to navigate geographical maps and to immerse yourself in a city either to discover it in advance or to remember w here your steps to o k you. Note that the "classic" Bing maps applicatio n uses standard web techno lo gies; to get the Silverlight version, follow the URL: http:/ / www.bing.com/ maps/ explore. After the applicatio n is loaded, use the mo use w heel to zo o m into the map. Note the smo o th loading of details, pow ered by Silverlight. As yo u zo o m in, the level of detail changes, and sw itches from map view to satellite view. This can be co ntro lled using the "+" and "- " butto ns on the bo tto m of the page (show n in Figure 1.5). Two additio nal features are available in selected areas: Streetside and Pho to Synth. Exploring the St re e t s w it h St re e t side

The idea behind Bing maps Streetside is no t new but Silverlight provides a very smo o th and inno vative experience. First, yo u need to lo cate a region w here Streetside is enabled. Click the seco nd butto n fro m the right in the co ntro ls at the bo tto m of the page, as show n in Figure 1.5. This adds a number of blue areas to the map. Use the zo o m co ntro ls to dive into o ne of these areas (for example the city of Seattle in the USA).

SaawwAnto

FIGURE 1 .5 cont rols.

~

Bing m aps

22

CH A P TER 1

Th r e e Ye a r s o f Si l v e r l i g h t

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE

After entering the Streetside view, yo u can use the mo use to click aro und your lo catio n and navigate the available area. It is interesting to see ho w the pictures are deco nstructed and reco nstructed to provide an impression of speed as the view advances along the streets. It is also possible to press and ho ld the mo use to pan the picture around, and the mo use w heel to zo o m in and out. For example, the Seattle A quarium building is show n in Figure 1.6.

FIGURE 1 .6

Bing m aps Streetside in Seattle.

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDC

D iscove ring a La ndsca pe w it h P hot oSynt h

The Pho to Synth techno lo gy uses Silverlight to co mbine multiple pictures taken aro und a same o bject (building, mo nument, landscape, and so fo rth). To dive into a Pho to Synth from the Bing Maps viewer, lo o k for a small ico n as show n in Figure 1.7. Once the Pho to Synth view er is started, use the mo use to click on the panes show n in Figure 1.8, in order to see a different view

FIGURE 1 .7

PhotoSynth icons.

Ex p l o r i n g Si l v e r l i g h t 4 D e m o s

23

zyxwvutsrqponml

of the same o bject. The view is co mpo sed of multiple pictures stitched to gether auto matically. Silverlight is used to smo o thly pass fro m o ne picture to ano ther, providing an impression of 3D as the viewer navigates around the o bject. For mo re info rmatio n about Pho to Synth, refer to http:/ / photosynth.net/ .

FIGURE 1 .8

PhotoSynth of the Statue of Liberty.

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE

Visua lizing Inform a tion wit h the Pivot Vie we r The Silverlight Pivot viewer is an inno vative w ay to display large quantities of info rmatio n and to sort it. So me examples start being published on the Web, for example the page at http:/ / www.galasoft.ch/ sl4-pivot w hich represents all the editio ns of MSDN magazine since 2000. Using links or a search bo x, yo u can refine the search as show n in Figure 1.9 and Figure 1.10.

24

CH A P TER 1

FIGURE 1 .9

Th r e e Ye a r s o f Si l v e r l i g h t

Pivot Viewer: All MSDN editions.

OpcnMParvdC* * :

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Reap the Benefits of Muftfttoteadng without All the Work

Asynchronous Pages in A SP N ET 2. 0

(£) • l ULI-* iMQWtld

i • Founda trans X • Data Points. W P f yxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaWUSRPOMKIHEDB : u u • ADON . ÊT En« Usin togg T T* empi nplj««* to Cuftomi»S>mI C © HU I Ovrrwew Windows Prdentation WPF Control» zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIFEDCBA Foundation

Cotumn Name Has Code

FIGURE 1 .1 0

Pivot Viewer: MSDN editions by popularity, zoom ed in.

Ho w Ca n Yo u Ge t I n v o l v e d ?

25

zyxwvutsrqponml

The Pivot Viewer is but o ne possibility to represent info rmatio n in a rich manner w ith Silverlight. In this bo o k, we w ill work w ith data o ften and create rich co nnected business applicatio ns w ith Silverlight. The power of co mputatio n that Silverlight has over classic web solutions, as w ell as inno vative representatio ns such as show n in Figures 1.9 and 1.10 allow creating co mpelling experiences. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Dra wing on the W eb wit h Fa nta sia

The Fantasia drawing applicatio n demo nstrates some advanced graphics features of Silverlight 4, such as using loading and mo difying pictures, adding effects to a scene, o pening pictures fro m Flickr directly, and saving the result as an image file lo cally on the computer. We w ill talk about many of these features, especially in Chapter 16, "Using Effects and Recording Med ia." The Fantasia drawing applicatio n show n in Figure 1.11 is a nice place to see all these in actio n, and to realize w hat advanced graphics features are included in this version of Silverlight. It is available at http:/ / nokola.com/ fantasia/ . zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZY

A

Life- like C

FIGURE 1 .1 1

The Fantasia Drawing Application.

How Ca n You Ge t Involved? If yo u are (or w ant to beco me) an active Silverlight developer, there are ways to make yourself heard. You can co llabo rate w ith your local Micro so ft d evelo pment and platfo rm evangelists, or participate in the fo rums at http:/ / silverlight.net, the official ho me page of Silverlight, w here yo u w ill get all the info rmatio n needed to get started.

26

CH A P TER 1

Th r e e Ye a r s o f Si l v e r l i g h t

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE

The Silverlight.net w ebsite (show n in Figure 1.12) is also w here yo u w ill find even mo re info rmatio n about Silverlight, compatibility, d eplo yment tips, samples to help yo u get started, and so o n.

toing g) HzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA wtih Gel Stalled LealRI Shuv.u ' ase OufTiriumLy Fwurris Microsof t " Silverlight

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Silverhylil iu a pawerlul development platfpiiti for Creating engaging, interactive user experiences for Web, desktop, and mobile nppfienhnni *4ien onlinr or offlinr. >4jr Learn why iillvcrilght U rtght (or you f^ Get Started with Sllverlmht Q

SlIverlMlhl for Window« Phone . View rammnnltv Sunpln

Qa VJrlrn Tutnrlnk I '< silverlight Ronta*

FIGURE 1 .1 2

The Silverlight.net landing page.

A no ther great w ay to get invo lved in the Silverlight co mmunity is to participate in o ne of the many Silverlight user groups that have been created around the w orld. You can find mo re info rmatio n about the Silverlight co mmunity at http:/ / silverlight.net/ community. Finally, many Silverlight experts and members of the Micro so ft Silverlight team are on Twitter. You w ill find their usernames at http:/ / w w w .galasoft.ch/ sl4-tw ittermvp and http:/ / w w w .galasoft.ch/ sl4-tw ittermsft.

Sum m a ry This chapter explained w hat Silverlight has to offer for client applicatio n developers in terms of skills reuse (for .NET programmers) and cross-browser, cross-platform co mpatibility. We talked about a few alternative techno lo gies, bo th in the w eb brow ser and outside. Then we saw ho w Silverlight evolved in the past few years to beco me Silverlight 4, and talked about the future. Finally, we installed Silverlight 4 (if it was no t there already) and visited a few demos show ing off some nice features available in the framew ork. In the next chapter, we install the to o ls that we need to develop Silverlight applications, and take a tour of their features. This w ill be very impo rtant because we w ill spend many ho urs in tho se tools, bo th in this bo o k and, sho uld yo u like Silverlight, after yo u have finished reading.

CH A P TER

2

Setting Up and Discovering Your Enviro nment Be f o r e we start programming, we need to install and configure some tools. We w ill also take a short tour of the applicatio ns in w hich yo u are going to spend quite a lo t of time w hile yo u read this bo o k, and ho pefully after yo u are done reading, to o !

Insta lling Visua l Studio Nowadays, the line betw een design to o l and d evelo pment to o l is a little mo re blurry than it used to be, w ith the additio n of visual designers in Visual Studio and of code editors in Expression Blend. Still, some people tend to prefer o ne or the o ther for a given activity. The best is to try all the to o ls for yourself and to decide w hat yo u prefer depending on w hich activity yo u perform.

Visua l St udio 2 0 1 0 This is the (almost) unavo idable step for any .NET developer, and Silverlight is no exceptio n. Installing Visual Studio w ill give yo u access to the full range of .NET techno lo gies, server side and client side. If yo u are an experienced developer in .NET, yo u pro bably already have Visual Studio installed o n your PC. Unfortunately, it is no t sure that yo u have the right version: You need Visual Studio 2010 to develop Silverlight 4. Visual Studio can be dow nloaded from http:/ / www. galaso ft.ch/ sl4-vsl0.

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONML I N TH I S CH A P TER , W E W I LL: » Install Visua l Studio 2 0 1 0 and the Silverlight tools for this Integra ted Developm ent Environm ent (ID E). •

Crea te a first Silverlight 4 a pplica tion and inspect its files.

•

Use the Visua l Studio designer and understand the relationship between XAM L and design.

•

Install Expression Blend and use it to add an effect and an anim ation to the Silverlight a pplica tion. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUT

28

CH A P TER 2

Se t t i n g Up a n d D i s c o v e r i n g Yo u r En v i r o n m e n t

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQ

If yo u have an MSDN subscription, Visual Studio is available to yo u as part of the subscription. Depending on your subscription, yo u might have a more- or less-elaborate version of Visual Studio, w ith mo re or fewer additio nal tools, but yo u d o n't need tho se to build Silverlight applicatio ns.

W A R N I N G zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Vi su a l St u d i o 2 0 1 0 On l y

Silverlight 4 can be developed only in Visual Studio 2 0 1 0 , not in earlier versions. Note, however, that Visual Studio 2 0 1 0 can be installed side by side with earlier versions without issues. Also, Visual Studio 2 0 1 0 can be used to create and m aintain applications in Silverlight 3 and in Silverlight 4 .

v

/

Visua l W e b De ve lope r Expre ss As w ith earlier versions of Silverlight, it is also possible to develop Silverlight 4 applicatio ns using the free edition of Visual Studio for the Web: Visual Web Developer Express. Of course, the free editio n is mo re limited than the co mmercial one, but it provides a great place to start at no cost. Visual Web Developer Express can be dow nloaded fro m this address: http:/ / w w w .galasoft.ch/ sl4-w ebexpress. In this bo o k, we use Visual Studio 2010 for the samples, but yo u sho uld be able to easily adapt the steps to Visual Web Developer Express.

TI P Ch o o si n g a P rogra m m in g La n gu a ge

Silverlight can be program m ed in Visual C# or in VB.NET. Depending on your past experiences, you may choose one or the other indistinctly. Other .NET languages are support ed, too (for exam ple, the dynam ic languages IronPython and IronRuby). \

/

Inst a lling t he Silve rlight Tools for Visua l St udio Once Visual Studio (or the Express editio n) is installed, yo u need additio nal to o ls for Silverlight 4 develo pment, to be dow nloaded at http:/ / www.galasoft.ch/ sl4-tools (Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio 2010).

These co ntain the follow ing elements: zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaYWVUTSRQPONMLKIHGFEDCBA • The Silverlight developer runtime: This is a special version of the Silverlight plug-

in that Visual Studio can attach a debugger to, to help yo u understand w here issues co me from, and to solve them. • N ew templates for V isual Studio: These are used to create new pro jects and new

items (pages, controls, classes, and so o n) in your Silverlight applicatio n.

I n s t a l l i n g Vi s u a l St u d i o

29

zyxwvutsrqponm

• The Software D evelopment Kit (SDK) for Silverlight:zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONM This kit co ntains all the

libraries yo u w ill need to create and deploy Silverlight applications, to o ls to create and package Silverlight applicatio n (for example, o n a build server), and po inters to additional resources o nline such as the official Silverlight d o cumentatio n. After yo u have installed the Silverlight to o ls for Visual Studio, yo u are ready to create your first Silverlight applicatio n. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Verifying the Insta lla tion The best way to verify the installatio n is to create a new Silverlight applicatio n. We w ill also use this o ppo rtunity to discover basic Silverlight-related functio nality in the enviro nment. Follow these steps: 1. Start Visual Studio 2010. 2. Select File, New, Pro ject. 3. In the New Project dialog bo x, select the Silverlight category on the left, and create a new Silverlight A pplication named HelloSilverlight, as show n in Figure 2.1.

FIGURE 2 .1

New Project dialog box.

4. In the next dialog bo x, show n in Figure 2.2, cho o se w hether yo u w ant to create a

new Web A pplication Project, a new ASP.NET Website, or a new ASP.NET MVC applicatio n to ho st the Silverlight applicatio n.

30

CH A P TER 2

Se t t i n g Up a n d D i s c o v e r i n g Yo u r En v i r o n m e n t

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQP

Cl i ck t h e ch e ck b o x below l : i h o st t h i s Silver ligh t applicat ior t est p age w ill be gen er at ed d u r i n g b u i l d

| 7] Ho st t h e Silver! i gh l applicat ior

New W e b pr oject nam e; Helf oSihier light .W eb New W e b pr oject t y p e A5 P.N ET W e b Ap p l i cat i o n Pr o j ect

Op t i o n s Silver! igh t Ver sion: 5 i i vei i r gh t t g

Enable .NET FUA Ser vices

OK

FIGURE 2 .2

| |

Can cel

New Silverlight Application dialog box.

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHG

Cho o sing betw een web applicatio n pro ject, w ebsite, or MVC applicatio n depends on w hat yo u w ant to achieve, personal preferences, w hat existing w ebsite yo u w ant to integrate your Silverlight applicatio n into , and so fo rth. The Silverlight applicatio n w ill be strictly the same, o nly the ho sting web applicatio n w ill differ. The experience show s that web applicatio n pro jects are mo re flexible than ASP.NET w ebsites, so this is w hat we w ill use in this bo o k. ASP.NET MVC applicatio ns are also very interesting and offer a nice alternative to ASP.NET w eb applications. For mo re info rmatio n abo ut ASP.NET, check out the w ebsite at http:/ / www.asp.net. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

TI P Cr e a t i n g a W e b P r o j e ct or N ot

It is not com pulsory to create a web project to host the Silverlight application. You can either create one later or attach your Silverlight application to an existing ASPNET web project. You can also create the Silverlight application without any host, and run it from a sim ple HTML page. If you do not create a web project, Visual Studio and Blend will generate a t est HTML page for you and open it in the web browser when you run the application. s

To understand better w hat is happening, let's create a new web applicatio n pro ject for this new applicatio n:

1. In the New Silverlight A pplication dialog bo x show n in Figure 2.2, check the first check bo x and make sure that ASP.NET Web A pplication Project is selected in the co mbo bo x. You can also enter a name for your web applicatio n and then click OK. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjih 2. Make sure that Silverlight 4 is selected in the Silverlight Version co mbo bo x. Visual

Studio 2010 allow s creating Silverlight 3 applicatio ns w itho ut installing additional tools, and Silverlight 4 applicatio ns after yo u install the Silverlight to o ls for Visual Studio like we did earlier in this chapter.

I n s t a l l i n g Vi s u a l St u d i o

31

zyxwvutsrqponml

3. Do no t check the Enable .NET RIA Services check bo x for now . We cover this o ptio n in Chapter 13, "Creating Line-of-Business A pplicatio ns." zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaYWVUTSRQPO 4. Click OK.

5. To make sure that we have all the files ready, build the application by selecting Build, Build So lutio n fro m the menu. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCB

Inspe ct ing the Applica t ion Based on the ind icatio ns we gave, Visual Studio created tw o projects, as show n in Figure 2.3. It is indeed possible to mix Silverlight applicatio n and "full .NET" applicatio ns in a single so lutio n. Let's review the pro jects and the files: • HelloSilverlight is the Silverlight applicatio n itself. It co ntains four impo rtant files: A pp.xaml and the attached A pp.xaml.cs co ntain the global application o bject, global event handlers, global resources, and so on. This is also the main entry po int for the applicatio n.

-

S o l u t i o n E xp lo r e r

S o l u t i o n ' H e l l o S i l ve r l i g h t ' ( 2 p r o j e c t s )

X

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaXWVUTS

H e l l o Si l v e rl i g h t

A

>

P r op er t ies

&

R e fe r e n ce s

A

[ *] Ap p j c a m l ^

A

J8

Ap p j c a m l . c s

Ma ïn Pa gejt a m l ^

A

Y

Ma r n P a gejt a m l.es

H e l lo Silve r lig h t . W e b

>

P r op er t ies

>

R e fe r e n ce s

A

CI Ten t Bin H e llo Si lve r li gh t J ca p

M H e l[ o Sit ve r ligh t Te s t P a ge .a s p * MainPage.xaml and the attached 0 H e l l o S r t ve r l T g h t T e s t P a g e . h t m l MainPage.xaml.es are like the name Sit ve r figh t . js & W e b .co n fr g indicates the main page for the applicatio n. You can have multiple pages in FIGURE 2 .3 The created projects in the the applicatio n; the main page is the Solution Explorer. o ne that is created w hen the applicatio n starts. yxwvutsrponmlkjihgfedcbaYXWVUTSRQPOMLKJIHGEDCBA

• HelloSilverlight.Web is the w eb application, running on ASP.NET. It co ntains the files that w ill be dow nloaded to the web browser. • ClientBin\Hello Silverlight.xap is a zip file w ith all the binary files needed to run the applicatio n in the plug-in (in our case, this is just HelloSilverlight.dll), and a file named A ppManifest.xaml, called the applicatio n manifest. It co ntains info rmatio n that the plug-in needs to start the applicatio n, as w ell as o ptio nal ind icatio n about the possibility to run the applicatio n out of the browser, and so fo rth.

• HelloSilverlightTestPage.aspx and HelloSilverlightTestPage.html are tw o generated test pages ho sting the Silverlight applicatio n. If yo u open either file, yo u w ill see generated HTML and JavaScript code, including thezyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHG obj ect tag w ithin w hich the Silverlight plug-in w ill run. • Silverlight. js is a utility file w ith JavaScript functio ns that can be interesting to use w ithin the HTML page. For example, there is a functio n helping yo u to check w hich version is installed on the client PC, and to react acco rdingly by alerting the user.

32

CH A P TER 2

Se t t i n g Up a n d D i s c o v e r i n g Yo u r En v i r o n m e n t

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQ

Unpa ck ing an XAP File zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA If yo u w ant to lo o k by yourself at the co ntent of a XAP file, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the ClientBin folder in the So lutio n Explorer, and select Open folder in Windo w s Explorer fro m the co ntext menu. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaYWVUTSRQPONMLKIHG 2. Make a co py of HelloSilverlight.xap and rename it to HelloSilverlight.zip.

3. If the operating system supports it (for example, in Windo w s 7), yo u can open the zip file just like any o ther folder and see the co ntent. 4. On operating systems that do no t support this functio n, yo u can use a zip to o l to

unpack the XAP file. Note that if yo u w ant, yo u can recompress the XAP file w ith a higher level of compression and get smaller files to send to the w eb browser. The file w ill be transmitted faster, but it w ill take mo re time to unpack it to start the applicatio n.

Using the Visua l Studio De signe r

Open the file MainPage.xaml. If yo u didn't change the Visual Studio settings, yo u should no w see some XAML code. XAML is an XML-based language used in Silverlight and Windo w s Presentatio n Fo undatio n (WPF) to describe the user interface. There are o ther possible usages for XAML, and in fact it is really just a serialization language for .NET. If yo u w ant mo re info rmatio n about XAML, yo u can refer to zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaXWVUTSRQPONMLKJI Silverlight 2 Unleashed, Chapters 2 and 3.

TI P Op e n i n g in t h e D e si gn e r or in t h e S o u r ce Ed it or

By default, XAML files open in the Visual Studio designer. However, the designer tak es som e tim e to st art . Many developers prefer to change the default by following t hese st eps: 1. Right-click any XAML file.

2. Select Open With from the context m enu. 3. In the Open With dialog box, choose Source Code (Text) Editor. If you want, you can set t his as the default using the corresponding button. 4. Click OK. Opening XAML files will be faster now, but you lose the designer functionality. To open a XAML file in the designer anyway, follow t hese st eps: 1. Right-click the XAML file.

2. Select View Designer from the context m enu. \

W ith MainPage.xaml o pen in the designer, yo u should see tabs at the bo tto m, as show n in Figure 2.4.

/

Im plem ent ing Hello Silverlight

On the o ther side of the bar, yo u w ill see three small butto ns and a grip, as show n in Figure 2.5. The butto ns and the grip in Figure 2.5 and the tabs in Figure 2.4 are used to sw itch betw een XAML view and design view, or to split the editor w indow and have the XAML and the design on the same screen:

"I

33

zyxwvutsrqponml

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFE a UserControl

HXAML I

Design

FIGURE 2 .4

H

U s p r f. r . n t m l

V

Bottom of the XAML editor.

tDHIB FIGURE 2 .5

Grip and split but t ons.

• Use the XAML tab to see the XAML code, and the Design tab to see the scene in the designer. • Use the grip in Figure 2.5 to slide the separator up, and visualize the XAML code on top, and the design surface on the bo tto m. • Using the butto ns in Figure 2.5, yo u can split the editor vertically or ho rizo ntally and see the XAML and the design surface. The last butto n (w ith a double arrow) collapses or expands the design surface. If yo u d o n't like to have the XAML on top, yo u can sw itch the XAML and the design surface by pressing the small butto n w ith tw o arrows lo cated betw een the XAML tab and the Design tab, as show n in Figure 2.6. Note that this butto n is visible o nly w hen the w indow is split.

|zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFED hxa m l ti q.DesigT~l A no ther impo rtant element of the visual designer is the property editor. W hen o ne element is selected in the designer, FIGURE 2 .6 Switching XAML and Design the property editor show s all the view, element's properties that yo u can modify. You w ill learn ho w to use the property editor in the next sectio n.

Im plem enting Hello Silve rlight To get to know Visual Studio a bit better, let's imp lement a simple applicatio n w ith the follow ing steps: 1. Set azyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Li near Gr adi ent Br us h in the main Gr i d by adding the XAML code fro m Listing 2.1 w ithin the Gr i d tag. You must co py these lines betw een the o pening tag and the closing tag . You must also remove the Backgr ound property that was set in the Gr i d tag initially. LISTING 2 .1

Setting a zyxwutsrponmlkjihgfedcbaWVUTSRPLIGFEDCBA Li ne ar Gr adi e nt Br us h