Introducing Silverlight 4

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

About the Author

About the Technical Reviewer

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART 1 Introduction to Silverlight

Chapter 1 Introducing Silverlight

Cross-Platform Frameworks

Qt

The Java Platform

Adobe Flash/Flex/AIR

Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX

Microsoft Silverlight

The History of Silverlight

Silverlight 1

Silverlight 2

Silverlight 3

Silverlight 4

Design and Development Tools for Silverlight

Visual Studio

Expression Blend

SketchFlow

Expression Encoder

Deep Zoom Composer

Eclipse Tools for Silverlight (eclipse4SL)

Creating a Silverlight 4–based Application

Working with Expression Blend

Demonstrating Local Image Files Integration Using Drag-and- Drop Functionality

Summary

Chapter 2 Silverlight Concepts

Silverlight Architecture

Silverlight and XAML

Developing a Sample Application

Defining User Interface Using XAML Code

Defining User Interface Using Code-Behind

The XAML Controls Structure

Namespaces

Dependency Property System

Dependency Properties

The Root of Visual Elements: DependencyObject

Type Converters

Markup Extensions

Resource Dictionaries, Referencing Static Resources, and Implicit Styling

Data Binding

Template Binding

Microsoft .NET for Silverlight

Core .NET Assemblies for Silverlight Applications

Managed Code-Behind .NET Integration

Summary

Chapter 3 Silverlight User Interface Controls

Building Blocks

DependencyObject

Threading and the user interface

UIElement

FrameworkElement

The Control Class

Enhancements in Silverlight 4

Layout Management and Grouping Controls

Canvas

StackPanel

Grid

DockPanel

WrapPanel

TabControl

ViewBox

Forms Controls

The Button Controls

Button

HyperlinkButton

RepeatButton

Toggle Buttons: CheckBox and RadioButton

TextBox

PasswordBox

RichTextBox

AutoCompleteBox

Data Integration and Data Manipulation Controls

ItemsControl

ListBox

The ListBoxItem Class

ComboBox

The ComboBoxItem Class

TreeView

The TreeViewItem Class

HeaderedItemsControl

ContentControl

HeaderedContentControl

DataGrid

DataForm

DataPager

Label

DescriptionViewer

ValidationSummary

Functional Controls

Border

GridSplitter

TextBlock

Popup

ToolTipService

ScrollViewer

The RangeBase Class

ScrollBar

Slider

ProgressBar

Calendar and DatePicker

Image

MultiScaleImage

MediaElement

InkPresenter

Strokes and StylePoints

Dialog Boxes

OpenFileDialog

SaveFileDialog

ChildWindow

WebBrowser

Navigation

The Frame Class

The Page Class

Summary

PART 2 Content Integration in Silverlight Applications

Chapter 4 Media Integration

Media Integration Enhancements in Silverlight 4

Images

The Image Class

Bitmap APIs

Silverlight Hardware Acceleration

GPU Hardware Acceleration

Bitmap Caching

Cache and Frame Rate Counter Visualization

Multi-scale Images and the Deep Zoom Feature

Developing an Example Using Deep Zoom Composer

Media (Video and Audio)

Supported Media Format

Unsupported Media Format

The MediaElement Class

Timeline Markers

Web Camera and Microphone Integration

The CaptureDeviceConfiguration Class

The CaptureDevice, AudioCaptureDevice, and VideoCaptureDevice Classes

The CaptureSource Class

Developing an Example

Windows Azure Platform–based Hosting and Media Delivery Services for Silverlight Applications

Subscribing to Windows Azure Platform Services

Publishing Silverlight Applications Video Content

Streaming Packaged Images and Media Files

Summary

Chapter 5 Network Communication

Networking Enhancements in Silverlight 4

Enabling Cross-Domain Communication

Cross-Domain Policy Files

The crossdomain.xml File

The clientaccesspolicy.xml File

Trusted Applications

Network-Aware Applications

Consuming Web Services with WCF

Creating a WCF Service Consumable by Silverlight

XAML to Consume Information

Invoking Services from Silverlight

Silverlight Service Utility Tool

Asynchronous Communication

Handling Errors

Communicating Directly over HTTP

The WebClient Class

The HttpWebRequest Class

Communicating via Sockets

Controlling Client Access via a Socket Policy Server

The System.Net Namespace

The Socket Class

The SocketAsyncEventArgs Class

Building a Socket-Based Sample Text Chat Application

The PolicyServer Windows Service Project

The MessengerServer Windows Service Project

The Message.cs File

The MainPage.xaml File

The MainPage.xaml.cs Code-Behind File

Executing the Text Chat Application

UDP Multicast

The UdpAnySourceMulticastClient Class

The UdpSingleSourceMulticastClient Class

Considerations for Using Networking

Summary

Chapter 6 Working with Data

Enhancements in Silverlight 4

Displaying Data

Data Binding

Enabling Data Change Notification

Rich Data Binding Support in Visual Studio 2010

Data Validation

IDataErrorInfo Interface for Client-Side Validation

INotifyDataErrorInfo Interface for Asynchronous Server-Side Validation

XAML Element Data Binding / Element-to-Element Binding

DependencyObject Binding

Type Converters

StringFormat

BindingBase.FallbackValue and BindingBase.TargetNullValue Properties

Binding to String Indexers

The DataGrid Control

Implementing Grouping, Sorting, Filtering, and Paging

DataGrid Editing Events

DataGrid Column Sizing

Clipboard Support

Cell-Level Data Validation

Row-Level Data Validation

The DataForm Control

IEditableObject Interface Implementation

Customized Display of DataForm Fields

Field-Level Validation

The CollectionViewSource

WCF Data Services

Entity Data Model (EDM)

Silverlight Client Library for WCF Data Services

The DataServiceContext Class

The DataServiceQuery Class

The DataServiceCollection (T) Class

Silverlight Application using WCF Data Service

Create ADO .NET Entity Data Model

Create WCF Data Service

Create WCF Data Services Proxy and Retrieve the Records

Two-Way Binding with DataServiceCollection Class

Handling Deferred Content

Processing XML Data

Parsing XML

Serializing XML

Using LINQ

Saving State on the Client

Summary

PART 3 Improving User Experience

Chapter 7 Extending User Experience of LoB Applications

Enhancements in Silverlight 4

Drag-and-Drop Functionality

Properties of UIElement to Enable Drag-and-Drop Functionality

Events of UIElement to Enable Drag-and-Drop Functionality

Processing Dropped File(s)

Developing an Example

Defining User Control

Implementing Code-Behind of the User Control

Adding ChildWindow as an Image Viewer

Mouse-Wheel Support

Developing an Example

Limitations

Right-Click Context Menu Support

Printing Capabilities

PrintDocument Class

PrintPageEventArgs Class

Implementing the Printing Function

Printing the Application Screen

Printing Selected Control

Custom Printing

Clipboard Access

Globalization and Localization of Silverlight Applications

Globalization

CultureInfo Class

Developing an Example

Localization

Hub-and-Spoke Model

Implementing an Example

Preparing for Global Silverlight Application

Enhancements in XAML Features

Flexible Root XAML Namespace

XmlnsDefinitionAttribute

Direct Content

Whitespace Handling

Custom IDictionary Support

Summary

Chapter 8 Styling and Templating

Enhancements in Silverlight 4

Using Styles

Style Inheritance/Style Cascading

Style Override/Style Resetting

Merged Resource Dictionaries

Implicit Styling

Style Setter

Using Control Templates

Creating a Control Template

Visual State Manager (VSM)

Custom Button Control using Control Template

Control Templates for Other Controls

Developing a Templated Control

Summary

Chapter 9 Graphics

Enhancements in Silverlight 4

2D Graphics

Using Geometries

Simple Geometries

Path Geometries

Grouping Geometries

Clipping with Geometries

Using Shapes

Ellipse

Line

Rectangle

Polyline

Polygon

Path

Transforms

Translation

Rotation

Skewing

Scaling

Arbitrary Linear Transforms

Combining Multiple Transformations

Composite Transformation

3D Effects Using Perspective Transforms

Pixel Shaders

Brushes

The SolidColorBrush

The Tile Brushes

The ImageBrush

The Video Brush

The Gradient Brushes

The LinearGradientBrush

The RadialGradientBrush

Transparency and Opacity Masks

Summary

Chapter 10 Animation

Introduction to Silverlight Animation

Timelines

AutoReverse

BeginTime

Duration

FillBehavior

RepeatBehavior

SpeedRatio

Storyboards and Animation

From/To/By Animations

Foreground Animation: An Example

Shimmering Effect for Background Animation: An Example

Keyframe Animations

Interpolation

Animation Easing

Understanding Animation-Easing Functions

Procedural Animation

Bubble User Control

DemoPage User Control

Animating with Expression Blend

3D Animation

Summary

PART 4 Advanced Topics

Chapter 11 Advanced Silverlight Features

Silverlight Navigation Framework

Understanding the Navigation Framework

The Frame Class

Start-Up Page and Application Navigation Features

Navigation Pages

Navigation History and Integration with Browser

Implementing Custom Navigation

The INavigationContentLoader Interface

Extending the Example

Deep Linking

Search Engine Optimization

Additional References

Out-of-Browser Functionality

Enabling the Out-of-Browser Functionality

Installing Out-of-Browser Applications

In-Browser Install: Default Option

In-Browser Install: Custom Developed Option

Silent Install

Uninstalling Out-of-Browser Applications

The Default Option

The Silent Uninstall Option

Trusted Out-of-Browser Applications

Customizing Out-of-Browser Applications

Custom Icons

Window Manipulation and Customization

Working with the Networking and Offline APIs

Incorporating an Updated Version

Files Management

Notification API

COM Automation

Commanding Support

The Model Class

The ViewModel Class

The View.xaml File

Cross-Silverlight Application Communication

Using the System.Windows.Messaging Namespace

Seeing an Example in Action

Creating the Sender Silverlight Application

Creating the Receiver Silverlight Application

Hosting the Sender and Receiver Applications on the Same Page

Summary

Chapter 12 Threading in Silverlight

Using Threading

The Thread Class

Creating and Managing Threads

The Dispatcher

The BackgroundWorker Class

Working with Shared Data

Using Timers

Using the DispatcherTimer

Using the System.Threading Timer

Summary

Chapter 13 WCF RIA Services and Silverlight for Mobile

WCF RIA Services for Silverlight

Setting Up a Development Environment

Introducing Silverlight Business Application Template

Running the Default Project

Implementing Windows Authentication

ADO .NET Entity Data Model for Data Integration

Domain Service Class for Data Integration

Reading and Displaying Data from the Data Source

Updating Data to the Data Source

Additional References

Silverlight for Windows Mobile

Setting Up a Development Environment

Developing a Sample Twitter Application

Create a Windows Phone Application Project

Defining the User Interface

Code-Behind for Twitter Integration

Testing Silverlight Windows Mobile Application Using Windows Phone 7 Emulator

Summary

Chapter 14 Dynamic Languages and Dynamic .NET for Silverlight

Dynamic Languages

Dynamic Languages for Silverlight

IronRuby

IronPython

Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) for Silverlight

DLR Scripting Assemblies

The Microsoft.Scripting.Silverlight.DynamicApplication Class

Setting Up the Development Environment

The Traditional Approach with the Chiron.exe File

The “Just-Text” Approach

Creating Silverlight Applications Using the “Just-Text” Approach

Hosting a HTML File

In-Line IronRuby/IronPython Code in Hosting HTML File

In-Line XAML Code in Hosting HTML File

Externalizing XAML and IronRuby/IronPython Code

Developing an Interactive Bing Maps Application with Silverlight and IronRuby

Installing Microsoft Bing Maps Silverlight Control SDK

Include Bing Maps Control to the Solution

Include Bing Maps Control within the dlr.xap File

Include Bing Maps Control As an External ZIP File

Create a SilverlightMap.xaml File

Creating a SilverlightMap.html File

Adding 3D Animation within the SilverlightMap.xaml File

Creating a SilverlightMap.rb IronRuby File and Adding Map Mode

Add Rotate Map Capabilities

Targeting Pre-defined Locations

Summary

Chapter 15 Security

.NET Security in the CLR

Silverlight Security Model

Enhancements in Silverlight 4

Configuring Silverlight 4 Applications to Run with Elevated Trust

Digitally Signing Out-of-Browser Silverlight Applications

Elevated-Trusted Silverlight Applications vs. Partially Trusted Silverlight Applications

Application-Level Security

Securing Information in Transit

Securing Information with Cryptography

Hash Algorithms and Message Authentication Codes

Encrypting/Decrypting Data

User Access Control

Same-Domain and Cross-Domain Communication

Division of Responsibility

Summary

PART 5 Testing and Deploying Silverlight RIAs

Chapter 16 Testing and Debugging

Testing

Unit Testing

Silverlight Unit Testing Framework

Automated User Interface Testing

UI Spy Tool

Implementing UI Automation Testing

Debugging

The Debugging Process

Conditional Compilation

Debugging Silverlight Applications with Visual Studio

Controlling the Debugger

Configuring Startup for Debugging

Debugging Out-of-Browser Applications

Handling Unhandled Exceptions

Summary

Chapter 17 Packaging and Deploying Silverlight Applications

Client Considerations

Disabling Silverlight Plug-In Using Web Browser

Silverlight Configuration

Silverlight Deployment Package Definition

Core Runtime Library

Silverlight Application Package (XAP File)

Application Manifest File

Application Startup Assembly File

Optional Files

In-Package and On-Demand Files

Copy Local Property

Build Action Property

Hosting Silverlight Applications

Server-Side Silverlight RIA Deployment

Setting the IIS MIME Type

Same-Domain and Cross-Domain Deployment

Custom Initialization Parameters

Embedding Silverlight Plug-Ins to the Web Page

HTML object Element

Silverlight.js JavaScript Helper File

Custom HTML Object Element Error Handling for Better User Experience

Silverlight and the Build Process

Building a Silverlight Application Visual Studio Project (.csproj) with MSBuild

Building a Silverlight Application MsBuild Project (.proj) with MSBuild

Silent Installer for Silverlight Out-of-Browser Applications

Summary

Index