Silverlight 1.0 Unleashed

Adam Nathan

Oct 2007 · Sams Publishing

About this ebook

Full Color

Code samples appear as they do in Visual Studio and Expression Blend!

Printed entirely in color, with helpful figures and syntax coloring to make code samples appear as they do in Visual Studio and Expression Blend!

Silverlight is a lightweight but powerful plug-in for multiple web browsers on multiple operating systems that makes it easier than ever to create rich web-based content, applications, and controls. With support for vector graphics, animations, full-screen high-definition video, and more, Silverlight gives you the ability to create more compelling content than you dreamed possible for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Silverlight provides much of the power of Windows Presentation Foundation, but with less overhead and easy integration with HTML and AJAX-style applications. Silverlight 1.0 Unleashed is the authoritative book that covers the technology in a practical and approachable fashion, authored by Silverlight guru and Microsoft developer Adam Nathan.

• Covers everything you need to know about Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) in Silverlight
• Examines the Silverlight feature areas in depth: graphics, text, audio, video, animation, ink, events, and more
• Demonstrates how to create reusable controls and perform common tasks (such as drag-and-drop) using basic building blocks
• Explains how to download assets asynchronously to maximize your user experience
• Demonstrates how to create hybrid applications that mix Silverlight content with HTML or Flash content
• Highlights features scheduled for future versions of Silverlight while showing how to achieve your desired results with the current version

Introduction 1

Part I Fundamentals

1 Getting Started 9

2 XAML 39

Part II Creating Static Content

3 Shapes, Lines, and Curves 61

4 Text 83

5 Brushes and Images 99

6 Positioning and Transforming Elements 117

Part III Making Your Content Come to Life

7 Responding to Input Events 143

8 Downloading Content on Demand 179

9 Animation 191

10 Audio and Video 219

About the author

Adam Nathan is a senior software development engineer for Microsoft and the founding developer of Popfly, Microsoft’s first product built with Silverlight. He is the author of the best-selling Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed (Sams, 2006), .NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide (Sams, 2002), a coauthor of ASP.NET: Tips, Tutorials, and Code (Sams, 2001), and a contributor to books such as .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, Vol. 2 (Addison-Wesley, 2005) and Windows Developer Power Tools (O’Reilly, 2006).

Adam regularly speaks at development conferences and to internal groups within Microsoft about a variety of .NET topics. Having started his career on Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime team in 1999, Adam has been at the core of .NET technologies since the very beginning. Adam is also the creator of popular tools and websites for .NET developers, such as PINVOKE.NET (and its Visual Studio add-in). You can find him online at www.adamnathan.net.