Silverlight Templates

Microsoft ASP.NET and Silverlight Conference and Expo 2010

Arthur — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:35:27 +0000

Great news for all Silverlight developers! On April 12-14 2010 the Microsoft ASP.NET and Silverlight Conference and Expo would be hosted in Bellagio Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas!!!

Here is the list of topics you’ll see in four days that the Microsoft ASP.NET and Silverlight Conference and Expo in Las Vegas::

Build Client Side User Interfaces with ASP.NET 4.0 AJAX
Learn the New Features for Web Forms in Visual Studio 2010
Hear All the News and Buzz about Silverlight
Optimize Performance of Your ASP.NET Applications
Use Expression Blend Techniques for Developers
Compare and Choose the Right Data Access Technique
Debunk Search Engine Myths–Increase Your Chances of Being Found in Search Engines
Learn Better Techniques for Data Access with Silverlight
Explore All of ASP.NET MVC
Use the New Reports/Charts Features in Visual Studio 2010

and much more…

The main speakers are:

Scott Allen, Pluralsight
Rachel Appel, Appel Consulting
Bob Beauchemin, SQLSkills.com
Brad Becker, Microsoft
Richard Campbell, Strangeloop Networks
Mike Downey, Microsoft
Brian Goldfarb, Microsoft
Billy Hollis, Author
Michele Leroux Bustamante, IDesign, Inc.
Paul Litwin, Deep Training
Juval Lowy, IDesign, Inc.
Stacia Misner, Data Inspirations
Laurence Moroney, Microsoft
Paul Randal, SQLskills.com
Paul D. Sheriff, PDSA, Inc.
Steven Smith, ASP Smith
Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies
Paul Stubbs, Microsoft
Kimberly L. Tripp, SQLskills.com
Dan Wahlin, Wahlin Consulting
Christian Wenz, Hauser Wenz Partnerschaftsges
Shawn Wildermuth, Wildermuth Consulting Services LLC

Note! You can also save 100 $ off the conference registration fee if you register by March 8th.

For additional information please visit Devconnection.com

Travel Around The Globe With Silveright Apps And BingMaps

Arthur — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:09:43 +0000

BingMaps.com has just added two new Silverlight applications Local Events and Destination Maps.

So let’s make it clear what are they for:

Local Events

If you are not sure how to spend your weekend, you can use Local Events application that bring up all the nearby events. After selecting the area of interest the app will display the events as pins on the map. The name of the upcoming event is shown in the left-hand column. With this application you can sort all the events listed by time, date, popularity, category (music, sport, arts, festivals, dinning, etc) and so on.

Destination Maps

Are you hard with explaining people directions to your house, office or party? Well, Destination Maps is right what you need. Simply specify the places in the area of interest by dragging the sides of on-map square to include all the areas your friends or business partners are coming from and set the map’s title. What’s more, you can also select multiple map styles (Sketchy, Treasure map, European, etc.)

You really should try it out!

Silverlight 3 Books

Arthur — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:31:39 +0000

As you all folks know, there is no practice without theory. You can’t hammer a nail if you have no idea what is and how to use a hammer. Of course you can take a chance and experiment a little and I’m sure you’ll be lucky enough to figure out the process on nailing something. But it’s not that simple when it comes to programming. So I guess it will be rather useful for you to fluently read some books about Silverlight and its possibilities. I know that it’s much easier to surf the web for free Silverlight tutorials, but have you ever dreamt to be that guy who creates and writes tutorials; to be the leader but not a common follower? Remember that even programming geeks and gurus sometimes leaf through the pages to keep up with the fast growing software and hardware development. You should know that all the secrets are there in the books! The secrets to succeed… to become a guru!
Here is a small selection of truly useful and interesting books that will help you develop your skills in learning Silverlight:

Silverlight essentials:

1.Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 3 (by Laurence Moroney) – the book provides practical, grounded advice, rich examples, and ready code to help inspire your next solutions.

2.Microsoft Silverlight 3: A Beginner’s Guide (byShannon Horn) – the book covers Microsoft Silverlight 2.0, the .NET Framework 3.5, and prerequisite technologies.

3.Silverlight 3 Jumpstart (byDavid Yack) – the book is the introduction to building business applications with Silverlight.

4.Essential Silverlight 3 (byAshraf Michail) – is truly an essential book in the library of any Silverlight developer.

5. Silverlight 3 Programmer’s Reference (by J. Ambrose Little , Jason Beres , Grant Hinkson , Devin Rader , Joe Croney) – the book guides you through the languages, tools, and techniques that are used to build applications on the Silverlight 3 platform

Books for experienced users:

1.Accelerated Silverlight 3 (by Jeff Scanlon, Ashisha Ghoda) – The book provides you with fast-track coverage of all the most important elements of the Silverlight 3 technology ranging from XAML to standard controls.

2.Pro Silverlight 3 in C# (by Matthew MacDonald) – Pro Silverlight 3 in C# an invaluable reference for professional developers wanting to discover the new features of Silverlight 3.

3.Pro Silverlight 3 in VB (by Matthew MacDonald) – Written from professional developer to professional developer. You’ll learn to create rich media applications using Silverlight in the environment you’re most productive in.

4.Silverlight 3 Lab: Intensive Skills Training (by Andrew Troelsen) – The book is targeted at experienced .NET developers who already possess a good knowledge of C# and an outline understanding of what Silverlight is. Starting at this level allows you to dive deeply into the subject from the very beginning.

Books for designers

1. Introducing Microsoft Expression Studio (by Greg Holden) – the book serves as an introduction to using Expression Studio to create Web sites, graphics, and presentations, and to organize and edit media files.

2. Foundation Expression Blend 3 with Silverlight (by Victor Gaudioso) – this book is for those who have a background in the development of RIAs and want to learn this new technology.

3. Foundation Silverlight 3 Animation (by Jeff Paries ) – this book illustrates the power of Silverlight as a graphics, animation, and game-creation tool.

4. Microsoft Expression Design Step by Step (by Sara Froehlich, Marc Campbell) – the smart way to learn Microsoft Expression Design one step at a time.Work at your own pace to master the fundamentals of creating professional-looking designs Expression Design.

5. Microsoft Expression Web 3 In Depth (by Jim Cheshire) – the book provides specific, tested, and proven solutions to the problems you run into every day—things other books ignore or oversimplify.

Game Programming

1. Silverlight 3 Game Programming Book(by Michael Snow) – Based on Silverlight 3, this book walks you through how to create a multi-player online RPG in Silverlight.

2. 3D Game Development with Microsoft Silverlight 3: Beginner’s Guide (by Gastón C. Hillar ) – A practical guide to creating real-time responsive online 3D games in Silverlight 3 using C#, XBAP WPF, XAML, Balder, and Farseer Physics Engine.

Ok, now you know where to find the right books! Right from this moment it’s all up to you! We hope you will succeed in Silverlight 3!

Silverlight 4 beta release!Microsoft accelerates production

Arthur — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:42:45 +0000

On November 18, 2009, the day all geeks touched down in LA to become a part of PDC (Professional Developers Conference), Microsoft was in a rush to unveil the beta version of Silverlight 4. It’s been 4 month since Microsoft presented Silverlight 3 and now we are witnessing the 4’s issue release. The motives for Microsoft’s accelerated cross-platform development are shaded. Is it a well-planned project of upgrading web application framework with a glace of web-developers and web-designers’ feedbacks, or is it simply a marketing trick to make Silverilght a household word – we really find it hard to answer. The best way to reveal the truth is to analyzing of “what’s so fresh” in Silverlight 4 beta. According to Silverlight’s official website, there is a great number of absolutely new features. Here is some of them:

30% faster startup time
Support for the Google Chrome browser
Integrated web cam and microphone support
Support for right-click support
Mouse wheel input for all standard Silverlight controls
Drag and drop support
Drop target support to enable streaming of selected files
Programmatic printing support
Programmatic access to the clipboard
Rich text editing
REST enhancements
WCF RIA services
Offline digital rights management

The Silverlight 4 beta is claimed to be a developer release only, but web-designers have also found something usefull in 4 release. Antoni Dol (honored web designer from the Netherlands) has marked out 10 Silverlight 4 beta top features for designers:

Printing support
Implicit Style
Fluid UI States for ItemsControl
ViewBox
Rich Text Area control
Webcam and Microphone support
CompositeTransform
Webbrowser control and HTML brush
Command property on buttons and hyperlink
StringFormat, TargetNullValue, FallbackValue on Data Binding.

To find out more about all these exciting features we recommend you to visit official MS Silverlight website.

Microsoft To Team With Intel

Arthur — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:18:48 +0000

In its attempts to implement Silverlight RIA technology into vatiety of platforms, Microsoft teamed up with world’s largest semiconductor chip maker Intel to announce Silverlight to be run on Intel Atom-Based systems preferentially on Moblin OS (open-source operating system and application stack for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), netbooks, and nettops).
According to Intel’s officials Moblin will support Silverlight 3. During a keynote address at the event, Renee James, Intel’s corporate vice president and general manager of the company’s Software and Services Group, and Ian Ellison-Taylor, Microsoft’s general manager for Client Platforms and Tools, announced the news of negotiations over Moblin’s enhancement with SIlverlight being set with Microsoft. The demonstrated. Also the speech gradually turned into presentation of IIS Smooth Streaming on Atom-based devices running both Windows 7 and Moblin.
In addition Silverlight was stated to be one of the technologies supported in Intel’s recently announced Atom Developer Program.

Play with MS SIlverlight

Arthur — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:37:52 +0000

In case you might be interested in the possibilities of MS Silverlight we would like to recommend you to try out the games developed with a help of Silverlight 3. Take a little break from your casual routine and enjoy this not sophisticated and at the same time interesting games. They would cheer you up. But don’t forget and old saying: ‘Business before pleasure’:). Your boss wouldn’t appreciate your spending too much time on pleasure of relaxing and entertaining. Be a good worker and stay responsible. Well, in case, there is no one above you – enjoy yourself!
We’ve made for you the list of Silverlight games that seemed to us rather captivating. We are sure you find one you would not stop playing until you finish it( you know, sometimes it’s really hard to stop).

So let’s see what we’ve got here for you:

1) Joerassic – here is humorous dinosaurs fighting game. Get a great good portion of positive emotions from the game in spirit of classical fighting game like StreetFighter.

2) Youlii.com – here you’ll find 3 classic games: BomberLadder, SpaceShooter,TYPR made with Silverlight, and what’s there is a feature of online multiplayer!

3) Final Duel – here you’ll find a real time strategy game of survival.

4) Mushniks – this one is really great. Featuring the characters from Taco Bell’s Meal program this free online multiplayer game that allows to create unique Mushnik’s bots to play different mini-games, build biosphere and much more!

5)Mah Jong Solitaire – is an ancient Chinese logical game that is still extremely popular.

6) Tower Of Hanoi – seems like old and childish game but it’s not that easy as it seems…

7) Volatile–make it to the exit without being blown up!

If you enjoyed this funny games, please leave your comments or what’s better share the links of Silverlight based games you’ve found on the web or developed on your own!

Updated Toolkit For MS Silverlight Release

Arthur — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:16:43 +0000

Microsoft releases its 5^th version of MS Silverlight Toolkit developed specially for Silverlight 3. All Toolkits’ controls were updated to be compatible with Visual Studio 2010. There also was some changes in charting. Now with 5^th Silverlight Toolkit all classes of charting are available; Palette’s type was changed from “IEnumerable Style” to “IEnumerableResourceDictionary”. The new feature LegendItemStyle was introduced to make customization of LegendItem more convenient. The Drag and Drop feature was updated to support common items controls such as LightBox, TreeView, DataGrid,etc. Alongside other Silverlight Toolkit binaries, Microsoft implemented the new System.Reactive assembly.

The great news for web-designers is that default Palette Brushes were simplified by removing ScaleTransform and TranslateTransform and replacing them with RadialBrush.
We also would like to mention some of other small changes and updates. Among them are:

Accordion – themes updated to add support for this control

ChildWindow – Themes updated to add support for this control

DataForm -Themes updated to add support for this control

DataPager -Themes updated to add support for this control

DomainUpDown -Mouse wheel support added to change value

GlobalCalendar – Mouse wheel support added to navigate between months in year mode and years in decade mode

GridSplitter -Themes updated to add support for this control

TimePicker / TimeUpDown -Mouse wheel support added

And lots of other great features were added to make the process of development more comfortable with Silverlight 3. To get some additional information, please, visit MS Silverlight official website.

List of Silverlight tutorials

Arthur — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:03:51 +0000

Here it comes! The first list of the finest Silverlight tutorials!

Here we provide links to interesting and most informative Silverlight related websites :

1. http://silverlight.net/learn/tutorials/ Of course it wouldn’t be right not to mention Silverlight official website! There you’ll find lots of tutorials completed by professionals and lots of other useful tips;

2. http://www.smashingapps.com/2009/05/02/15-excellent-and-useful-microsoft-silverlight-tutorials-resources.html – Here you’ll find 15 excellent expanded Silverlight tutorials;

3. http://www.ajaxline.com/20-most-interesting-silverlight-tutorials – Ajaxline.com claims to have 20 most interesting Silverlight tutorials. To find out the truth you’ll have to try it. We’ve checked all of them, and they are really awesome!;

4. http://www.wynapse.com/Silverlight_Tutorials.aspx 12 Silverlight tutorials you would definitely find useful! ;

5. http://www.silverlighttutorials.com/ – nice collection of Silverlight tutorials and useful tips&Drips;

6. http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/pages/silverlight-posts.aspx – Scott Guthrie’s fine collection of Silverlight Tips, Tricks, Tutorials and Links Page

7. http://victorgaudioso.wordpress.com/category/silverlight-video-tutorials/ – Video tutorials from professional Silverlight developer Victor Gaudioso.

8. http://www.wpfdev.com/2008/03/22/silverlight-video-tutorials/ – Silverlight video tutorials series

9. http://www.learn-silverlight-tutorial.com/ – some useful examples could be found here.

10. http://www.silverlightexamples.net/category/Tutorial.aspx – here you’ll find 12 “How to…” Silverlight tutorials.
Hope you’ll find lots of interesting and useful tutorials while browsing the links listed above. We’d like to thank all the Silverlight web developers and designers for creating this comprehensive tutorials and contributing to the Silverlight community!

Silverlight Tutorials

Arthur — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:38:36 +0000

We, at Silverlight-templates.com are looking for comprehensive Silverlight Tutorials. We’ll publish them on our site and surely provide links to primary resources.

In case you might want to share your own Silverlight Tutorial or want to share the Silverlight Tutorial that was helpful to you, please comment this article and provide links to informative Silverlight Tutorials.

Publishing your tutorials on this blog would be your free promotion to the whole Silverlight community. Thus we’ll help thousands of people who need assistance with Silvelight.

We promise to do our best to list every Silverlight Tutorial we find on the web!

Microsoft Expression Studio 3

Arthur — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:20:47 +0000

After you’ve read some reviews news and tutorials you might wan’t to try Microsoft Sliverlight in action. Naturally, you’ll need some special tools to start your own expierence and that is what this article about. So we are going to talk about Microsoft’s new suite of tools for designing and building web and Windows client applications and rich digital media contents – Microsoft Expression studio 3.

So let’s see what we get in the box. Expression studio suit consists of:
1. Microsoft Expression Web 3
2. Expression Blend™ 3 + SketchFlow
3. Microsoft Expression Design 3
4. Microsoft Expression Encoder

Now let’s find out what is what:

Microsoft Expression Web3 – is a WYSIWYG HTML editor and general web design program.With Expression Web you’ll find an easier and faster way to process or create standards-driven websites.
The product’s main features are:

Professional Code Editor
Professional Design Surface
Visual diagnostics
Broad support for Industry-Standard Technologies
Broad Web Standards Support
Build Dynamic Interactive Sites
Create Professional Graphics for Your Site
Encode Silverlight video for Web streaming
Publishing Flexibility
Import Photoshop files

Expression Blend™ 3 + SketchFlow – is a tool for developing interactive elements for Silverlight and. NET. It also allows you to convey the concept of user experiences accurately. It supports the WPF text engine with advanced OpenType typography and Clear Type, vector-based 2D widgets, and 3D widgets with hardware acceleration via DirectX.
SketchFlow- is a prototyping tool that allows you to create, review and compare several ideas before a final decision.

Its main features are:
Possibility to create quickly a prototype vision for an application with Sketchflow.
Enabling interactivity without writing code
Accelerates the design of effective UI with design time data
Extensive and flexible import capabilitie
A full code editor with XAML, C# and VB IntelliSense
Powerful template editing capabilities
Support for Silverlight and WPF
Improved UI
Integrate with Team Foundation Server
Workflow

Microsoft Expression Design 3 – professional illustration vector and raster graphic design tool for web images based on Creature House Expression, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2003. This tool is more oriented towards editing XAML and web graphics.
The main features are:
Incorporates graphics from other applications
Work with advanced and flexible vector manipulation tools, path operators
Places and aligns your graphic elements precisely
Powerful Tools
Editable Effects
Expansive Options
Powerful new export and slicing tools
Creates assets such as buttons or backgrounds that you can use in any authoring tool

Microsoft Expression Encoder 3- is a Windows-based program for encoding digital video for Silverlight-based web video. So to say, it’s just simple and accessible interface that simplifies the process of preparing video material for use in a variety of purposes.
The main features are:
Smart encoding/smart recompression
Decoding/import format support
Smooth streaming (720p+ video using HTTP) with optimized client (Silverlight)
WebDAV publishing
JavaScript trigger events
Windows Media 11 SDK and VC-1 SDK integration, native MPEG-2 decoder
Adding captions to videos using SAMI or W3C Timed Text format
Previewing and comparing encoding settings in real time
Object model for the encoding engine, SDK downloadable separately
Encode content to the industry standard H.264 format

To use Microsoft Expression Studio 3 you need:
Operating system Microsoft Windows ® XP with Service Pack 2, Windows Vista ™ and Windows 7
Windows ® Media Player 11 (only Windows XP)
PC with a processor 1 GHz or higher
1 GB or more RAM
2 GB or more hard disk space
. NET Framework 3.5 with Service Pack 1
Graphics support Microsoft DirectX ® 9.0 driver Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM), 128 MB or more video memory,
hardware support for Pixel Shader 2.0, 32 bits per pixel
DVD-ROM drive
Monitor with a resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher and 24 bit color depth
Internet access (for work in the Internet may need to make a charge)
Some features require Silverlight 2.0, Firefox 3.0, Internet Explorer 7 and AJAX Suite
The actual requirements and product functionality may vary depending on the configuration of your computer and operating system and does not involve the simultaneous use of multiple copies of the product.