An Introduction To Silverlight

An Introduction To Silverlight Gergely Orosz http://GregDoesIT.com @gergelyorosz

In this presentation
What SL is capable of
How it is different
Learning curve overview
Why use SL
Non-traditional way

What is Silverlight?
Rich Internet Application (RIA) platform
Capabilities are similar to
Flash
Java FX
Web-based subset of WPF

Flash vs Silverlight Flash Silverlight Animation model Frame-based Time-based Language ActionScript CLR-compilant (VB.NET, C#) Platform All major Limited Linux (Moonlight) Multithreading No (from programmer perspective) Yes

Flash vs Silverlight Flash Silverlight Image support Most formats JPG and PNG Video, audio Multiple formats, low-level APIs VC-1 codec, WMW, WM, no low-level APIs Streaming More cost-effective Other More mature Deep Zoom

Flash vs Silverlight
Features: almost identical
Development environments
Streaming
Mobile: ?

WPF
Descendant of Windows Forms
Built on .NET 3.5
XAML: descriptive markup language

WPF / Silverlight features
Vector graphics & bitmap effects
Data binding & UI update
Animations
Rich content: videos, images, sounds
Styling, templates

Silverlight: lightweight WPF
CLR within Browser
Limited CLR:
Not all libraries
Local filesystem limited
Networking limited

XAML
Separate UI and logic
XML markup, clean syntax
XAML and code behind files
Does not support generics

XAML: a simple example
Code

UI Basics
Layout
Grid, Canvas, StackPanel
Controls
Button, HyperLinkButton, ComboBox etc
Text, images
TextBlock, Image, MediaElement
Brushes
Solid, linear, radial, image, video
User Controls

UI Basics: Example
VideoBrush Example
Use MSDN/references to look up UI elements

Styling and templating
Defining styles:
TargetType
Setters that are valid on the target
Templates
Customize controls
Uses ControlTemplate class
Easy to define in XAML

Styling and templating: example
Code

Dependency Properties
Extend CLR properties
Property changed notification
Data Binding
Animating
Default value and ClearValue
Has to inherit DependencyObject

Dependency Properties: example
Registering, default value, Property Changed
Animating
Data Binding

Attached Properties
Global property that can be set on any object element
Static Dps
Used by the owner, defined on the child
E.g. Canvas.Left, Grid.Column

Attached properties: example
Code

MVVM
How to effectively build large applications in WPF
Lots of UI markup, lots of data binding
Variation of MVC

MVVM
Model
BL, UI independent
View
Visual elements + input processing
Data binding
View and model can be bound directly
Usually direct binding is not possible

MVVM
ViewModel
“ Model of a View”
Abstraction of the view: contains state and behaviour
Data binder/converter:
Model information -> View information
View commands -> Model

MVVM: Example

MVVM in Silverlight
Worth using on larger projects
Frameworks
MEF
Official
Prism
Non-official, but MS

Summary
Similar to WPF
XAML
Styling & templating
DPs
Attached properties
MVVM for larger applications

Effort learning SL
Project structure: small
UI: significant
Media: moderate
Data binding: moderate

Effort learning SL
Network: moderate
Events: moderate
Other: moderate - significant
Dependency Properties, Attached Properties
MVVM
Navigation Framework
Out of Browser applications

Why It's Worth It
Things you couldn't do before!
Good looking controls & pages
Animation
Video & vector graphics

Why It's Worth It
Silverlight client for Facebook
Silverlight Toolkit (with source)
http://www.jumpman23mosaic.com
http://silverlight.net/showcase/
http://nokola.com/ (with source)

Suggested Learning Curve
C# / VB experience
Web
http://silverlight.net/getstarted/
MSDN: Getting Started with Silverlight
Books
WPF

Thank You

An Introduction To Silverlight

by Gergely Orosz on May 13, 2010

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