RIA Programming with Silverlight

Audience

This course is for developers who need to use Silverlight 4 to build clients for their line of business applications.

Prerequisites

This course is for applications developers familiar with the Visual Studio environment.

Duration

3 days. Hands on.

Course Objectives

In this course we cover the essentials of XAML and design but the main focus is on developing n-tier applications with the rich interactive client that Silverlight can provide. The course provides guidance and tuition on adopting the popular architecural patterns for RIA apps including RIA Services, M-V-VM and PRISM frameworks. Delegates will learn how to connect Silverlight with a range of technologies including WCF, REST based services, duplex services and sockets. The course provides a deep understanding of data binding as well as UI interaction including drag and drop, threads, Isolated Storage, datagrid, listbox & dataform controls, accessibility, and the Navigation framework. Delegates will learn how to create their own re-usable templatable custom controls, and how to write Silverlight Unit Tests, and finally how to host the app both on their own servers and using Windows Azure.

Course Content

Silverlight Introduction
What is Silverlight?
Architecture
Project Architecture
Deployment
Assembly Caching
Running Silverlight Apps
Tools for Creating Silverlight Apps
Difference in versions

Silverlight Xaml
Xaml Syntax
Xaml Namescopes
Silverlight namespace extensions
Content Models
Type Converters
Property Elements
Mapping Libraries
Dependency Properties Intro
Attached properties
Markup Extensions
Binding
StaticResource
TemplateBinding
RelativeSource

Silverlight Graphics, Media & Controls
Graphics & Text
Audio and Video (inc DRM overview)
Creating & Understanding Animation
Understanding Controls
Resources, Style & Templates

Hosting Silverlight in the Browser
Plugin positioning and Dimensions
Hosting the control
Creating flexible layouts
Full-Screen Support
Hosting the control
Object tag & options
Using a Xaml Splash Screen
Customising the Installation experience

UI Interaction
Keyboard input
Mouse Input
Wheel support
Multitouch support
Drag and Drop
Full Screen Mode
File Open and Save Dialogs
Isolated Storage
Background Worker & Threads

Interaction with the Environment
Controlling Html from Silverlight
Calling managed code from Javascript
Using the LocalConnection API to communicate between multiple Silverlight instances
Maximising SEO
Out Of Browser Support
Enabling OOB support
Using the Network Monitoring API
Updating an OOB Application

Working with Services
Creating Services for Silverlight
Silverlight enabled WCF services
BinaryXML
ADO.Net Data Services
RESTful services with POX and JSON
Consuming Services
WCF, ASMX
Ado.Net Data Services
Other Services (REST, POX)
Security restrictions
Sockets and Duplex Services
Cryptographic Services
Choosing a O/R mapper to use with Silverlight
EF
Linq to SQL

Data Binding
Understanding DataBinding in Silverlight
DataBinding Modes
DataBinding Syntax
DataContext
Change Notification
DataTemplates

Creating Custom Controls
The Silverlight Toolkit
Motivation for creating custom controls
Creating custom controls
Understanding Generic.Xaml
Using custom controls

Accessibility
Making Silverlight accessible
Achieving DDA Compliance
UI Automation

Silverlight Unit Testing
Choosing a testing framework
Installing the framework
Writing Unit Tests for Silverlight code
Adopting TDD and Silverlight
Integration

Silverlight Navigation Applications
Overview
Creating Navigation Applications
Creating clean Url's
Understanding Deep Linking
Applying other styles and assets
Using navigation in standard Silverlight applications

Using .Net RIA Services for n-tier
Understanding .Net RIA Services
Pros and cons
Validation model and shared code
Creating RIA Services applications
Using the Data Form with Ria Services
Using RIA services with other data bound controls

Model-View-ViewModel
Motivation for M-V-VM
Using M-V-VM in Silverlight
Available M-V-VM frameworks

Using Silverlight with Azure
Understanding Azure
Getting the Azure bits for Visual Studio
Creating Silverlight apps for Azure

Review and Summary