Silverlight Learning Guide: v1.1 Alpha Tutorials

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Silverlight Quick Start    Silverlight: Get the software you need    Silverlight articles and blogs    Silverlight 1.0 Release Candidate Tutorials    Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Tutorials    Silverlight and JavaScript Tutorials    More References and Documentation    Silverlight Samples and Case Studies    Silverlight Forums and Community    VISIT OUR OTHER LEARNING GUIDES

Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Tutorials

There are two versions of Silverlight available, v1.0 and v1.1. Silverlight v1.1 (in Alpha Refresh as of August 2007) is the runtime for viewing Silverlight applications built in .NET. In addition to the features offered in v1.0, Silverlight 1.1 includes the following:

• a cross-platform version of the .NET framework.
• a built-in Common Language Runtime Engine.
• a subset of the full .NET Framework class library.
• support for a Windows Presentation Foundation UI programming model.
• a managed HTML DOM API that allows developers to program a browser's HTML using any .NET programming language.
• support for Microsoft's new Dynamic Language Runtime, which allows for the use of Ruby, Python and JavaScript in a .NET programming environment.

This set of 16 tutorials from Microsoft provide a step-by-step introduction to development for Silverlight 1.1 Alpha. You can see the list of Microsoft articles in its entirety on the Silverlight Development Using the .NET Framework page. (Bear in mind that, since the software is pre-release, these documents are subject to change.)

Getting Started with Silverlight Development

• Create a Silverlight project: This document explains how to use the templates in Visual Studio Orcas Beta 1 to create the basic project settings and structure for a Silverlight-based application that uses managed code.
• Debug Silverlight-based applications: This document covers how to detect and handle errors in your Silverlight-based application.
• Explore Silverlight assemblies with the Visual Studio Object Browser: This document explains how to customize the Visual Studio Object Browser to view the assemblies that are installed with Silverlight.

Building Dynamic User Interfaces with Silverlight

• Write event handlers in the x:Class: This document demonstrates how to write event handlers in C# or Visual Basic, compile them into an assembly and then reference these implementations from XAML.
• Create custom Silverlight controls: This document describes how a control project uses the XAML file to define the UI for a control. It also states how to add files to the project to test the control.
• Call Silverlight client APIs: This document describes some of the managed classes available when programming Silverlight-based applications with managed code.
• Use a splash screen to load a Silverlight-based application: This document explains how to implement a splash screen to be displayed while loading assemblies for a Silverlight-based application in the background.

Networking and Communication in Silverlight

• Send, receive plain XML requests and responses over HTTP: This document demonstrates how to use the HTTP transport to send and receive plain XML messages.
• Use a proxy to call an ASP.NET Web service from Silverlight: This document demonstrates the use of a proxy to communicate with an ASP.NET Web service. The service must be an ASP.NET AJAX Web service that uses the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) as its data exchange format.

Interaction between HTML and Managed Code

• Access the HTML DOM from managed code: This document illustrates how to programmatically access the HTML DOM and control visual elements in an HTML page, using managed code, in a Silverlight-based application.
• Call managed code from JavaScript: This document shows how to access events, properties, and methods in managed classes directly from JavaScript in a Silverlight-based application.

Working with XML in Silverlight

• Manipulate XML data in Silverlight: This document illustrates how to use the .NET Framework for Silverlight to retrieve remote XML content, read the XML content using the .NET Framework for Silverlight XmlReader, and write it out to a page as XAML content using StringBuilder and XmlWriter.

Working with Isolated Storage in Silverlight

• Use isolated storage with .NET Framework Silverlight: This document demonstrates how to obtain an isolated store and manage files in, save data to, and retrieve data from isolated storage using the .NET Framework for Silverlight.

Additional Programming Tasks

• Perform a file upload with Silverlight: This document shows how to upload the contents of an image file using the Microsoft .NET Framework for Silverlight and how to call a Web service with the HTTP POST method using the .NET Framework for Silverlight.
• Program Silverlight with dynamic languages: This document indicates how to create a Silverlight-based application that uses managed code and a dynamic language, how to create a Silverlight-based application that uses a dynamic language in Visual Studio, and how to debug the application in Visual Studio.
• Download images using the Silverlight networking stack: This document demonstrates how to download the contents of an image file and assign those contents to a XAML Image object using the Microsoft .NET Framework for Silverlight, and how to call a Web service with the HTTP POST method using the .NET Framework for Silverlight.