Introducing. Silverlight 4. Gear up fast to develop line of business rich internet applications using Silverlight 4. Ashish Ghoda

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1 The EXPERT s VOIce in Silverlight Introducing Silverlight 4 Gear up fast to develop line of business rich internet applications using Silverlight 4 Ashish Ghoda

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3 Introducing Silverlight 4 Ashish Ghoda

4 Introducing Silverlight 4 Copyright 2010 by Ashish Ghoda All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher. ISBN-13 (pbk): ISBN-13 (electronic): Printed and bound in the United States of America Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. President and Publisher: Paul Manning Lead Editor: Jonathan Hassell Technical Reviewer: Damien Foggon Editorial Board: Clay Andres, Steve Anglin, Mark Beckner, Ewan Buckingham, Gary Cornell, Jonathan Gennick, Jonathan Hassell, Michelle Lowman, Matthew Moodie, Duncan Parkes, Jeffrey Pepper, Frank Pohlmann, Douglas Pundick, Ben Renow-Clarke, Dominic Shakeshaft, Matt Wade, Tom Welsh Coordinating Editor: Laurin Becker Copy Editor: Mary Ann Fugate Compositor: Bytheway Publishing Services Indexer: BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services Artist: April Milne Cover Designer: Anna Ishchenko Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Springer Science+Business Media, LLC., 233 Spring Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY Phone SPRINGER, fax (201) , orders-ny@springersbm.com, or visit For information on translations, please rights@apress.com, or visit Apress and friends of ED books may be purchased in bulk for academic, corporate, or promotional use. ebook versions and licenses are also available for most titles. For more information, reference our Special Bulk Sales ebook Licensing web page at The information in this book is distributed on an as is basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author(s) nor Apress shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this work. The source code for this book is available to readers at You will need to answer questions pertaining to this book in order to successfully download the code.

5 I dedicate this book to my grandparents (Nayansukhray and Kumud Ghoda, Mahavir and Sarla Majmudar), parents (Jitendra and Varsha Ghoda), sister (Kruti Vaishnav), and lovely family (Pratixa, Gyan, and Anand Ghoda) whose blessings, sacrifice, continuous support, and encouragement enabled me to achieve the dream. Ashish Ghoda

6 Contents Contents...iv About the Author... xvii About the Technical Reviewer... xviii Acknowledgments... xix Introduction... xx PART 1 Introduction to Silverlight...1 Chapter 1: Introducing Silverlight...3 Cross-Platform Frameworks...4 Qt... 4 The Java Platform... 4 Adobe Flash/Flex/AIR... 5 Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX... 5 Microsoft Silverlight... 5 The History of Silverlight...6 Silverlight Silverlight Silverlight Silverlight Design and Development Tools for Silverlight...14 Visual Studio Expression Blend SketchFlow iv

7 Expression Encoder Deep Zoom Composer Eclipse Tools for Silverlight (eclipse4sl) Creating a Silverlight 4 based Application...16 Working with Expression Blend Demonstrating Local Image Files Integration Using Drag-and-Drop Functionality Summary...26 Chapter 2: Silverlight Concepts...27 Silverlight Architecture...27 Silverlight and XAML...29 Developing a Sample Application Namespaces Dependency Property System Type Converters Markup Extensions Microsoft.NET for Silverlight...48 Core.NET Assemblies for Silverlight Applications Managed Code-Behind.NET Integration Summary...56 Chapter 3: Silverlight User Interface Controls...57 Building Blocks...57 DependencyObject Threading and the user interface UIElement FrameworkElement The Control Class Enhancements in Silverlight v

8 Layout Management and Grouping Controls...69 Canvas StackPanel Grid DockPanel WrapPanel TabControl ViewBox Forms Controls...81 The Button Controls TextBox PasswordBox RichTextBox AutoCompleteBox Data Integration and Data Manipulation Controls...95 ItemsControl ListBox ComboBox TreeView HeaderedItemsControl ContentControl HeaderedContentControl DataGrid DataForm DataPager Label DescriptionViewer ValidationSummary vi

9 Functional Controls Border GridSplitter TextBlock Popup ToolTipService ScrollViewer The RangeBase Class Calendar and DatePicker Image MultiScaleImage MediaElement InkPresenter Dialog Boxes WebBrowser Navigation Summary PART 2 Content Integration in Silverlight Applications Chapter 4: Media Integration Media Integration Enhancements in Silverlight Images The Image Class Bitmap APIs Silverlight Hardware Acceleration Multi-scale Images and the Deep Zoom Feature Media (Video and Audio) Supported Media Format Unsupported Media Format vii

10 The MediaElement Class Timeline Markers Web Camera and Microphone Integration Windows Azure Platform based Hosting and Media Delivery Services for Silverlight Applications Subscribing to Windows Azure Platform Services Publishing Silverlight Applications Video Content Streaming Packaged Images and Media Files Summary Chapter 5: Network Communication Networking Enhancements in Silverlight Enabling Cross-Domain Communication Cross-Domain Policy Files Trusted Applications Network-Aware Applications Consuming Web Services with WCF Creating a WCF Service Consumable by Silverlight XAML to Consume Information Invoking Services from Silverlight Communicating Directly over HTTP Communicating via Sockets Controlling Client Access via a Socket Policy Server The System.Net Namespace Building a Socket-Based Sample Text Chat Application UDP Multicast The UdpAnySourceMulticastClient Class The UdpSingleSourceMulticastClient Class viii

11 Considerations for Using Networking Summary Chapter 6: Working with Data Enhancements in Silverlight Displaying Data Data Binding Type Converters StringFormat BindingBase.FallbackValue and BindingBase.TargetNullValue Properties Binding to String Indexers The DataGrid Control The DataForm Control The CollectionViewSource WCF Data Services Entity Data Model (EDM) Silverlight Client Library for WCF Data Services Silverlight Application using WCF Data Service Processing XML Data Parsing XML Serializing XML Using LINQ Saving State on the Client Summary PART 3 Improving User Experience Chapter 7: Extending User Experience of LoB Applications Enhancements in Silverlight Drag-and-Drop Functionality Properties of UIElement to Enable Drag-and-Drop Functionality ix

12 Events of UIElement to Enable Drag-and-Drop Functionality Processing Dropped File(s) Developing an Example Mouse-Wheel Support Developing an Example Limitations Right-Click Context Menu Support Printing Capabilities PrintDocument Class PrintPageEventArgs Class Implementing the Printing Function Clipboard Access Globalization and Localization of Silverlight Applications Globalization Localization Enhancements in XAML Features Flexible Root XAML Namespace XmlnsDefinitionAttribute Direct Content Whitespace Handling Custom IDictionary Support Summary Chapter 8: Styling and Templating Enhancements in Silverlight Using Styles Style Inheritance/Style Cascading Style Override/Style Resetting Merged Resource Dictionaries x

13 Implicit Styling Style Setter Using Control Templates Creating a Control Template Control Templates for Other Controls Developing a Templated Control Summary Chapter 9: Graphics Enhancements in Silverlight D Graphics Using Geometries Using Shapes Transforms Translation Rotation Skewing Scaling Arbitrary Linear Transforms Combining Multiple Transformations Composite Transformation D Effects Using Perspective Transforms Pixel Shaders Brushes The SolidColorBrush The Tile Brushes The Gradient Brushes Transparency and Opacity Masks Summary xi

14 Chapter 10: Animation Introduction to Silverlight Animation Timelines AutoReverse BeginTime Duration FillBehavior RepeatBehavior SpeedRatio Storyboards and Animation From/To/By Animations Keyframe Animations Animation Easing Procedural Animation Bubble User Control DemoPage User Control Animating with Expression Blend D Animation Summary PART 4 Advanced Topics Chapter 11: Advanced Silverlight Features Silverlight Navigation Framework Understanding the Navigation Framework Implementing Custom Navigation Deep Linking Search Engine Optimization Additional References xii

15 Out-of-Browser Functionality Enabling the Out-of-Browser Functionality Installing Out-of-Browser Applications Uninstalling Out-of-Browser Applications Trusted Out-of-Browser Applications Customizing Out-of-Browser Applications Working with the Networking and Offline APIs Incorporating an Updated Version Files Management Notification API COM Automation Commanding Support The Model Class The ViewModel Class The View.xaml File Cross-Silverlight Application Communication Using the System.Windows.Messaging Namespace Seeing an Example in Action Summary Chapter 12: Threading in Silverlight Using Threading The Thread Class Creating and Managing Threads The Dispatcher The BackgroundWorker Class Working with Shared Data Using Timers Using the DispatcherTimer xiii

16 Using the System.Threading Timer Summary Chapter 13: WCF RIA Services and Silverlight for Mobile WCF RIA Services for Silverlight Setting Up a Development Environment Introducing Silverlight Business Application Template Additional References Silverlight for Windows Mobile Setting Up a Development Environment Developing a Sample Twitter Application Summary Chapter 14: Dynamic Languages and Dynamic.NET for Silverlight Dynamic Languages Dynamic Languages for Silverlight IronRuby IronPython Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) for Silverlight DLR Scripting Assemblies The Microsoft.Scripting.Silverlight.DynamicApplication Class Setting Up the Development Environment The Traditional Approach with the Chiron.exe File The Just-Text Approach Creating Silverlight Applications Using the Just-Text Approach Hosting a HTML File In-Line IronRuby/IronPython Code in Hosting HTML File In-Line XAML Code in Hosting HTML File Externalizing XAML and IronRuby/IronPython Code xiv

17 Developing an Interactive Bing Maps Application with Silverlight and IronRuby Installing Microsoft Bing Maps Silverlight Control SDK Include Bing Maps Control to the Solution Create a SilverlightMap.xaml File Creating a SilverlightMap.html File Adding 3D Animation within the SilverlightMap.xaml File Creating a SilverlightMap.rb IronRuby File and Adding Map Mode Add Rotate Map Capabilities Targeting Pre-defined Locations Summary Chapter 15: Security NET Security in the CLR Silverlight Security Model Enhancements in Silverlight Configuring Silverlight 4 Applications to Run with Elevated Trust Digitally Signing Out-of-Browser Silverlight Applications Elevated-Trusted Silverlight Applications vs. Partially Trusted Silverlight Applications Application-Level Security Securing Information in Transit Securing Information with Cryptography Same-Domain and Cross-Domain Communication Division of Responsibility Summary PART 5 Testing and Deploying Silverlight RIAs Chapter 16: Testing and Debugging Testing Unit Testing Automated User Interface Testing xv

18 Debugging The Debugging Process Conditional Compilation Debugging Silverlight Applications with Visual Studio Handling Unhandled Exceptions Summary Chapter 17: Packaging and Deploying Silverlight Applications Client Considerations Disabling Silverlight Plug-In Using Web Browser Silverlight Configuration Silverlight Deployment Package Definition Core Runtime Library Silverlight Application Package (XAP File) In-Package and On-Demand Files Hosting Silverlight Applications Server-Side Silverlight RIA Deployment Custom Initialization Parameters Embedding Silverlight Plug-Ins to the Web Page Custom HTML Object Element Error Handling for Better User Experience Silverlight and the Build Process Building a Silverlight Application Visual Studio Project (.csproj) with MSBuild Building a Silverlight Application MsBuild Project (.proj) with MSBuild Silent Installer for Silverlight Out-of-Browser Applications Summary Index xvi

19 About the Author Awarded with a British Computer Society (BCS) Fellowship, Ashish Ghoda is a customer-focused and business values driven senior IT executive with over 13 years of IT leadership, enterprise architecture, application development, and technical and financial management experience. He is founder and president of Technology Opinion LLC, a unique collaborative venture striving for strategic excellence by providing partnerships with different organizations and the IT community. He is also the associate director at a Big Four accounting firm. Ashish actively contributes to the IT community. He provides strategic advice about achieving IT goals and defining the product and technology road maps of organizations, conducts training in and speaks on IT leadership areas and Microsoft technologies, and architects and develops customer-centric software services. He is the author of Accelerated Silverlight 3 (co-authored with Jeff Scanlon)and Pro Silverlight for the Enterprise from Apress, and several articles on Microsoft technologies and IT management areas for MSDN Magazine, TechnologyOpinion.com, and advice.cio.com. He is also the technical reviewer of Silverlight Recipes Second Edition and Silverlight 3 Recipes, also from Apress. Ashish reviews research papers submitted for the Innovative and Collaborative Business and E-Business tracks of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) and World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics (WMSCI). He has a master s degree in information systems from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and has earned Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) certifications in.net. Visit his company site at and blog site at to get the latest information on the technology and different services. xvii

20 INTRODUCTION About the Technical Reviewer Damien Foggon is a developer, writer, and technical reviewer in cutting-edge technologies and has contributed to more than 50 books on.net, C#, Visual Basic, and ASP.NET. He is the co-founder of the Newcastle-based user group NEBytes (online at is a multiple MCPD in.net 2.0 and.net 3.5, and can be found online at xviii