The Silverlight Blog

Windows Phone 7.5 - Using advanced tiles API

Silverlight Team — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:43:37 GMT

by Andrea Boschin

There is not any doubt, the first thing you meet when you use Windows Phone are the tiles. These are the large squares on the home screen that identifies some applications and they are also a distinguishable character that make your Windows Phone unique.

As you know for sure, the tiles can be attached or detached from the home screen and some particular software can take advantage of double size tiles. While this is not a feature available to developers, in OS7.5, the tiles gained new features and a new set of APIs that you can use to enrich your applications. As an example you are now able to update your tiles from inside the application and you can use double faced tiles to improve information to the user. In this article I would like to explore these new features and show how to take advantage of them, while porting your software to the new operating system.

Accessing and changing your tile(s)

Once your application is running the user can have pinned its tile on the home screen. If this happened, you can have access to a bunch of tile's properties you can change at every time while the application is running, but please take note that it implies that the tile exists. Obviously, none of these APIs can work if your application is not pinned.

The root of your work is the ShellTile class that gives you access to a collection of ActiveTiles. At the very first place in this collection there is a structure that represents the main tile of your application. Reading the previous paragraph, you can expect this collection is empty when you application has not been pinned, but it is not true. The collection always contains at least one element, and you can update it every time also if the application's tile is not in the home screen. This does not cause a visible change but if the user choose to pin the application at a later time its tile will reflect these changes. The ShellTile class returned by this collection contains an "Update" method that is useful to change the tile's content:

   1: StandardTileData data = new StandardTileData

   2: {

   3:     Title = "My tile!",

   4:     Count = 10,

   5:     BackgroundImage = new Uri("/Background.png", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute),

   6:     BackTitle = "This is the back",

   7:     BackContent = "Hallo!",

   8:     BackBackgroundImage = new Uri("/Background.png", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute)

   9: };

10:

  11: ShellTile.ActiveTiles.First().Update(data);

The properties of the StandardTileData class reflect the parts of the tile and are divided in two categories: Front and Back. So, we have a "Title" property that reflects the title of the tile on the front side and the "BackTitle" that has the same meaning for the back side. This led to the consideration that in OS 7.5, tiles can have two sides available. It suffice you set the value of one of the "Back" properties and the tile automatically activates the back side on a random schedule.

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Windows 8 and the future of XAML: Part 1: An overview of the Windows 8 platform

Silverlight Team — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:02:00 GMT

by Gill Cleeren

Introduction to the series

Welcome to this first part of a whole series on Windows 8 articles, which I’ll be writing over the coming weeks and months. It’s my goal in this series to introduce you to what we know at this point about Windows 8 and how we as (XAML) developers will need to adapt to the new platform.

Since you’re probably a XAML developer like I am, we are going to see things from a XAML point-of-view. In some of the upcoming articles, I’m going to describe you how you can leverage what you already know in XAML when Windows 8 will be ready. I’m also going to spend time looking at how you can convert existing Silverlight applications to Windows 8 Metro apps, so that they follow the rules of the OS. We will also be spending time of course on digging into the developer framework making the development on Windows 8 easy: Windows Runtime or shorter, WinRT. Finally, the series will close with a step-by-step guide on building a complete Windows 8 Metro-style application.

Now in this first part, we’ll focus on Windows 8 itself and the relation to Metro-style apps. We won’t be focusing on the development part yet; I just want to make sure that everyone is on board with the new OS itself as well as being able to place the terms Metro, Metro apps, WinRT etc.

I hope you join me on this trip through the Windows platform of the future.

Small note: in this articles, I try to refer to specific versions as little as possible, since I want the information to stay valid as much as humanly possible when Windows 8 will RTM. Therefore, you won’t find download links in these articles. Doing a small search will get you the downloads you need!

Part 1: An overview of the Windows 8 platform

To be honest, I’m writing this very article in the morning of January 1st, 2012… yes indeed, New Year’s Day 2012. And come to think of it, I couldn’t have chosen a better moment - at the beginning of a new year - to write about one of the biggest things awaiting us in that new year: the launch of a new version of the world’s most widely used operating, Windows 8. (Note that at the time of writing of this article, no announcements have been made by Microsoft on any launch date of the OS, but everyone assumes that we’ll see the OS in its final form on our machines sometime in 2012…). As mentioned, in this first article, I will take you through the most important concepts as well as show you some nice improvements.

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Silverlight Show: 10 Laps around Silverlight 5 (Part 10 of 10)

Silverlight Team — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:26:00 GMT

In this article, a discussion about several new features that did not fit in any of the above categories. We will discuss In-Browser HTML, PostScript and Tasks for TPL. Please review the Roadmap for the series before going any further.

The Roadmap for this Series

Included, the Roadmap for the series below as you may want to visit other sections as you learn Silverlight 5. I picked the following features as I thought that you may find them useful in your day-to-day work. If you want a specific topic covered then please leave it in the comments below.

In-Browser HTML

In Silverlight 4, we could use the WebBrowser control only in an “Out-of-Browser” application. This has changed in Silverlight 5 as we can now use the WebBrowser control in the browser (IE). It will however require that you make a few changes to your system. Let’s get started:

1) Update the registry – Locate the following keys:

If you running on a 32 bit machine,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Silverlight\

and if you are running on a 64-bit machine,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Silverlight\

change the UpdateConsentMode from a 0 to 1.

2) Sign the XAP File - Right click on the Silverlight application and go to properties. Choose Signing and check the checkbox Sign the .XAP file. Now click on the button Create Test Certificate. Enter any password that you want and hit the OK button. Now click on the More Details button.

Click on the Install Certificate button. Clicking on the button brings up the Certificate Import wizard. Click on the Next button and choose Place all certificates in the following store. Click on the Browse button. This will show you a Certificate Store. Choose Trusted Publisher and finish the wizard. Now repeat the same step to install this certificate in Trusted Root Certification Authorities.

3) Enable Out-of-Browser and Require elevated trust when running in-browser. Right click on the Silverlight application and go to properties. Place a checkmark in Enable Out-of-Browser and Require elevated trust when running in-browser.

Now let’s switch over to the MainPage.xaml and replace the Grid with the following code:

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New Silverlight Show articles: Windows 8 XAML Metro Apps with OData

Silverlight Team — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:33:00 GMT

Silverlight Show has two new articles that provide some really interesting info about building Windows 8 XAML Metro Apps with OData written by Samidip Basu (@samidip).

Silverlight Show: 10 Laps around Silverlight 5 (Part 9 of 10)

Silverlight Team — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:47:00 GMT

In this article, a discussion of several new features/controls such as Double and Triple click support, PivotViewer and ComboBox Type-Ahead. Please review the Roadmap for the series before going any further.

The Roadmap for this Series

Introduction to SL5 – provides a brief history of Silverlight and relevant links.
Binding - Ancestor Relative Source Binding and Implicit Data Templates.
Graphics - XNA 3D API and Improved Graphics Stack.
Media - Low-Latency Sound using XNA and Remote Control and Media Command (Keys) Support.
Text - Text Tracking and Leading, Linked and Multi-column Text, OpenType Support, Pixel Snapped Text and TextOptions.
Operating System Integration Part 1 - P/Invoke, Multiple Windows and Unrestricted File System Access in Full Trust.
Operating System Integration Part 2 - Default Filename for SaveFileDialog, 64-bit browser support and Power Awareness.
Productivity and Performance - XAML Binding Debugging, Parser Performance Improvements and Multi-core JIT for improved start-up time.
Controls - [This Post] - Double and Triple click support, PivotViewer and ComboBox Type-Ahead.
Other items - In-Browser HTML, PostScript and Tasks for TPL

Double and Triple Click Support

One of the new features in Silverlight 5 is the ability to use Double and Triple Click Support. This functionality will tell you how many times the user has clicked the mouse button. The property is called ClickCount and resides in the MouseButtonEventArgs class. Let’s take a look at how to use this new feature.

Fire up a new Silverlight 5 project and give it any name that you want.

Switch over to the MainPage.xaml.cs and add the following code: (Note: You may not need the MainPage() Method section)

   1: public MainPage()

   2: {

   3:     InitializeComponent();

   4: }

5:

   6: private void textBlock1_MouseLeftButtonDown(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)

   7: {

   8:     textBlock1.Text = e.ClickCount.ToString();

   9: }

Switch back over to the MainPage.xaml and add in the following code replacing the current Grid:

   1: <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

   2:       <Border BorderBrush="Black" BorderThickness="1" Margin="52,49,68,74" CornerRadius="10">

   3:           <TextBlock Height="152" HorizontalAlignment="Center" x:Name="textBlock1" Text="0" VerticalAlignment="Center" Width="244" MouseLeftButtonDown="textBlock1_MouseLeftButtonDown" Foreground="#FFFF2E2E" FontSize="96" TextAlignment="Center" />

   4:       </Border>

   5: </Grid>

If we go ahead and run the application then we will see the following application.

Go ahead and begin clicking inside of the border and you will see the number increase. If you wait a few seconds and click again then you will notice that it reset itself. You could easily add If..Then… statements to determine what click count number they are on. This may be helpful for a 35 click Easter egg. :)

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Silverlight 5 Available for Download Today

Silverlight Team — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:54:28 GMT

Today, we’re happy to announce the release of Silverlight 5. Silverlight is part of a rich offering of technologies from Microsoft helping developers deliver applications for the web, desktop and mobile devices. Download Silverlight 5, a free plug-in less than 7 MB in size that can be installed in less than 10 seconds.

New features in Silverlight 5 include Hardware Decode of H.264 media, which provides a significant performance improvement with decoding of unprotected content using the GPU; Postscript Vector Printing to improve output quality and file size; and an improved graphics stack with 3D support that uses the XNA API on the Windows platform to gain low-level access to the GPU for drawing vertex shaders and low-level 3D primitives.

In addition, Silverlight 5 extends the ‘Trusted Application’ model to the browser for the first time. These features, when enabled via a group policy registry key and an application certificate, mean users won’t need to leave the browser to perform complex tasks such as multiple window support, full trust support in browser including COM and file system access, in browser HTML hosting within Silverlight, and P/Invoke support for existing native code to be run directly from Silverlight.

For more information, visit the Microsoft Silverlight site. For additional information on support policy, visit Microsoft Silverlight Support Lifecycle Policy.

The Silverlight Team

Silverlight Show: 10 Laps around Silverlight 5 (Part 8 of 10)

Silverlight Team — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:24:23 GMT

In this article, a discussion about productivity and performance enhancements in Silverlight 5 including: XAML Binding Debugging, Parser Performance Improvements and Multi-core JIT for improved start-up time. Please review the Roadmap for the series before going any further.

The Roadmap for this Series

Introduction to SL5 – provides a brief history of Silverlight and relevant links.
Binding - Ancestor Relative Source Binding and Implicit Data Templates.
Graphics - XNA 3D API and Improved Graphics Stack.
Media - Low-Latency Sound using XNA and Remote Control and Media Command (Keys) Support.
Text - Text Tracking and Leading, Linked and Multi-column Text, OpenType Support, Pixel Snapped Text and TextOptions.
Operating System Integration Part 1 - P/Invoke, Multiple Windows and Unrestricted File System Access in Full Trust.
Operating System Integration Part 2 - Default Filename for SaveFileDialog, 64-bit browser support and Power Awareness.
Productivity and Performance - [This Post] - XAML Binding Debugging, Parser Performance Improvements and Multi-core JIT for improved start-up time.
Controls - Double and Triple click support, PivotViewer and ComboBox Type-Ahead.
Other items - In-Browser HTML, PostScript and Tasks for TPL

XAML Binding Debugging

XAML Binding Debugging, is one of the most important features in the Silverlight 5. We have all been stuck with Binding expressions at one point or another and wanted an easier way to debug them. Now anywhere that you see a {Binding} expression you can put a break point on it just like your typical C# code. Let’s take a look at a sample:

Fire up a new Silverlight 5 project and give it any name that you want.

Go ahead and add a new class to the project named Podcast.cs and add the following code.

   1: public class Podcast

   2:    {

   3:        public string Description { get; set; }

   4:        public DateTime ReleaseDate { get; set; }

   5:        public Uri Link { get; set; }

6:

   7:        public Podcast(string description, DateTime releasedate, Uri link)

   8:        {

   9:            Description = description;

  10:            ReleaseDate = releasedate;

  11:            Link = link;

  12:        }

  13:    }

Let’s switch back over to the MainPage.xaml.cs and add the following code:

   1: public MainPage()

   2: {

   3:     InitializeComponent();

   4:     Loaded += new RoutedEventHandler(MainPage_Loaded);

   5: }

6:

   7: void MainPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

   8: {

   9:     this.DataContext =

  10:         new Podcast("This Developer's Life - Criticism",

  11:             new DateTime(2011, 4, 21),

  12:             new Uri("http://thisdeveloperslife.com/post/2-0-1-criticism", UriKind.Absolute)

  13:             );

14:

  15: }

Switch back over to the MainPage.xaml and add in the following code replacing the current Grid:

   1: <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

   2:        <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">

   3:            <TextBlock Text="{Binding Description}" />

   4:            <TextBlock Name="txtReleaseDate" Text="{Binding ReleaseDate}" />

   5:            <HyperlinkButton Content="Listen to this Episode" NavigateUri="{Binding Lik}" TargetName="_blank" />

   6:        </StackPanel>

   7: </Grid>

While here, go ahead and put a break point on the “Hyperlink" button line, which you can do by clicking outside its margin as shown below:

Notice the Red Circle and the highlighted “Binding” word? The Visual Studio 2010 debugger will stop once the XAML parser hits that line.

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Silverlight Show: 10 Laps around Silverlight 5 (Part 7 of 10)

Silverlight Team — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:19:31 GMT

In this article, a discussion of a few more operating system integration features in Silverlight 5 including: Default Filename for SaveFileDialog, 64-bit browser support and Power Awareness for Media Applications. Please review the Roadmap for the series before going any further.

The Roadmap for this Series

Introduction to SL5 – provides a brief history of Silverlight and relevant links.
Binding - Ancestor Relative Source Binding and Implicit Data Templates.
Graphics - XNA 3D API and Improved Graphics Stack.
Media - Low-Latency Sound using XNA and Remote Control and Media Command (Keys) Support.
Text - Text Tracking and Leading, Linked and Multi-column Text, OpenType Support, Pixel Snapped Text and TextOptions.
Operating System Integration Part 1 - P/Invoke, Multiple Windows and Unrestricted File System Access in Full Trust.
Operating System Integration Part 2 - [This Post] - Default Filename for SaveFileDialog, 64-bit browser support and Power Awareness.
Productivity and Performance - XAML Binding Debugging, Parser Performance Improvements and Multi-core JIT for improved start-up time.
Controls - Double and Triple click support, PivotViewer and ComboBox Type-Ahead.
Other items - In-Browser HTML, PostScript and Tasks for TPL.

Default Filename for SaveFileDialog

In previous version of Silverlight, you could not specify the default filename for the SaveFileDialog message. In Silverlight 5 you can very easily.

Fire up a new Silverlight 5 project and give it any name that you want. We are going to create a simple application that contains one button and when the user clicks it the SaveFileDialog will appear with a default filename.

Switch over to the MainPage.xaml and add in the following code:

   1: <StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center">

   2:         <Button x:Name="btnSaveFile" Content="Save File Dialog" Click="btnSaveFile_Click"/>

   3: </StackPanel>

Let’s switch back over to the MainPage.xaml.cs and add the following code to our button event handler:

   1: private void btnSaveFile_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

   2:        {

   3:            var saveFileDialog1 = new SaveFileDialog

   4:                                      {

   5:                                          Filter = "JPeg Image|*.jpg|Bitmap Image|*.bmp|Gif Image|*.gif",

   6:                                          DefaultFileName = "YouCanNowHaveADefaultFileName.jpeg"

   7:                                      };

   8:            saveFileDialog1.ShowDialog();

   9:        }

If we run the application now, we will see the following prompt.

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Silverlight Show: 10 Laps around Silverlight 5 (Part 6 of 10)

Silverlight Team — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:12:12 GMT

In this article, a discussion of several new operating system integration features in Silverlight 5 including: P/Invoke, Multiple Windows and Unrestricted File System Access in Full Trust. Please review the Roadmap for the series before going any further.

The Roadmap for this Series

Introduction to SL5 – provides a brief history of Silverlight and relevant links.
Binding - Ancestor Relative Source Binding and Implicit Data Templates.
Graphics - XNA 3D API and Improved Graphics Stack.
Media - Low-Latency Sound using XNA and Remote Control and Media Command (Keys) Support.
Text - Text Tracking and Leading, Linked and Multi-column Text, OpenType Support, Pixel Snapped Text and TextOptions.
Operating System Integration Part 1 - [This Post] - P/Invoke, Multiple Windows and Unrestricted File System Access in Full Trust.
Operating System Integration Part 2 - Default Filename for SaveFileDialog, 64-bit browser support and Power Awareness.
Productivity and Performance - XAML Binding Debugging, Parser Performance Improvements and Multi-core JIT for improved start-up time.
Controls - Double and Triple click support, PivotViewer and ComboBox Type-Ahead.
Other items - In-Browser HTML, PostScript and Tasks for TPL.

P/Invoke or Platform Invocation

Before we dive into an example. Let’s first answer the question, What is it? Platform Invocation Services, commonly referred to as P/Invoke, is a feature of Common Language Infrastructure implementations, like Microsoft's Common Language Runtime, that enables managed code to call native code.

*Reference to Wiki

This feature is new to Silverlight 5 and we will take a look at how to use it in your own applications.

In order to create a new P/Invoke application in Silverlight 5, we will need to enable “Require elevated trust” in Silverlight 5. We can also use the functionality in-browser or out-of-browser. Let’s begin.

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Silverlight Show: 10 Laps around Silverlight 5 (Part 5 of 10)

Silverlight Team — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:07:00 GMT

In this article, a discussion of the new text improvements in Silverlight 5 including: Text Tracking and Leading, Linked and Multi-column Text, OpenType Support, Pixel Snapped Text and TextOptions. Please review the Roadmap for the series before going any further.

The Roadmap for this Series

Introduction to SL5 – provides a brief history of Silverlight and relevant links.
Binding - Ancestor Relative Source Binding and Implicit Data Templates.
Graphics - XNA 3D API and Improved Graphics Stack.
Media - Low-Latency Sound using XNA and Remote Control and Media Command (Keys) Support.
Text [This Post] - Text Tracking and Leading, Linked and Multi-column Text, OpenType Support, Pixel Snapped Text and TextOptions.
Operating System Integration Part 1 - P/Invoke, Multiple Windows and Unrestricted File System Access in Full Trust.
Operating System Integration Part 2 - Default Filename for SaveFileDialog, 64-bit browser support and Power Awareness.
Productivity and Performance - XAML Binding Debugging, Parser Performance Improvements and Multi-core JIT for improved start-up time.
Controls - Double and Triple click support, PivotViewer and ComboBox Type-Ahead.
Other items - In-Browser HTML, PostScript and Tasks for TPL.

Linked and Multi-Column Text

We will use an example that I’ve demonstrated in the past that many have found helpful. The Linked and Multi-Column Text feature enables the text of a RichTextBlock control to overflow from one into the next. Multiple RichTextBlockOverflows can be chained together to spread text across a layout. Let’s go ahead and take a look at a screenshot of a RichTextBlock with a RichTextBlockOverflow working together.

As you can see from this screenshot, we had a RichTextBlock in the upper left and its content overflowed onto the RichTextBlockOverFlow #1, #2 and #3. You can think of this as something that is similar to a newspaper article. As the browser expands or contracts the content fills the available area.

Let’s check out the code that made it happen:

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Silverlight Show: 10 Laps around Silverlight 5 (Part 4 of 10)

Silverlight Team — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:30:00 GMT

In this article, a discussion of media features such as low-latency sound using features right out of XNA. We will also discuss Remote Control and Media Command (Keys) support using Silverlight 5. Please review the Roadmap for the series before going any further.

The Roadmap for this Series

I’ve included the Roadmap for the series below as you may want to visit other sections as you learn Silverlight 5. I picked the following features as I thought that you may find them useful in your day-to-day work. If you want a specific topic covered then please leave it in the comments below.

Introduction to SL5 – provides a brief history of Silverlight and relevant links.
Binding - Ancestor Relative Source Binding and Implicit Data Templates.
Graphics - XNA 3D API and Improved Graphics Stack.
Media [This Post] - Low-Latency Sound using XNA and Remote Control and Media Command (Keys) Support.
Text - Text Tracking and Leading, Linked and Multi-column Text, OpenType Support, Pixel Snapped Text and TextOptions.
Operating System Integration Part 1 - P/Invoke, Multiple Windows and Unrestricted File System Access in Full Trust.
Operating System Integration Part 2 - Default Filename for SaveFileDialog, 64-bit browser support and Power Awareness.
Productivity and Performance - XAML Binding Debugging, Parser Performance Improvements and Multi-core JIT for improved start-up time.
Controls - Double and Triple click support, PivotViewer and ComboBox Type-Ahead.
Other items - In-Browser HTML, PostScript and Tasks for TPL.

Let’s Begin with Low-Latency Sound using XNA SoundEffect

A new addition to Silverlight 5 is the ability to play low-latency sounds using the XNA SoundEffect class. This is very useful for kiosk or even games that need to play a certain sound over and over. In Silverlight 5, this is much easier than before (where people used various MediaElement hacks). You can now simply borrow the SoundEffect / SoundEffectInstance class from XNA.

Start with a new Silverlight 5 Project

Launch Visual Studio 2010 and select File –> New Project. Then select Silverlight –> Silverlight Application –> Give it a name and hit OK.

On the New Silverlight Application Screen, you will see under “Options” that you may select which version of Silverlight that you want to use. We will select Silverlight 5 for this option. If you don’t see Silverlight 5 as an option then follow the guide here.

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Silverlight Show: 10 Laps around Silverlight 5 (Part 3 of 10)

Silverlight Team — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:40:00 GMT

In this article, we are going to take a look at the new XNA 3D API and Improved Graphics Stack. Please review the Roadmap for the series before going any further.

The Roadmap for this Series

Introduction to SL5 – provides a brief history of Silverlight and relevant links.
Binding - Ancestor Relative Source Binding and Implicit Data Templates.
Graphics [This Post] – XNA 3D API and Improved Graphics Stack.
Media - Low-Latency Sound using XNA and Remote Control and Media Command (Keys) Support.
Text - Text Tracking and Leading, Linked and Multi-column Text, OpenType Support, Pixel Snapped Text and TextOptions.
Operating System Integration Part 1 - P/Invoke, Multiple Windows and Unrestricted File System Access in Full Trust.
Operating System Integration Part 2 - Default Filename for SaveFileDialog, 64-bit browser support and Power Awareness.
Productivity and Performance - XAML Binding Debugging, Parser Performance Improvements and Multi-core JIT for improved start-up time.
Controls - Double and Triple click support, PivotViewer and ComboBox Type-Ahead.
Other items - In-Browser HTML, PostScript and Tasks for TPL.

What exactly is XNA?

Before we get started diving into XNA, it’s important to understand what it is first:
Microsoft XNA is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by Microsoft that facilitates video game development and management. XNA attempts to free game developers from writing "repetitive boilerplate code"^[1] and to bring different aspects of game production into a single system.^[2]

^{Source: WikiPedia}

As you can see XNA got it’s roots for video game development. So you may be asking, “What is it doing in Silverlight 5?” Developers have realized for a long time that things like 3D Graphics inside of a web browser would be beneficial for many applications including : medical, transportation, government and of course gaming. They requested the feature using Microsoft’s UserVoice and Microsoft added it as part of Silverlight 5. Silverlight 5 implementation of 3D is the most powerful yet running inside of a web browser.

Now that we know a little more about XNA, let’s get started…

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Silverlight Show: 10 Laps around Silverlight 5 (Part 2 of 10)

Silverlight Team — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:37:00 GMT

In this article, you see how to use Ancestor Relative Source Binding and Implicit Data Templates using Silverlight 5. Please review the Roadmap for the series before going any further.

The Roadmap for this Series

Introduction to SL5 – provides a brief history of Silverlight and relevant links.
Binding [This Post] - Ancestor Relative Source Binding and Implicit Data Templates.
Graphics –XNA 3D API and Improved Graphics Stack.
Media - Low-Latency Sound using XNA and Remote Control and Media Command (Keys) Support.
Text - Text Tracking and Leading, Linked and Multi-column Text, OpenType Support, Pixel Snapped Text and TextOptions.
Operating System Integration Part 1 - P/Invoke, Multiple Windows and Unrestricted File System Access in Full Trust.
Operating System Integration Part 2 - Default Filename for SaveFileDialog, 64-bit browser support and Power Awareness.
Productivity and Performance - XAML Binding Debugging, Parser Performance Improvements and Multi-core JIT for improved start-up time.
Controls - Double and Triple click support, PivotViewer and ComboBox Type-Ahead.
Other items - In-Browser HTML, PostScript and Tasks for TPL.

Begin with Ancestor RelativeSource Binding

A new addition to the binding engine in Silverlight is called Ancestor RelativeSource Binding. This was previously available in WPF, but is new to Silverlight 5. With Ancestor RelativeSource Binding you can now bind a child object property to a parent object property. It comes with additional properties to determine the type of parent object and how many levels up it is from the child.

Let’s begin today by looking at a sample ported over from WPF which shows how to retrieve the FontFamily and FontSize for a given TextBlock.

Adding onto our existing project.

Hopefully you have completed part 1 of the series. If not then create a new Silverlight 5 project and name it “BeginnerSilverlight5”, and look under Solution Explorer. Double click the file named MainPage.xaml and replace the grid with the following code…

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Silverlight Show: 10 Laps around Silverlight 5 (Part 1 of 10)

Silverlight Team — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:28:00 GMT

Today we begin a new and exciting series covering the new features in Silverlight 5. I am going to guide you step-by-step through the process of getting started with Silverlight 5 and then we will dive into the features that are the most important to you. But first, we are going to :

Explain why you should read this series over other Silverlight 5 series.
We will give a very brief introduction to Silverlight.
Take a look at the Roadmap for this series.
Review Silverlight’s history.
Download the bits required to develop a Silverlight 5 application.
Become familiar with creating a new Silverlight 5 application.

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Telerik XAML Q3’11 Beta Controls Walkthroughs

Silverlight Team — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:32:00 GMT

Silverlight Show has three new articles that provide a complete walkthrough on the Telerik XAML Q3’11 Beta controls.

Introducing RadBarCode - Telerik XAML Q3'11 Beta - Walkthrough (Part 1 of 3) written by Michael Crump (@mbcrump)
RadBarcode allows you to accurately track your physical products with native high-quality vector-based images that follow the most popular and widely-adopted barcode symbologies.
Introducing RadVirtualizingWrapPanel - Telerik XAML Q3'11 Beta - Walkthrough (Part 2 of 3) - - Author: Michael Crump (@mbcrump)
RadVirtualizingWrapPanel boosts the performance of your ListBox/ListView when binding to a large amount of data. The control generates only the visible items and positions them in sequential order from left to right and top to bottom, breaking the content to the next line at the edge of its containing box.
Introducing RadChartingKit - Telerik XAML Q3'11 Beta - Walkthrough (Part 3 of 3) - - Author: Evan Hutnick (@evanhutnick)
RadChartingKit is a fast, versatile, and highly optimized charting solution that works across platforms and lives up to the Telerik XAML standard of maintaining the same code-base and API while providing powerful cross-platform charting.

Silverlight TV 83: Using Wireframes to Visually Communicate a Windows Phone Experience

Silverlight Team — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Corrina continues the Design Tips miniseries by sharing her insights on how to use wireframes to improve the design and development process for Windows Phone applications. She walks through why wireframeing is an important part of the process of creating a WP7 application. Corrina talks about the advantages of using wireframing and walks step by step through creating wireframes.

Silverlight TV 82: Custom Markup Extensions

Silverlight Team — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:15:00 GMT

In this episode, Sundara Kumar and Mark Harper work on the new custom markup extensions (CME) feature in Silverlight 5. They explain how CME's allow you to extend XAML so that you can run any custom code. These guys (along with some other members of the team) literally wrote the feature. Mark was also instrumental in writing the CME that I used in many Silverlight 5 demos to hook events up to a method in a ViewModel.

Silverlight TV 81: Four Great Windows Phone UX Tips

Silverlight Team — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:15:00 GMT

In this episode, Dave Crawford and Tom Eddings visit from the UK to contribute to the Design Tips miniseries. Dave and Tom have tremendous amounts of experience helping to create great UX for Windows Phone 7 applications in the marketplace. Topics they cover include tips on:

how, when, and where to use (and not use) a Panorama control
avoiding specific types of buttons and associations
best practices for the Web Browser control, RichText, and the IE Web Browser itself
how to make your brand shine through

Silverlight TV 80: Reactive Extensions

Silverlight Team — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Jesse Liberty explains how Reactive Extensions work with Silverlight and Windows Phone. In order to simplify the code, Jesse suggests using Reactive Extensions whenever you are deep into using asynchronous programming. He covers exactly what Reactive Extensions are, why you'd want to use them (or not), how they relate to LINQ, and what you should know before using them. And of course, Jesse offers some tips and tricks.

Silverlight TV 79: Data Binding Debugging

Silverlight Team — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:00:00 GMT

In this week’s episode: Ever bang your head against a wall trying to figure out what's wrong with your data binding XAML? If so, then you will love the new data binding debugging features in Silverlight 5. In this episode of Silverlight TV, Jason Shaver joins John to discuss the data binding debugging features in Silverlight 5. They walk through how it works, the information that is exposed to you, and how to set various conditional breakpoints as well.

Silverlight TV 78: Designing Tiles and Splash Screens for Windows Phone (Design Tips Mini Series)

Silverlight Team — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:00:00 GMT

In this week’s episode, Corrina continues the Design Tips miniseries by sharing her insights on how to create tiles and splash screens for Windows Phone applications. She walks through the process of creating an icon in Expression Design and how to make tiles look good and quickly mesh with Metro.

Silverlight TV 77: Exploring 3D

Silverlight Team — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:44:00 GMT

Silverlight TV 77: In this week’s episode of SLTV, Aaron Oneal, program manager of the Silverlight 3D efforts, joins John to discuss the 3D APIs in Silverlight 5 beta. Aaron was instrumental in working on the 3D features and helped to create the 3D Solar Wind and 3D HouseBuilder demos. Aaron reviews the features and explores how they all work by demoing the Solar Wind sample application. This is a great walk through of a nice app that you can apply to your own 3D efforts.

Silverlight TV 76: Animations on Windows Phone in the Bird Hunt Game

Silverlight Team — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:20:00 GMT

Silverlight TV 76: Interested in creating a game for Windows Phone using Silverlight? In this week’s episode of SLTV, Jeff Paries, Silverlight MVP and author of the book Silverlight Animation, walks through the source for his Bird Hunt game for Windows Phone 7. He offers tips on how to create a game concept and keep your scope manageable while effectively dividing the game aspects into manageable pieces. Jeff covers the game concept, the six objects in the game, the game loop, and the animates/visual states. You can download Bird Hunt now from the Windows Phone marketplace.

USA TODAY Touch Optimized News Experience for Windows 7 Slate Devices

Silverlight Team — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:21:00 GMT

USA TODAY has released a touch optimized News application for Windows Phone and Slate devices built on Microsoft Silverlight. The app provides readers with eye catching photos and graphics while delivering the latest award-winning USA TODAY news in a convenient interactive package. The app has all the latest news, sports scores, weather, photos and Snapshots available. It also includes social networking capabilities and tag integration for readers to share updates from emerging technology analysts and news from the design/interactive industry as a whole. The USA Today application for WP7 and Slate devices were developed in Silverlight enabling fantastic touch capabilities that allow consumers to enjoy USA TODAY on their current WP7 and Windows slate devices and more devices available in the near future.

For more information and to download the USA TODAY App for Windows 7 slate PCs, please visit: http://www.bing.com/browse?g=product_scout&mkt=en-us#toc=4.

Silverlight TV 75: Quick and Dirty UX Testing (Design Tips Mini Series)

Silverlight Team — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 23:04:00 GMT

Silverlight TV 75: In this week’s episode of SLTV, Susan shares her insights on how to do quick and dirty UX testing to help your application be more successful. Susan (who works with great people on the UX team, including Corrina Black, Tsitsi Gora, and Arturo Toledo) has a lot of experience working on usability and spends a lot of time working with designers and application users to help determine what makes a good user experience for products like Visual Studio, Silverlight, and Windows Phone apps. In this episode, Susan also discusses the following quick and easy ways to improve UX: Cognitive Walkthrough (does your work flow make sense to the user), Heuristic Evaluations (testing the UI for consistency, visual design, communication, ease, error prevention), Valuable Usability Studies (choosing your audience, how many people, how to operate them).