Bob's Blog

Silverlight 2 and Rich Internet Applications

Abstract

This series of articles takes a look at the current state of RIA development leveraging Silverlight 2. The series will focus on the architecture of RIA's, the use of XAML for resolution independent user interface layout and design, Windows Communication Foundation for Web Services, Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend for the design/development environment and Windows Server 2008/IIS7 as the deployment environment.

• Part 1 - Rich Internet Application Architecture
• Part 2 - Developing, Deploying and Invoking WCF Services from Silverlight 2 Applications
• Part 3 - Silverlight Controls, Data Binding, Templates and Styles
• Part 4 - Resolution Independent User Interface, User Controls and Deep Zoom

Silverlight 2 Resources

• Silverlight 2
• Scott Guthrie's Silverlight 2 First Look Series
• Brad Abrams complete end to end Data Centric Application in Silverlight
• Brad Abrams on Leveraging ASP.NET Auth Services from Silverlight
• UX Musings Blog (great samples on creating custom skins)
• David Isbitski on Deep Zoom
• Linsday Rutter WebCast Series on Silverlight 2
• 50 Silverlight Video Tutorials by Mike and Mike (Mike Taulty and Mike Ormond)
• Silverlight and Accessibility
• Silverlight Documentation on MSDN
• Silverlight 2 Quick Starts
• Silverlight 2 Runtime
• Silverlight 2 Tools Installation Instructions
• Woodgrove Financial's Sample Application - source code

Sounds Familiar

As these articles delve into the architecture and implementation of Silverlight 2 applications, I use the Sounds Familiar music portfolio application as the source of implementation and design examples. It demonstrates several new Silverlight 2 controls and leverages a WCF Web Service for data access.

The application lists out the set of music projects that I have produced over the past 7 years and when one is selected, you get a list of tracks. These tracks can be played, paused and stopped. When in play mode, the next track is started automatically. For some projects you can download a zip of the MP3’s to add to your own music collection.

There are photographs of the studio that you can zoom into for greater detail and the liner notes for the currently playing CD will appear when you mouse over the music notes image. The menu will float in from the right when you mouse over the menu tab. From the menu you can find selections for visiting my blog, the Silverlight home page and a download link for the currently playing CD if that is an available option.

 Sounds Familiar demonstrates the following:

• Resolution Independent User Interface
• Grid, StackPanel and Canvas Layout
• Button, ListBox and DataGrid controls
• Custom User Controls
• Invoking WCF Web Services
• Data Binding, Templates and Styles
• Animated Fly-Out Menu and PopUp Window
• Using the MediaElement to provide progressive download of audio
• Image Reflection Effects
• Rendering Dynamic XAML
• HTML DOM Integration
• Deep Zoom

Source Code for Sounds Familiar