A full-day seminar presented by Shannon Horn.

Overview

Microsoft Silverlight is a cutting edge technology that extends the .NET Framework and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) for creating next generation Web applications. Silverlight enables the creation of Rich Interactive Applications (RIAs) using features and functionality not available in any competing technology. This workshop will illustrate the creation of Silverlight applications that stream media, play animations, utilize networking functionality, and display dynamic data. The applications illustrated in this workshop will be created by using Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Expression Blend, Microsoft Expression Encoder, and the Microsoft Deep Zoom Composer.

Topics

•Getting Started. This topic presents a brief history of Microsoft technologies to set the stage for Silverlight. Once introduced, this topic covers various aspects of the Silverlight framework and walks through the process of creating a simple Silverlight application and a simple animation.

•Networking. This topic introduces the networking capabilities of Silverlight. Silverlight executes in an isolated environment on the client machine and communicates with a server only when communication is manually initiated. Silverlight supports several networking protocols, including sockets, POX, SOAP, JSON, REST, RSS, and ATOM.

•Security. Security is a principle concern when creating Web applications. Silverlight communicates with a Web server by consuming a Web or WCF service that resides on the server. In order to secure a Silverlight application, the Web service and the Silverlight application must take precautions to protect data. Silverlight includes interfaces and classes to assist in securing data, including classes for encrypting and hashing data.

•Controls. A gamut of standard user controls was included in Silverlight version 2. There are also several third party vendors that are developing control suites that target Silverlight. Silverlight controls can be fully extended using control templates, and most control properties can be bound directly to a data source. To assist in managing user interfaces and states in a Silverlight application, Microsoft introduced the Visual State Manager (VSM).

•Assessing Data. Silverlight executes in an isolated environment on the client machine and has only limited access to the local file system. Silverlight can store a limited amount of data in a client-side virtual data store called Isolated Storage, but precaution should be taken when storing data in isolated storage that must persist. Silverlight includes classes and functionality for importing and exporting data in text and XML formats and supports querying data using Language Integrated Query (LINQ).

About the speaker

Shannon Horn has been developing Microsoft Windows and Web-based solutions, training, and authoring for over 14 years. He has been a featured speaker at many industry events, including Microsoft DevDays and the asp.netPRO ASP.NET and Web Services Solutions conference. He is a published author on JavaScript, Silverlight, XML, the migration from Visual Basic 6 to VB.NET, JScript.NET, C#, ASP.NET, and SQL Server 2005. Shannon has worked with large corporate clients, including Microsoft, Universal Studios, MGM Studios, Monster.com, Intel, Polygram Pictures, and Prudential.

Shannon is currently pursuing his third degree black belt in tae kwon do (Kukkiwon / WTF 3rd Dan) through Grand Master Won Ki Hong and Master Choi, competing in tae kwon do tournaments, and training in boxing and MMA at The Lion’s Den with Edwin Dewees, Benny Madrid, and Scott Peters. He has been playing electric bass guitar since he was young and plays weekly in multiple bands.

Who should Attend?

This workshop is designed for application developers who wish to begin creating applications using Microsoft Silverlight. While this course explains how to display and prepare graphics and media and how to create animations for use in Silverlight, it targets developers more so than designers. However, the information presented in this course will be valuable to designers who will be working on development teams that utilize Silverlight.

Coordinator

Dr. Huimin Zhao, Associate Professor in the MIS area, Lubar School of Business, UW-Milwaukee