Everything .NET developers need to take advantage of Silverlight 4 Silverlight 4 is a major new release of Microsoft's flagship product for building rich, interactive applications that combine animation, graphics, audio, and video. This book, by seasoned Wrox authors and Silverlight experts, gives professional Web developers all the tools necessary to build RIAs using the new Silverlight capabilities. You will gain a complete, thorough understanding of both core and advanced platform concepts, with examples in C#. Professional Silverlight 4 prepares Web developers to take full advantage of the newest release of the most popular platform for developing rich interactive applications. Coverage Includes: Introduction to Silverlight Building Applications with Visual Studio Building Applications with Expression Blend 4 Working with the Navigation Framework Controlling Layout with Panels Working with Visual Controls Accessing Data WCF RIA Services Out-of-Browser Experiences Networking Applications Building Line of Business Applications Application Architecture DOM Interaction Securing Your Applications Accessing Audio and Video Devices Working with File I/O Using Graphics and Visuals Working with Animations in Silverlight Working with Text Making It Richer with Media Styling and Themes

Silverlight 5 has the potential to revolutionize the way we build business applications. With its flexibility, web deployment, cross-platform capabilities, rich .NET language support on the client, rich user interface control set, small runtime, and more, it comes close to the perfect platform on which to build business applications. It’s a very powerful technology, and despite its youth, it’s moving forward at a rapid pace and is gaining widespread popularity. This book guides you through the process of designing and developing enterprise-strength business applications in Silverlight 5 and C#. You'll learn how to take advantage of the power of Silverlight to develop rich and robust business applications—from getting started to deployment, and everything in between. In particular, this book will serve developers who want to learn how to design business applications. It will introduce the patterns you'll use, the issues you’ll face, and how to resolve them. Author Chris Anderson, who has been building line-of-business applications for years, demonstrates his expertise through a candid presentation of how to tackle real-life issues, rather than just avoiding them. Developers will benefit from his hard-won expertise through business application design patterns that he shares throughout the book. With this book in hand, you will: Create a fully-functional business application in Silverlight Discover how to satisfy the general requirements that most business applications need Develop a business application framework

Silverlight is Microsoft's cross-browser technology for creating rich user experiences on the Web. Like its predecessor, Silverlight 4 rides atop the .NET framework for maximum ease of use and coding efficiency. The technology carries forward much of the work that has been done before and augments it in many important respects, including support for H.264 video, major improvements to the graphics engine (including true 3D rendering), and much richer data-binding options for interfacing with other applications. Pro Silverlight 4 in VB is an invaluable reference for professional developers who want to discover the features of Silverlight. Author Matthew MacDonald's expert advice guides you through creating rich media applications using Silverlight in the environment you're most productive in—no matter what the target platform. As you learn about the features that put Silverlight in direct competition with Adobe Flash, such as rich support for 2D and 3D drawing, animations, and media playback, you'll experience the plumbing of .NET and the design model of WPF through Silverlight—all of the same .NET technology that developers use to design next-generation Windows applications. In this book, MacDonald provides a comprehensive tutorial written from professional developer to professional developer.

Silverlight 4 has the potential to revolutionize the way we build business applications. With its flexibility, web deployment, cross-platform capabilities, rich .NET language support on the client, rich user interface control set, small runtime, and more, it comes close to the perfect platform in which to build business applications. It’s a very powerful technology, and despite its youth, it’s moving forward at a rapid pace and is gaining widespread adoption. This book will guide you through the process of designing and developing enterprise-strength business applications in Silverlight 4 and C#. You will learn how to take advantage of the power of Silverlight to develop rich and robust business applications, from getting started to deployment, and everything in between. In particular, this book will serve developers who want to learn how to design business applications, and introduce the patterns to use, the issues that you’ll face, and how to resolve them. Chris Anderson, who has been building line-of-business applications for years, demonstrates his experience through a candid presentation of how to tackle real-life issues, rather than just avoid them. Developers will benefit from his hard-won expertise through business application design patterns that he shares throughout the book. With this book in hand, you will Create a fully functional business application in Silverlight Discover how to satisfy all of the general requirements that most business applications need Develop a business application framework

Over 80 practical recipes for creating rich, data-driven business applications in Silverlight with this book and eBook.

Business intelligence (BI) software allows you to view different components of a business using a single visual platform, which makes comprehending mountains of data easier. BI is everywhere. Applications that include reports, analytics, statistics, and historical and predictive modeling are all examples of business intelligence. Currently, we are in the second generation of business intelligence software—called BI 2.0—which is focused on writing business intelligence software that is predictive, adaptive, simple, and interactive. As computers and software have evolved, more data can be presented to end users with increasingly visually rich techniques. Rich Internet application (RIA) technologies such as Microsoft Silverlight can be used to transform traditional user-interfaces filled with boring data into fully interactive analytical applications that quickly deliver insight from large data sets. Furthermore, RIAs now include 3D spatial-design capabilities that move beyond a simple list or grid and allow for interesting layouts of aggregated data. BI 2.0 implemented via an RIA technology can truly bring out the power of business intelligence and deliver it to an average user on the Web. Silverlight 4 Business Intelligence Software provides developers, designers, and architects with a solid foundation in business intelligence design and architecture concepts for Microsoft Silverlight. This book covers key business intelligence design concepts and how they can be applied without an existing BI infrastructure. Author Bart Czernicki provides you with examples of how to build small BI applications that are interactive, highly visual, statistical, predictive—and most importantly—intuitive to the end-user. Business intelligence isn’t just for the executive branch of a Fortune 500 company—it is for the masses. Let Silverlight 4 Business Intelligence Software show you how to unlock the rich intelligence you already have.

A hands-on guide to Microsoft's latest rich application development technology: Silverlight 4 Silverlight 4 is the newest version of the rich Internet application toolkit that provides support for .NET capabilities over the Internet. With this latest release of Silverlight, Microsoft has revolutionized the way that Web applications can be created. This book uses the popular Problem – Design – Solution strategy to demonstrate how to harness the power and abilities of Silverlight 4 to add value to the overall user experience of a Web site. Using a Web site created by the author as a reference point, you'll go through the steps of creating a live, fully functional application for the Web using Silverlight 4 and the Silverlight Control Toolkit. Along the way, the book addresses important design considerations, such as the use of Web Services and the SQL Server database. Uses the popular Problem – Design – Solution format show you how to harness the power of the latest version of Silverlight, Microsoft's rich Internet application toolkit Puts the author's own Web site to task as you learn to create rich user interfaces that integrate video, HTML, and social networking components Explains system linking and data flow, end user interface, system architecture based on Silverlight 4 and .NET 4, and more Includes coverage on integrating social networking and Facebook With this book, you'll quickly get started using the new features of Silverlight 4 to enhance the user experience of a Web site. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.