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Silverlight for Wordpress

"Tim Heuer recently released a new blog plugin for WordPress users: Silverlight for WordPress. With this plugin, you can easily place Silverlight content within a post. He decided to create this plugin, when, after searching the official WordPress directory, the only plugin he could find was one that was coded back in the Silverlight 2 beta days. Outside of the official directory, another person also had created a plugin, but again, it was also coded during the beta days. In other words, it was time for an update." - [More]

http://on10.net/blogs/sarahintampa/Silverlight-for-WordPress/

Using SL WebClient Class

"Silverlight provides several different networking classes that can be used to retrieve data from distributed resources such as Web services, REST APIs and even sockets. By learning to use these classes, you can access data from nearly any source without having to write a lot of custom code to do it. In this article, I'll focus on the one of the key classes in the System.Net namespace named WebClient and show how it can be used to make asynchronous calls. By using it, you can call a variety of services exposed by Web sites such as Flickr.com, Digg.com and many more." - [More]

http://visualstudiomagazine.com/columns/article.aspx?editorialsid=3073

AOL updates SL Web Mail client

"AOL has updated its Silverlight-powered Web mail beta with a handful of small, but important features that bring it closer in functionality to its standard Web counterpart." - [More]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10214013-2.html

NetAdvantage 2009 Volume 1

"With the release of Infragistics CTP controls for Silverlight, developers can take Line of Business applications to the next level with advanced technology now by combining next-generation Silverlight 3 capabilities with familiar UI patterns. Several CTP controls including the xamWebGrid, xamWebTree, xamWebOutlookBar are available free now." - [More]

http://www.ddj.com/windows/216402880

SL3 Derived Styles screencast

"In this short screencast, I show you how to quickly get started with style inheritance in Silverlight 3." - [More]

http://silverlightuk.blogspot.com/2009/04/screencast-silverlight-3-derived-styles.html

SL3's New Assembly Caching

"In Silverlight 2, one way to prevent external BCL assemblies such as System.Xml.Linq.dll from swelling the XAP file was to delay-load them, as described in this blog post. Silverlight 3 offers a simpler and more elegant option called assembly caching. To demonstrate, here's a XAP file from a project that includes references to System.Xml.Linq.dll and other assemblies that aren't part of the core run-time. The total size of the XAP file was 225K:" - [More]

http://www.wintellect.com/CS/blogs/jprosise/archive/2009/04/06/silverlight-3-s-new-assembly-caching.aspx

Open XML Documents in TextGlow

"TextGlow (www.textglow.net) is a Silverlight 2.0 application that leverages the new Office Open XML file format to display Word documents directly in the browser. This article will look at how to use the built-in features of Silverlight 2.0 to read content from an Open XML package, parse XML using LINQ to XML and display the document contents using Silverlight." - [More]

http://blogs.msdn.com/rohant/archive/2009/04/07/displaying-open-xml-documents-in-silverlight-with-textglow.aspx

Plixipixel Launches SL Game "Roshamboom!"

"RPS-101 was referred to by John Bardinelli--a freelance writer of casual and independent games--as "a completely unrealistic version of [the most basic game known to man]". Plexipixel created an interactive version of the game that is playable by anyone with the Silverlight plug-in and a Facebook account by using Microsoft's Silverlight technology and Dormouse™ (a proprietary social networking application development and deployment platform) to leverage Facebook's native services to create a game that is easy to play and can quickly be viral. " - [More]

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/04/prweb2288834.htm

Expression Blend 3 Preveiw

"Recently, we released the Expression Blend 3 Preview, which continues to deliver features that enable a workflow for designers and developers from the design phase to production. Here are a few of the interesting features available in the Blend 3 Preview." - [More]

http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2009/04/04/expression-blend-3-preview.aspx

Physics e-Learning Portal - Envisioning

"I am working to help some of physicists who run KucingFisika, to design their future multimedia e-learning site with Silverlight. From animation perspective, I am considering to use Farseer Physics Games engine. You can see some demos from icons below. Please go to Codeplex to download Farseer Physics. " [More]

http://msdnrss.thecoderblogs.com/2009/04/04/physics-e-learning-portal-envisioning/

Mix - Microsoft SL Ready for Business

"Come learn how to build a Silverlight business application today with the new UI features including DataGrid, DataForm, validation and navigation. Also see an example of how to connect to services using a LINQ enabled, Entity Framework-backed, data management solution." - [More]

http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX09/T69M

Windows 7 Desktop Simulation in SL

"Guys… As mentioned in my last post that I’ll be sharing a live demo of Desktop simulation we did in Silverlight. Please don’t go mad because I’m a bit late to do it. Actually I have been so busy last 2-3 days but now its live. Enter any password and login, you are ready to play. Don’t try this on Real Windows because such a deed will be useless :P" - [More]

http://geekswithblogs.net/RizwanSharp/archive/2009/03/29/finally-windows-7-desktop-simulation-is-live.aspx

SL Datagrid Paging

"One of the problems I met in Silverlight 2 was paging option in viewing large data content. And to do this I googled this and found several good examples but the best was done by Manish Dalal. In every click to “next” the new set of data is taken from list." - [More]

http://huseyincakir.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/silverlight-datagrid-paging/

Binding in code behind

"In my previous posts about binding in code behind with WPF, I talked about my helper class that allowed me to quickly create a dependency property within any class and use a number of static functions to quickly bind dependency properties in code behind. So when I took a look at the binding capabilities in Silverlight 2.0 I was disappointed to find out that much of the binding had been stripped out. In fact there was almost nothing from my user class that I could use in Silverlight 2.0 because of the exclusion of the class BindingOperations. So how does one bind in code behind in Silverlight 2.0? " - [More]

http://blog.falafel.com/2009/03/30/BindingInCodeBehindWithSilverlight20.aspx

SL Drop Text Shadows

"Before Silverlight 3, you had to do perform some less-than-ideal tricks to achieve a drop shadow effect on your text.  In fact, the most decent trick I could find had to rely on the TextBox control and not the TextBlock control since you cannot re-template a TextBlock control.  But even that technique was not optimal since you couldn’t get a truly smooth shadow." - [More]

http://pagebrooks.com/archive/2009/03/30/easy-drop-shadows-on-text-in-silverlight-3.aspx

*** Document Toolkit for SL ***

"Today I have released a preview of the Document Toolkit for Silverlight. Document Toolkit is a fast, feature-rich and 100% client-only XPS document viewer library for Silverlight 2 and 3." - [More]

http://firstfloorsoftware.com/blog/announcement-document-toolkit-for-silverlight/

Validation Exceptiosn

"With the Silverlight 3 Beta SDK and .NET RIA Services, a lot of people are starting to utilize the System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations library to add validation metadata to their entities.  Something that has tripped up some people is the use of exceptions for validation errors, where Visual Studio breaks with a user unhandled exception." - [More]

http://blog.jeffhandley.com/archive/2009/04/01/184.aspx

SL installation Switches?

"Below is a list of all of the Silverlight v1,2, and 3 installation switches available and their description.  This will be included in the Silverlight Enterprise Deployment guide v2 which I’m writing - to be released soon.  In the mean time, here they are for your assistance:" [More]

http://blogs.technet.com/extreme/archive/2009/04/02/silverlight-installation-switches.aspx

SL 3 - ListBox Multiple Selection

"In Silverlight 3 you can make multiple selections in a ListBox. You just need to set the SelectionMode parameter:" [more]

http://www.silverlightshow.net/tips/Enable-multiple-selection-in-Silverlight-ListBox.aspx

Silverlight for Mobile - Touchy Feely

"According to a recent post on Microsoft's Windows Mobile team Twitter feed, we might be able to see Silverlight added to the upcoming WinMO 6.5 platform, which is expected to come to the market sometimes in the second half of the ongoing year. " - [more]

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-to-Include-Silverlight-with-Future-WinMo-Versions-107421.shtml

"The planned mobile edition of Microsoft's Silverlight media player is shaping up to be a touchy-feely alternative to Apple's iPhone.  Microsoft has told The Reg that Silverlight for Mobile will now include all the features found on Silverlight for the desktop, including Deep Zoom, which lets you keep drilling and drilling into a picture while retaining crystal-sharp clarity on minute details." - [More]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/20/silverlight_mobile_deep_zoom/

SL resigned for NBC 2010 Olympics coverage

"Microsoft and NBC Universal (NBCU) have announced they're teaming back up for the 2010 Vancouver Games.  The win for Microsoft's Silverlight platform comes on the heels of Major League baseball dumping it for Adobe Flash, but CBS is happy to Silverlight to streaming HD video." - [More]

http://www.fierceonlinevideo.com/story/microsoft-silverlight-resigned-nbc-2010-olympics-coverage/2009-03-19

Using SL2 with ADO.NET Data Services - Data Points

"ADO.NET Data Services makes it tremendously easy to expose data and allow updates over HTTP using its RESTful (Representational State Transfer) abilities. Your Silverlight applications can take advantage of ADO.NET Data Services to send and receive data using the unique URIs that map to entities. You can also use LINQ queries in the Silverlight client to interact with the entities on the server by using the ADO.NET Data Services Silverlight client library. " - [More]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd569758.aspx

SL3 Activity Control

"All of this presents a fairly common problem: what should you do with your UI while data is being loaded or work is being done in the background?  If the amount of work done or data to load is small and completes quickly, it would probably make sense to leave the experience uninterrupted for the user.  For larger amounts of work, however, leaving the user with an unresponsive UI or worse with a responsive UI that doesn’t work properly because data is in the midst of being reloaded is less than ideal." - [More]

http://www.davidpoll.com/?p=4

Building Amazing LOB apps with SL2

"Today at Mix09, I finished my talk on building business applications with Silverlight 3.   The full video for the talk will be up shortly, but I wanted to go ahead and post the source code for the demo and a full demo walk through.  " - More

http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2009/03/17/mix09-building-amazing-business-applications-with-silverlight-3.aspx

Dundas Data Visualization Dashboard

"This is a Dashboard design that makes use of Dundas’ new Dundas Chart for .NET – Silverlight Add-on (which is now in beta, but coming to version 7.0 of Dundas Chart)." - [More]

http://www.dashboardinsight.com/dashboards/live-dashboards/dundas_silverlight_demo_dashboard.aspx

MIX 09

For all those of us who did not attend MIX09, you can watch a bit about it at:

http://live.visitmix.com/

The Real Silverlight premiere

"But something was missing. The "developers" knew it, the "designers" knew it, and yesterday, Microsoft admitted it: It was the logic in-between. So even though yesterday's keynote event at the MIX 09 conference in Las Vegas focused on Silverlight 3, perhaps the most important element of that introduction is actually .NET RIA Services, which also premiered yesterday. Though Corporate VP Scott Guthrie only mentioned it by name a few times, in truth, the entire hour-plus demo yesterday was a culmination of .NET RIA Services -- it's the part that binds data and resources directly to graphical controls." [More]

http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft-The-real-Silverlight-premiere-is-now/1237476946

Silverlight 3 Beta 1 & Blend 3 beta is here!

Silverlight 3 is packed wtih all kinds of goodness.  From new controls, navigation abilities and even 3D & Bitmap graphics, to Binding Validation, Netowrk connectivity monitoring (detecting when you are on or off line), Dynamic Styling, .NET RIA Services for helping out with n-tier structuring along with Binary XNL.

For some though, a feature that will hit the ball out of the park is Out-of-browser / Offline functionaltiy that allows people to install your Silverlight App on Windows or the Mac (probably by this time next year even on Linux).  It even comes with update monitorings to check for new versions of your app.  Yep, now you can build stand along Silverlight Apps.

Oh yeah, and there is suppose to now be support for Multitouch!

Here is a great guide to Silverlight 3 Beta 1 by Tim Heuer:

http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2009/03/18/silverlight-3-whats-new-a-guide.aspx

YouTube and SL?  Was that the earth moving?

http://on10.net/blogs/sarahintampa/YouTube-Gets-Silverlight/

http://blogs.msdn.com/stevecla01/archive/2009/03/19/youtube-using-silverlight.aspx

SL V3 gets Mac Friendly

"The new version of the software, Silverlight 3, can be used to write programs that run outside the browser on both PCs and Macs. On the Mac front, Microsoft also said developers will now be able to use the Eclipse software development platform to create Silverlight applications." [More]

http://software.silicon.com/applications/0,39024653,39409752,00.htm

Expression Web SuperPreview

"Expression Web SuperPreview for Windows Internet Explorer is a stand-alone visual debugging tool that makes it faster and easier to migrate your sites from IE6 to IE7 or IE8. With SuperPreview, you can ensure that your Web sites work correctly in IE8 while also maintaining compatibility with earlier versions of IE." - [More]

http://blogs.msdn.com/xweb/archive/2009/03/18/Microsoft-Expression-Web-SuperPreview-for-Windows-Internet-Explorer.aspx

SL3 - BasedOn Styles

"Now you’ll need to watch yourself when setting BasedOn styles. One might desire to have a standard font for all labels, buttons etc. for example. However, TextBlock inherits from FrameworkElement and re-implements the Font and foreground properties while the other controls inherit from Control. To target them both, you’ll still need to create at least two types of styles. An alternative would be to use a control that does base on what you want, like Label or FieldLabel." - [More]

http://community.irritatedvowel.com/blogs/pete_browns_blog/archive/2009/03/18/Silverlight-3-_1320_-BasedOn-Styles.aspx

Doing SL3 and SL2 - Most have utility!

"If you already have Silverlight 2 Tools installed, you can easily upgrade to Silverlight 3 Tools by running the Silverlight 3 installer.  To downgrade from Silverlight 3 to Silverlight 2 tools, you will need to uninstall "Microsoft Silverlight" and "Microsoft Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008" from Add/Remove programs before re-installing Silverlight 2 Tools." - [More]

http://blogs.msdn.com/amyd/archive/2009/03/18/switching-from-silverlight-3-tools-to-silverlight-2-tools.aspx

Sorry for the outage..

Silverlight City is staying around a a bit longer.  Will get caught up with the latest shortly.  

If you would like some other Silverlight/WPF domain names for your own site check them out at:

http://rjsoft.com

Silverlight 2 .NET CMS and Controls

"This site is dedicated to bringing high quality Silverlight 2 controls to Silverlight developers for free. There are over 20 controls and these can be downloaded for free along with example source code and tutorials,"

CHECK THESE OUT!

http://www.vectorlight.net/