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• Three New Videos On Data Binding

  I’m pleased to announce that we’ve posted three new videos on DataBinding and on DataTemplates (creating templates that control the display of a collection of data in a list control such as a list box) Unfortunately, we swapped the images for the Blend video and the Xaml video which is a bit confusing but we’ll get that fixed. And, while the three videos do stand alone, watching them in the order 37 –>39 -> 38 will make a good bit more sense <smile>. In any case, I hope you find them interesting and useful. The first, An Overview… explains the fundamental concepts of DataBinding and ListTemplates. The “second”, DataBinding and DataTemplates in Xaml shows how to bind the properties of business objects to Silverlight controls in Xaml and how to create DataTemplates by hand. Finally, the “third”, DataBidning and DataTemplates With Expression Blend recreates that same work using Expresion Blend (and note that it is 9 minutes vs. 22!). Posted Jul 17 2008, 06:47 PM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: XAML, How Do I Videos, Data Binding, Digging Deeper, Blend For Programmers

• Green Eggs and Blend

  I’m pleased to say that the accident of not recording my first ( new series ) Webcast led to the opportunity to reformulate it as a video, which is now available for viewing or download. This is a brief, somewhat  tongue in cheek overview of  why I gave up a 15 year commitment to working in a single Integrated Development Environment and came to discover I do so Like Expression Blend . Posted Jul 11 2008, 05:57 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: Recommended Resources, Presentations, How Do I Videos, Blend For Programmers

• Camtasia Crash Tip

  [Updated 7/3] If you are using Camtasia (wonderful product) to create your screen captures and you do a lot of editing (especially zooms and call outs and cuts) you run the risk of overloading the project and causing Camtasia to slow and/or crash. Camtasia Studio 5: The Definitive Guide (Wordware Applications Library) ASIN : B000HCW6YE To avoid this, periodically grab a segment of your project and turn it into an AVI, cut that segment out and replace with the avi; then all the changes collapse into one as far as the project is concerned. Update follows… Pitfall #1 : if your project is complex enough, you'll find that when you mark a selection and tell it to produce an AVI it does not capture the entire selection! And, worse, it doesn't tell you. So be sure to check that you (a) back up the project before making the avi and (b) check the avi. If this does happen the work around is to mark the selection, then choose "Crop to selection" (very scary!) which deletes the rest of your timeline. Then produce your avi. Then restore (ctrl-Z to undo) the cropping. Now you can delete the selection and replace with your avi. Sounds more complicated than it is, but make sure you are backing up and giving good names to your template files. I now have a directory structure that looks like this for each project Pitfall #2: while you can edit the avi's you produce, each generation (each time you produce a video) creates some degradation in quality. Specifically if you make an AVI out of a camrec, and then edit that avi and make a 2nd generation avi which you then edit, and then make an avi out of the edited avi, pretty soon the sound quality is noticeably degraded. -j Posted Jul 03 2008, 12:55 PM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: Recommended Resources, Tools, How Do I Videos

• One Man’s Guide To Silverlight Nirvana

  Every day (honest) I am asked for a path through the learning material, even though the Getting Started page offers an explicit path. And that is not surprising. We all have our own way of learning. Here is the path that I personally tend to suggest to most Silverlight neophytes. Path of quick learning: Go to Getting started and get all the links shown here Then watch the video on the same page on getting started. Once Set UP, Writing Programs Read this tutorial on interface controls. Watch [forthcoming] this video on why I made the switch to coding with Silverlight and Blend and how powerfully they work together, and then watch watch these “How Do I” videos on Blend for Programmers: Part 1 Part2 Part3 and/or read this tutorial Data Next, it’s time to focus on this video on data and then this tutorial on creating n-tier applications and data binding. Follow that with a great video on Cross Domain issues and then read up on user controls which you can supplement with this video on keyboard input followed by this video on user controls. Styles and Templates You may then want to read my tutorial and watch my videos on Styles and Templates (to be posted in the next week or two) or check out Karen Corby’s excellent 4 part series on the subject. Freestyle After all that you can pretty much move freely among the other tutorials and videos . Best of luck Posted Jun 26 2008, 08:33 PM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: tutorials, silverlight 2.0, Learning Silverlight, Recommended Resources, Tools, Webcast, How Do I Videos, Beta 2

• What is coming soon?

  You have noticed, I’m sure, that there has been a flurry of blogging, videos and more since the release of Beta 2. That is all goodness, though it can be hard to know where to start; and the road map will differ depending on where you are in your experience with Silverlight. This is a rapidly changing environment and I’m hesitant to make promises, because things can change, but after some thought I’ve decided that it would be helpful to give you an idea of what to expect with my tutorials, videos and webcasts.  So, here is my tentative schedule through the next couple months. WebCasts Styles and Templates   Wednesday June 18 9am UTC –8 (Pacific) Deep Zoom Wednesday, July 16, 2008 9:00 Tutorials All of the tutorials are updated to Beta 2 in their  pdf form and the HTML will be updated very soon. All of the source code is already updated.  The next couple tutorials will include Styles, Templates, the Visual State Manager Graphics, Transforms, and Animation Animation In Detail The DataGrid in Detail Book Tim and I are working hard to write and publish Programming Silverlight 2 .  Our hope is to be able to provide an early look very soon. Here is one paragraph from my non-introduction (unedited and unauthorized) We’ve set out to tell you the story of Silverlight and to teach you everything you need to know to program effectively with what we believe is an amazing new technology. We have not tried to replicate the documentation nor to provide a comprehensive definition of every property, event and method of the framework. But telling the story of Silverlight is more than just picking which parts are most important; it is threading our way through a very large and complex framework in a coherent and logical way, making sense of it, and providing a guided tour through the underbrush pointing out the dangerous spots, showing the shortcuts, and warning of the dead-ends . How Do I   Videos In addition to the many videos already posted it is my plan to create videos on the following topics in the coming weeks. Styles  Templates and Visual State Manager The Visual State Manager In Depth Basic Animation in Beta 2 (with Blend) Inter-state animation In-state Animation Graphics and transforms Animating objects Data and Animation DataGrid Advanced DataGrid Popup Control Calendar Control TextBox In Depth Scroll Bars If your favorite topic is missing, just drop me a note .  Please note that some of these topics are covered already, but... Posted Jun 08 2008, 08:52 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: tutorials, silverlight 2.0, Learning Silverlight, Recommended Resources, How Do I Videos, Beta 2

• Beta 2 Month

  Beta 2 has been announced, and as you know from Tim’s post and Karen Corby’s , one of the big and wonderful additions to Beta 2 is a new model for skinning Silverlight controls. This is so exciting, and so important, that my plan is to make it a central (but not quite exclusive) focus for the month of June. The timing is good, because I just finished updating all the tutorials for Beta 2 (watch for them to be posted shortly after Beta 2 is available) and the one I did not update is #3 Styles and Templates. I chose not to update that one because the new model is so much better there was no point in fixing up a tutorial on typewriters when computers are about to land on your desk. The Plan During this month I’ll be releasing A new tutorial that covers Styles, Templates and the VSM in great detail How Do I videos on Styles, Templates, Visual State Manager, and tying it all together Multiple “digging deeper” blog posts and… June 18 - Round Buttons with Visual State Manager The first in my new series of Web casts unlike any I’ve tried before: much higher value, much more information, much more use of the medium. This should just be a blast. So, sign up for the June 18 WebCast and don’t forget to join SLMicroBlog to be kept up to date. Posted Jun 04 2008, 04:28 PM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: tutorials, silverlight 2.0, Learning Silverlight, Webcast, How Do I Videos, Blend For Programmers, Beta 2, Visual State Manager

• Creating a Project from xaml and xaml.cs files

  I posted the code for the PageSwitcher app described in a previous blog post , but to save space and to make the download faster, I didn't include anything but the code (no solution or project files). A reader wrote asking how to create a project and it is a more than fair question as the answer is not obvious until you've done it a couple times, so let's walk through that example. When you download the code, you'll receive a zip file named  PageSwitcher .zip. Unzip that and you'll have a folder named PageSwitcher,   Open a new Visual Studio project and to make this example as clear as possible, let's name it something else (myPageSwitcher) and locate it in a different directory. Open Page.xaml in your new project and note the name of the project (MyPageSwitcher) <UserControl x:Class= "MyPageSwitcher.Page" Open Page.xaml.cs and note the namespace namespace MyPageSwitcher This is the information you need to hold on to for the rest of this exercise. Ready To Go There are many ways to do this, but the easiest is to delete Page.xaml, Page.xaml.cs and App.xaml and App.xaml.cs from your new project. (Don't panic!) Next, right-click on the project and choose Add->Existing items and navigate to the downloaded files and add them all. They are now in your new project. Click on all 4 xaml files and change the name of the project in the x:Class tag. Click on all 4 .cs files and change the name of the namespace (ignore the smart tag) If you want to get rid of the smart tag, use Build->Clean. Build->Rebuild Solution. You're all set Here is your new PageSwitcher.xaml <UserControl x:Class= "MyPageSwitcher.PageSwitcher" xmlns= "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x= "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" Width= "400" Height= "300" > </UserControl>   And here is your new PageSwitcher.xaml.cs using System.Windows.Controls; namespace MyPageSwitcher { public partial class PageSwitcher : UserControl { public PageSwitcher() { InitializeComponent(); if ( this .Content == null ) { this .Content = new Page(); } } public void Navigate(UserControl nextPage) { this .Content = nextPage; } } }   Don't forget, once your code compiles, you can right click on the using statements and choose Organize Usings -> Remove Unused Using  which greatly cleans up your code. Posted May 31 2008, 06:12 PM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: tutorials, silverlight 2.0, Learning Silverlight, Silverlight.net, Recommended Resources, Tools, How Do I Videos, Digging Deeper

• What is the point of a survey if....

  The key point of my survey was to measure your satisfaction and then to make changes to increase satisfaction. I'm pleased that overall satisfaction seems high, but there is always room for improvement. I will shut down the survey on Sunday and start to review the results in detail.  (Until then, you can take the survey here ) After that I'll make a few changes in how I approach the videos, and I'll conduct another round of surveys later in the summer. Thanks again for your participation and please don't hesitate to leave comments on any individual video,  or to send me mail with your ideas. In the meantime, I'm going to experiment with super-short surveys attached to individual videos and tutorials. Perhaps if they're short enough I can get a large enough response base to be meaningful. Thanks again. -j Posted May 29 2008, 04:28 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: Silverlight Geek, Recommended Resources, How Do I Videos

• Coming soon - better HDI Videos

  I'm 2/3  through Daniel Park's surprisingly excellent book Camtasia 5: The Definitive Guide and have found more than enough I didn't know and am glad to have learned to justify reading it.  I've also ripped through Timothy J. Koegel's The Exceptional Presenter...   so I'm geared to improve my videos (we'll see if they actually get better!) The Exceptional Presenter: A Proven Formula to Open Up and Own the Room by Timothy J. Koegel Read more about this title... Camtasia Studio 5: The Definitive Guide (Wordware Applications Library) by Daniel Park Read more about this title...   I have two more books on this theme on the way, and I'm quite eager to see what they have to offer: Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) by Garr Reynolds Read more about this title... Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire by Cliff Atkinson Read more about this title... Who knows what nuggets these might yield   Note, I've tagged these " Videos and Presentations " on my Library site and will tag some more as soon as I wake up.  If it turns out anyone has an interest, I'll create more tags for other relevant topics. For now, the books I think are among the best are tagged " required " Thanks. Posted May 23 2008, 10:54 PM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: Recommended Resources, Presentations, Webcast, Random Ramblings, How Do I Videos

• What do you think of my Silverlight How Do I Videos?

  I'm always looking for ways to make this blog specifically and all my material on silverlight in general more interactive. Survey Monkey offers free surveys, so I thought I'd try it out by asking you to take a 1 page survey on what you think of my Silverlight 2 How Do I videos . If you have a moment you can take the survey here . Also, don't forget that at the bottom of each video there is room for comments; your feedback is always welcome. Thanks again. Posted May 20 2008, 06:38 PM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Learning Silverlight, Silverlight.net, How Do I Videos

• Creating Controls in Code

  In my new video I demonstrate how you can create controls dynamically at run time. The technique is very straight forward, everything you can create declaratively in XAML you can also create dynamically in C#. xaml <Button x:Name="Button1" Width="50" Height="30" Content="Click Me" Grid.Row="3" Grid.Column="0" /> C# Button button2 = new Button(); button2.Width = 75; button2.Height = 30; button2.Content = "No, click me!"; button2.SetValue(Grid.RowProperty, 0); button2.SetValue(Grid.ColumnProperty, 1); LayoutRoot.Children.Add(button2);   Why Not Dynamically Instantiate All of 'Em? The case for why you must dynamically instantiate some objects is clear: there are times you just can't know at design time what kind of object you'll need: you must respond to the user's choices and actions. That of course raises the question of why not eschew the XAML altogether and dynamically instantiate all your objects. There are two answers to this. The first is that it is faster and easier to declare the button in XAML. The second, more important answer is that the XAML is "toolable" -- that is, the XAML can be read and understood by, for example, Expression Blend, while the C# cannot; which makes developing large applications far easier and far more scalable. If I open the project that created these two buttons in Blend, this is what I see:   Blend can read the grid, and the button declared in XAML but is totally unaware of the button created in code. Conclusion? The short conclusion is to create objects declaratively at design time when possible, and dynamically at runtime when necessary.  In the abstract this can seem confusing, but when writing code, it is never ambiguous. Posted May 05 2008, 12:53 PM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Learning Silverlight, Tools, How Do I Videos

• Silverlight Debugging Challenge

  In about a week, I'll be posting a video on creating a form that responds to keyboard shortcuts (as an intro to a video on user controls). This is also covered in the tutorial User Controls ) As a challenge to those of you who are already comfortable with styles and data-binding and who "don't need no stinkin' video" -- I've posted a broken version of the program for you to debug. <chortle>   Your mission, should you decide to find it, is to find the bug, and fix it.             In the video I show this broken version and why it is broken, and then I fix it;  but if you'd like to get ahead of the curve and try your hand... have at it. It's a bit sneaky. What is supposed to happen when you run the app is that if you hit Control-C the address of the Computer Museum is filled in and if you hit Control-M the address of Microsoft is filled in.  But it don't. <cackle> Posted May 01 2008, 08:04 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Learning Silverlight, How Do I Videos, Data Binding

• What is coming in the next few weeks?

  A couple readers of my blog and folks eager to learn more about Silverlight 2 have written to me asking for 2 things: 1. Tutorials and Videos on the specific topics of interest to them (great, keep 'em coming) and 2. Greater transparency in my schedule of what I'll be releasing Normally, I don't like to say "I'll be taping, or writing about this subject or that, because the schedule inevitably changes; for any number of reasons: other things rise on the priority list, something is about to change in the way it works so I decide to wait, someone else is about to cover that topic, etc. etc. All of that said, since I've been asked, here is my tentative list of what I hope to release in the upcoming weeks Tutorials Keyboard input events on controls User controls Expression Blend for Silverlight Programmers HDI Videos Creating Controls Dyanmically (in code vs. XAML) Styles Templates Keyboard input events Creating User Controls Expression Blend For Silverlight Programmers Recreating ScottGu's tutorial on Blend as a video I'll probably add some, and I can't guarantee the order, but that is the plan, at least right now.  My hope is to turn these out quickly to provide a good base of material. Thanks for your patience and support.   -jesse Posted Apr 19 2008, 12:01 PM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: tutorials, silverlight 2.0, Learning Silverlight, How Do I Videos

• Binding Data How Do I Video Posted

  I'm pleased to say that we've posted a new How Do I Video on Binding Data to Silverlight 2 Controls. In the very beginning of this video I say it is about "wiring up events" but I'm confused and befuddled -- it is, of course, about binding UI objects to business objects. This is clarified quickly and there is no confusion once we get past the first few moments. Posted Apr 18 2008, 04:21 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Learning Silverlight, Recommended Resources, How Do I Videos, Data Binding

• How Accurate are Our Tutorials and Videos?

  A reader wrote to me today saying ( paraphrased ) ...let you know that the PDF version of the Data Binding tutorial identifies itself as tutorial #3 when it should be #2. As result of past experiences with Microsoft I tend to take such things as a sign of the  quality control that’s been applied to the content as well – and steer clear as a result! Here was my response (abridged to the parts that may be of common interest) Thanks for letting me know, we'll fix that ASAP Each tutorial was sent out to 10+ developers on the Silverlight developer team and 200+ field reps before publication. I’m pretty confident that (nearly) all technical error were caught, but remember that for none of these people is reviewing my tutorial their day job. Worse, they all know large numbers of people are seeing the tutorial, so there is the Kitty Genovese effect . In any case, I believe the tutorials are technically very accurate , and I’m supplementing them in my blog , -- but they are definitely targeted at early adopters (after all, we are in Beta 1). If you are more comfortable with a higher degree of editing, which is perfectly reasonable, you may want to wait a few months for one of the published books on Silverlight 2, such as my forthcoming  Programming Silverlight 2 which Tim Heuer and I are writing for O'Reilly , and which will be subject to O'Reilly’s usual rigorous editing standards (though I’ve never seen a book without some errata). In any case, thanks. The bottom line, for me, is that we have a responsibility to put out highly accurate information, but the reality is that we are working with a very large, complex framework that is changing rapidly. Please do let us know if you see anything you suspect is wrong (the forums are a great place for reporting such things) and we'll try to sort out whether it is operator error, an error in the tutorial or a bug in the framework. Thanks! Posted Apr 02 2008, 08:01 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: tutorials, silverlight 2.0, Learning Silverlight, Recommended Resources, How Do I Videos, Feedback