Videos

In this video, I demonstrate how to start writing your first Silverlight game. I show how to create a dramatic space scene, add a soundtrack, and associate movement with the mouse wheel. This is the first part of a two-part series.

[watch the video]
[download the code]

The first of my Silverlight videos have posted which cover some networking stuff that I’ve been blogging about already.  If you want to see a walk through of things you might have already read, please take a look at them:

• Cross domain policy files with Silverlight 2
• Using WCF and ASP.NET Web Services with Silverlight 2

This is the recording of the session “Silverlight 2” that I did last month atTechDays 2008 Basel.

In this 1 hour video blog I show how to build a picture gallery showing some of the powerful capability of Silverlight 2 like:

Blend 2.5

Layout controls

WebClient (RSS requests)

LINQ to SQL

DataBinding

DataTemplate

Animations

UserControls

Multi files upload

DataGrid

LINQ to OBJECT

You can get the slides and the demo code here: http://www.microsoft.com/switzerland/msdn/de/presentationfinder/detail.mspx?id=106102

Ronnie Saurenmann

Today's Webcast was intended to be a smooth presentation of a topic I know cold. Not uncharacteristically,  I went off on a tangent from which I never returned and ended up writing all my code spontaneously.

The good news was it was "fresher" the bad news was a few false starts; fortunately I was talking to pros who were very patient, and the key points were made:

• You can set the container as the event handler for the contained objects (e.g., the stack panel can receive the click event for all the radio buttons
• Some events bubble and some do not, and it is important to understand which do and which do not and what will happen accordingly
• The rule of thumb is that events associated with a control (e.g, click) do not bubble but most events associated with mouse and keyboard do bubble; it's best to check the documentation.

I've been spending my nights working on a new book covering Silverlight 2 and have been focusing on the new networking features that are available in the System.Net and related namespaces.  Silverlight's great at animating objects, performing transformations and collecting data with all of the new controls that are available, but at some point you'll need to retrieve data or send data to a service.  ... (read more)

I'm pleased and proud to say that my first Sparkling Client interview is now available for download; and this gives me the opportunity to recommend subscribing to this excellent new podcast.

Sparkling Client focuses exclusively on Silverlight and related technologies. The first couple broadcasts show some growing pains, but the later interviews are excellent (check out the interview with Adam Kinney!)

Thanks to everyone who attended my "Silverlight 2 for Data Applications" talk at Code Camp 9 in Waltham, MA on 4/5/2008! And a big thanks to Chris Bowen and Chris Pels for their hard work organizing this great event time after time. I had a great crowd for my talk, standing room only, and as promised I have some goodies for all:

First, even if you couldn't make it to Code Camp for my talk, I have created a screen cast that walks through the demos. Just click the image below to launch the video:

I also have the Beers Demo Application and Slide Deck available:

DOWNLOAD THE DEMO CODE

DOWNLOAD THE SLIDE DECK (PPT)

Summary of the Presentation

In this talk, I walked through a mult-tier Silverlight Application with the following architecture:

1.

I'm pleased to announce a two part How Do I video set on Event Handling in Silverlight 2 Beta 1. These videos explore how to hook up events and point out that in Silverlight some events "bubble" and some do not.

Here are the key points to walk away with

• You can set the event handler in XAML, but I don't, and I personally don't think it is a good practice, though that is not an official Microsoft position

• The alternative to setting the event handler in XAML is to set it in the Code Behind file (e.g., Page.XAML.cs)

• In either case Intellisense will help with the creation of the event and will create the skeleton of the implementation
  
• Some events "bubble" up through the interface tree (and some do not)

How Bubbling Works - The 60 Second Version

Suppose I create a button with four check boxes in it,

Note that the button is named SetFeatures , and within that Button is a stack panel containing 4 named CheckBoxes.

In WPF, the MediaElement is simple and easy, but there are times when one wants to do more with video (webcams, pixel manipulation, etc.).  This usually requires dropping outside of WPF into unmanaged code or at least referencing unmanaged dlls, all which can get tricky, suffice to say.  I wanted to point out two great WPF video samples that recently came online which abstract out some of this complexity and let you get to the task at hand.

http://www.codeplex.com/VideoRendererElement: With this project, by Jeremiah Morrill,  "a developer can update a pixel buffer or video media sample and have it render in WPF space at MediaElement speed.

Silverlight 1.0 didn't have much in the way of accessibility - essentially the equivalent of alt tags. Silverlight 2 will change that by exposing a full accessibility tree to accessibility tools in builds post Beta 1.

In this video Mark Rideout from the Silverlight team discusses how Silverlight 2 handles accessibility. Mark was PM for accessibility in Windows Forms, and is also PM for accessibility, textbox and input in Silverlight 2.

If you have never witnessed someone using a screen reader to navigate a web page, be sure to check out this video (especially the last couple minutes where he speeds up the rate to what he normally uses)

What will Silverlight 2 provide for accessibility?

• Tabbing and tab order
• Focus and Keyboard Input
• Exposed Accessibility Tree (through UIA - UI Automation) for screen readers and other accessibility tools
• Accessibility Information directly in XAML Markup via AutomationProperties attached properties such as name and help text
• Support for AutomationPeer as in WPF
• Other capabilities such as notifications for high-contrast requirements

If you want to see the accessibility tree for your applications, download UI Spy.