From the Back Cover

The only real tool available for creating Rich Media Applications, web-based animations, and games has been Flash‚ until now! WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) and Silverlight have opened the door of Rich Media Application development to Microsoft .NET developers. With Microsoft's new Blend 2 and Visual Studio 2008, you can now create compelling Rich Media Applications complete with animations and even 3D!

Foundation Expression Blend 2: Building Applications in WPF and Silverlight book shows you how to take full advantage of Blend's new interface, together with and Silverlight's vastly improved designer-developer workflow, guiding you through every step of development from downloading and installing of the development environment through creating finished, functional projects. You'll learn how to create simple drawing applications with the InkCanvas, make tabbed and scrollable interfaces, as well as build fully featured media players, photo galleries, and interactive 3D designs.

Each chapter discusses major WPF and Silverlight features, provides a hands-on tutorial, and explains how that feature is implemented in the real world. In the end, you will have a collection of impressive WPF and Silverlight applications that can be added to your portfolio.

Whether you're an experienced .NET or web developer, or you're just starting out, this book will provide you with all you need to create Rich Media Applications with Expression Blend 2.

In this book you'll

• Learn the Blend 2 and Visual Studio 2008 development environments
• Create designs using Blend 2's unique tools
• Use XAML and C# to add interactivity to your designs
• Publish your Rich Media Applications to the Web using Silverlight

Summary of Contents

• Chapter 1: Setting Up the WPF Development Environment
  
• Chapter 2: The WPF/Blend Workflow and Your First WPF Application
  
• Chapter 3: The Blend 2 Integrated Development Environment
• Chapter 4: C# and XML
  
• Chapter 5: Layout Elements
  
• Chapter 6: The MediaElement
  
• Chapter 7: ControlTemplates, Styles, and Custom UserControls
  
• Chapter 8: Events and EventHandlers
  
• Chapter 9: ObservableCollections and the Data Factory
• Chapter 10: WPF and 3D
  
• Chapter 11: DependencyProperies
• Chapter 12: Case Study A: 3DImageProject
• Chapter 13: Case Study B: TieFighterProject
• Chapter 14: Case Study C: SilverlightPagingSystemProject
• Chapter 15: Case Study D: SilverlightVideoPlayerProject
• Appendix: WPF and Silverlight Resources
  

Who is this book for?

Conclusion

Foundation Expression Blend 2: Building Applications in WPF and Silverlight is a consistent step-by-step tutorial that guides you gently from the very basics of setting up the development environment to completely mastering Expression Blend 2 software UI. While unfolding the content, the author uses a friendly mentor-like approach, covering all elements with care in explanation and detail.

The book is very well-structured. Every chapter starts with an outline of what is covered in it and ends with a complimentary summary of what has been achieved. Next to the great code tips an tricks it teaches you how to organize your planning and workflow. Additionally, the book does a wonderful job concluding with three real world case studies, which put into practice all the knowledge gathered up to that point.

We highly recommend this book to anyone interested in building apps with WPF and Silverlight, with little programing background. It is excellent to serve as both a reference book and a learning material.