A Silverlight 4 OOB Google Search Application

This application uses Google Search API and behaves like Internet Search Application with option to preview desired page in web browser (Silverlight 4) directly in this application.

Via http://bachelorthesis.zdechovan.com/silverlight-application-google-search/

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3D in Silverlight Tutorial from Silverlight Buzz

• Controlling Projection in Silverlight 3
• Shadow effect using 3D projection in Silverlight 3
• Creating a 3D cube with images in Silverlight 3
• Using projection to build a 3D carousel in Silverlight 3
• Creating a 3d particle effect using just storyboards and behaviours
• Creating a 3d spiral animation using projection in Silverlight 3

Learn Blend in a Month (22 posts) from Silverlight Buzz

• What is Silverlight and Expression Blend
• Setting up your work space in Blend
• Importing artwork from other tools into Blend
• Drawing tools in Blend
• Using gradients in Blend
• Using Images and Video in Blend
• Using Blurs and Shadows in Blend
• Animating with Storyboards in Blend
• Adding easing and inertia to your animations in Blend
• Using the 3D tools to animate in Blend
• Using the Canvas element in Blend
• Using the Grid element in Blend
• Using the Stack Panel in Blend
• The differences between Text Box and Text Block in Blend
• Creating buttons and using States in Blend
• Changing the Mouse Icon graphic in Blend
• Out-the-box controls in Blend
• Using Behaviors to get things moving in Blend
• Using Resources to share styling in Blend
• Using Data Binding to share data in Blend
• Making an object re-usable as a User Control in Blend
• Legally using non-standard fonts in Silverlight and Blend

Silverlight SDK sample browser added Source Viewer

The Silverlight SDK sample browser lets you explore all the live samples used by the official Silverlight documentation.

In the past, the source code for the samples could only be found in the documentation. Now, however, you can view the source directly from the sample browser by clicking a new button in the header section.

When you click the button, a new browser window opens and displays the code.

Training courseware for Telerik RadControls for Silverlight

This training material will help you quickly get up to speed with Silverlight and will discuss some of the issues in common with all RadControls such as binding or theming, working with RIA Services (also WCF and ADO.NET), working with Expression Blend, etc.  

The courseware is available to everyone for free download from our website:
PDF (47MB)

The sample C# projects can now be downloaded along with the book at: http://www.telerik.com/support/documentation-and-tutorials/step-by-step-tutorial-for-silverlight.aspx.

Simple Dialog Service in Silverlight – It is an Asynchronous Process!

I noticed on the forums there are a lot of users not comfortable with asynchronous programming who struggle a bit in Silverlight with getting their arms around the concept of a dialog box. In other environments, you can simply shoot out a dialog, wait for the response, and continue. In Silverlight, of course, the action is asynchronous. I would argue it should be this way most of the time.

The problem is that many people tend to take the approach of trying to force the process into a synchronous one, instead of changing the way they think and approach the application. There is a reason why processes are asynchronous in Silverlight. There is one main UI thread, and a blocking process would block the entire thread and effectively freeze the Silverlight application. Having the process asynchronous allows you to continue to render graphics elements, perform actions in the background, even display a soothing animation while you await the user’s response.

Note: the use of Action<bool> Response for callback & dialog.Show() is not a blocking call. This allow the Silverlight UI Thread to continue and Wait for the Response from the ChildWindow Dialog

Dialog is derived from ChildWindow

public class DialogService : IDialogService
{
    public void ShowDialog(string title, string message, bool allowCancel, Action<bool> response)
    {
        var dialog = new Dialog(allowCancel) {Title = title, Message = message, CloseAction = response};
        dialog.Closed += DialogClosed;
        dialog.Show();
    }

    static void DialogClosed(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        var dialog = sender as Dialog;
        if (dialog != null)
        {
            dialog.Closed -= DialogClosed; 
            dialog.CloseAction(dialog.DialogResult == true);
        }
    }
}

// Using the Dialog

public partial class MainPage : UserControl
{
    private bool _toggleState = true;
    private readonly IDialogService _dialog = new DialogService();

    public MainPage()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }
// Example 1
    private void ToggleEnabled_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        _dialog.ShowDialog(
            _toggleState ? "Disable Button" : "Enable Button",
            _toggleState
                ? "Are you sure you want to disable the dialog button?"
                : "Are you sure you want to enable the dialog button?",
            true,
            r =>
                {
                    if (r)
                    {
                        _toggleState = !_toggleState;
                        DialogButton.IsEnabled = _toggleState;
                        ToggleEnabled.Content = _toggleState ? "Disable Dialog Button" : "Enable Dialog Button";
                    }
                });
    }
// Example 2
    private void DialogButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        _dialog.ShowDialog(
            "Confirm This",
            "You have to either close the window or click OK to confirm this.",
            false,
            r => { TextDialog.Text = r ? "You clicked OK." : "You closed the dialog."; });
    }
}

For more goto: http://csharperimage.jeremylikness.com/2010/01/simple-dialog-service-in-silverlight.html

ICommand in Silverlight 4

In Silverlight 4, ButtonBase (and all its derived versions) and HyperlinkButton now support Command and CommandParameter to tie ICommand implementations.  For example, in XAML I can tie two different buttons to the SaveCommand that I have on some object i’ve bound to my UI:

<Border BorderBrush="LightGray"
        BorderThickness="1">
  <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
    <TextBlock>Tools:</TextBlock>
    <Button Command="{Binding SaveCommand}"
            CommandParameter="{Binding Person}"
            Content="Save" />
  </StackPanel>
</Border>
<StackPanel Grid.Row="1">
  <TextBlock FontWeight="Bold"
             Text="Person" />
  <TextBlock Text="Name" />
  <TextBox Text="{Binding Person.Name, Mode=TwoWay}" />
  <TextBlock Text="Occupation" />
  <TextBox Text="{Binding Person.Occupation, Mode=TwoWay}" />
  <Button Command="{Binding SaveCommand}"
          CommandParameter="{Binding Person}"
          Width="100"
          HorizontalAlignment="Right"
          Content="Save" />
</StackPanel>

By binding a SaveCommand to both of these buttons, whenever either of the buttons is pressed, the command will be executed.  But perhaps even more important is that as the command isn’t valid (perhaps when the Person doesn’t have changes), the buttons will be disabled.

For more on how to implement the command in C# goto http://wildermuth.com/2010/01/21/New_SL4_Feature_Commanding

The new .NET Framework 4.0 poster in Deepzoom.

Cool! http://www.midnightprogrammer.net/post/2009/09/30/NET-Framework-40-Poster.aspx

WriteableBitmapEx from codeplex

The WriteableBitmapEx library is a collection of extension methods for Silverlight’s WriteableBitmap. The WriteableBitmap class that was added in Silverlight 3, allows the direct manipulation of a bitmap and could be used to generate fast procedural images by drawing directly to a bitmap. The WriteableBitmap API is very minimalistic and there’s only the raw Pixels array for such operations. The WriteableBitmapEx library tries to compensate that with extensions methods that are easy to use like built in methods. The library extends the WriteableBitmap class with elementary and fast (2D drawing) functionality, conversion methods and functions to combine (blit) WriteableBitmaps.
The extension methods are grouped into different CS files with a partial class. It is possible to include just a few methods by using the specific source CS files directly or all extension methods through the built library assembly.

Features

• Base
  • Support for the Color structure
  • SetPixel method with various overloads
  • Fast Clear methods
  • ForEach method to apply a given function to all pixels of the bitmap
• Shapes
  • Fast line drawing algorithms
  • Ellipse, polyline, quad, rectangle and triangle
• Blitting
  • Different blend modes including alpha, additive, subtractive, multiply, mask and none
  • Optimized fast path for non blended blitting
• Conversion
  • Convert a WriteableBitmap to a byte array
  • Create a WriteableBitmap from a byte array

Sample Code

// Initialize the WriteableBitmap with size 512x512 and set it as source of an Image control
WriteableBitmap writeableBmp = new WriteableBitmap(512, 512);
ImageControl.Source = writeableBmp;

// Clear the WriteableBitmap with white color
writeableBmp.Clear(Colors.White);

// Green line from P1(1, 2) to P2(30, 40)
writeableBmp.DrawLine(1, 2, 30, 40, Colors.Green);

// Black triangle with the points P1(10, 5), P2(20, 40) and P3(30, 10)
writeableBmp.DrawTriangle(10, 5, 20, 40, 30, 10, Colors.Black);

// Red rectangle from the point P1(2, 4) that is 10px wide and 6px high
writeableBmp.DrawRectangle(2, 4, 12, 10, Colors.Red);

// Blue ellipse with the center point P1(2, 2) that is 8px wide and 5px high
writeableBmp.DrawEllipseCentered(2, 2, 8, 5, Colors.Blue);

// Closed green polyline with P1(10, 5), P2(20, 40), P3(30, 30) and P4(7, 8)
int[] p = new int[] { 10, 5, 20, 40, 30, 30, 7, 8, 10, 5 };
writeableBmp.DrawPolyline(p, Colors.Green);

// Present the WriteableBitmap!
writeableBmp.Invalidate();

For more visit: http://writeablebitmapex.codeplex.com/

Kodu Game Programming Tutorials

• Tutorial #1 Basic Navigation

• Tutorial #2 Edit Mode Tools

• Tutorial #3 Load Level Menu

• Tutorial #4 Main Menu->Options

• More Coming …

Have a question in mind? Need help? Kodu has a forum for you: http://boards.kodux.com/