AjaxLine Books

Microsoft Expression Blend Unleashed

Microsoft Expression Blend (formerly code-named Interactive Designer) is a brand new technology from Microsoft. It is a design tool for creating rich user interfaces in both Windows and Web based applications. It will bring a whole new dimension to the application development process. This will be one of the first books on Expression Blend, and will be essential reading for any developer who wants to get up to speed quickly on this new tool. The author assumes that the reader is already familiar with the basics of .NET development, and shows how Blend fits into the whole .NET 3.0 universe of tools, especially with Windows Presentation Foundation and XAML. (Blend is essentially a WYSIWYG front-end for WPF and XAML.) The author also shows developers how to understand and appreciate the work a designer can do with this new UI design tool. This will help designers better understand their working lifecycle, and help them to integrate UI design as a seamless part of the application development lifecycle. In short, developers who have never touched any other design tools (such as Flash) will be lost when they need to write a new application using .NET 3.0. They will need this book to learn this new approach.

Professional Expression Blend: Developing .NET Applications

* Expression Interactive Designer (EID) provides an easy interface for programming desktop applications that are both visually attractive and use advanced design features such as 3D in a functional way
* Offering an approach for and from a programmer’s perspective, this book begins with the general concepts involved with EID and the advancements in design and development that it seeks to achieve
* With the intent to add useful skills to a developer’s repertoire of knowledge, the material goes on to cover designs and file systems for using EID, XAML documents, creating building blocks (shapes, objects, graphics, textual elements, user interface controls), creating and combining scenes (layers, keyframes, storyboard), animating objects, and advanced design and animation (3D, topography, video integration, data-aware animations)

Microsoft Expression Blend Bible

• Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer will simplify the development of rich, interactive Web applications and this comprehensive reference introduces every tool and characteristic of this new software
• Detailing the ins and outs of the program, veteran authors Gurdy and Mary Leete provide professional Web designers, developers, and serious home users with the know-how they need to create amazing Web sites
• Readers interested in online game development will enjoy the coverage of 3D Web animations-something Flash can’t do
• Key topics include working with drawings, text, and 3D objects; adding audio, video, and animation; programming Expression Interactive Designer; and more
• Discusses how to integrate this program with the Vista operating system as well as other components of the Expression suite

From the Back Cover
Create amazing interfaces that encourage visitorsThe impact of an aesthetically pleasing user interface is remarkable. Web site visitors respond eagerly to attractive, easy-to-use designs, and Blend allows you to create these with much less effort. This A-to-Z guide shows you how to design a new generation of applications that make the most of digital media, including animation, 3D, audio and video, sophisticated typography, and other stunning visual effects—all without bogging down in code. Here’s everything you need to succeed with Blend.

• Apply principles of interactive design, graphic design, and animation
• Create and transform vector graphics
• Explore animated transparencies and opacity masks
• Use ready-made Windows® Presentation Foundation controls, or create your own
• Connect your applications to data sources

Companion Web site

At www.blendtips.com, you can download files to use while working on the examples presented in the book and modify them to create your own features. The site also includes full-color figures from the book and late-breaking news about Blend.

Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008, Second Edition (Pro)

ASP.NET 3.5 is the latest version of Microsoft’s revolutionary ASP.NET technology. It is the principal standard for creating dynamic web pages on the Windows platform. Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008 raises the bar for high-quality, practical advice on learning and deploying Microsoft’s dynamic web solution.

Seasoned .NET professionals Matthew MacDonald and Mario Szpuszta explain how you can get the most from this groundbreaking new technology. They cover ASP.NET 3.5 as a whole, illustrating both the brand-new features and the functionality carried over from previous versions of ASP. This book will give you the knowledge you need to code real ASP.NET 3.5 applications in the best possible style.

The book will teach you ASP.NET 3.5 starting with core concepts to more advanced topics. You will learn

• Core concepts of ASP.NET 3.5. Why it’s special. What it’s fundamental principals are. The basics of Visual Studio. How ASP.NET 3.5 controls are created, and how they fit into ASP.NET 3.5 pages, ultimately creating full applications
• Data access details. The intricacies of ADO.NET and how to perform data binding to many sources from databases to file streams to XML. We include LINQ coverage so you’re on the bleeding edge
• Security. Once considered the Achilles heel of all Windows web applications, security has vastly improved and is a cornerstone of ASP.NET 3.5. This section explains the various forms of available security, and how to best apply them
• Taking things further using advanced user interface techniques. This includes user controls, customer server controls, client-side JavaScript, and GDI+.
• Web services. In an increasingly connected world, working with web services grows in importance. This book will show you how to work with them.
• ASP.NET AJAX, with an emphasis on comtemporary web development techniques
• Development using Internet Information Services 7, Microsoft’s premier web hosting platform.
• And much more.

About the Author
Matthew MacDonald is an author, educator, and MCSD developer who has a passion for emerging technologies. He is a regular writer for developer journals such as Inside Visual Basic, ASPToday, and Hardcore Visual Studio .NET, and he’s the author of several books about programming with .NET, including User Interfaces in VB .NET: Windows Forms and Custom Controls, The Book of VB .NET, and .NET Distributed Applications. In a dimly remembered past life, he studied English literature and theoretical physics. Send e-mail to him with praise, condemnation, and everything in between, to p2p@prosetech.com.

Silverlight and ASP.NET Revealed

Microsoft Silverlight allows you to create rich multimedia interfaces with the power and flexibility of Flash, but with the extensibility and the great tools that .NET offers. With Silverlight and ASP.NET Revealed, you’ll learn to use Microsoft’s Silverlight technology in conjunction with ASP.NET and Visual Studio 2008 (codename Orcas). You will ultimately incorporate Silverlight into an ASP.NET web site and use the ASP.NET controls that render Silverlight content. But you’ll also get the basics of Silverlight, too, making this book a must-read for any web developer curious about Silverlight.

Silverlight and ASP.NET Revealed assumes a deep knowledge of ASP.NET, but no knowledge of Silverlight.

About the Author
Matthew MacDonald is an author, educator, and MCSD developer who has a passion for emerging technologies. He is a regular writer for developer journals such as Inside Visual Basic, ASPToday, and Hardcore Visual Studio .NET, and he’s the author of several books about programming with .NET, including User Interfaces in VB .NET: Windows Forms and Custom Controls, The Book of VB .NET, and .NET Distributed Applications. In a dimly remembered past life, he studied English literature and theoretical physics. Send e-mail to him with praise, condemnation, and everything in between, to p2p@prosetech.com.

Professional ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX (Programmer to Programmer)

ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX is Microsoft’s Ajax tool for ASP.NET developers and this book covers the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX final release. You’ll learn how to use the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX features in order to create richer, more responsive dynamic Web sites. The book walks you through examples for each featured element, demonstrating how the client and server interact to produce a better Web application, and reviews such topics as client framework, script manager control, networking stack, application services, partial page updates, control extenders, client form elements, and client behaviors.

From the Back Cover
Are you ready to build more responsive web applications with richer UI elements? This detailed guide to the Microsoft AJAX Library shows you how to bring together ASP.NET 2.0 with an object-oriented approach to JavaScript development using this new framework from Microsoft. You’ll gain an in-depth understanding of the ASP.NET AJAX architecture, including the server controls, client-side JavaScript library, and runtime environment. By following the numerous examples, you’ll see how much your users benefit from this new class of web applications that manipulate the browser’s DOM and communicate with the server to update the user’s view of a page without waiting for the entire page to be refreshed.

Written by Microsoft’s lead ASP.NET AJAX developer together with an in-the-field Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional), this book guides you through the core of the Microsoft AJAX Library and the controls you will use to leverage AJAX. It provides you with code samples to take advantage of some of the popular shared-source ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit controls and extensions. And you’ll work through debugging functionality in Visual Studio® and the browser as well as methods for effective testing.

What you will learn from this book

• How to create a better user experience by adding more dynamic UIs
• Steps for accessing ASP.NET profile and authentication services
• Ways to simplify programming tasks using the Microsoft AJAX Library
• Strategies for testing web applications to achieve optimal performance
• Methods for developing custom AJAX controls

Who this book is for

This book is for experienced ASP.NET developers who want to add AJAX to their applications. It is also for experienced web developers who want to move to ASP.NET and AJAX together.

Silverlight 1.0 Unleashed

Printed entirely in color, with helpful figures and syntax coloring to make code samples appear as they do in Visual Studio and Expression Blend!

Silverlight is a lightweight but powerful plug-in for multiple web browsers on multiple operating systems that makes it easier than ever to create rich web-based content, applications, and controls. With support for vector graphics, animations, full-screen high-definition video, and more, Silverlight gives you the ability to create more compelling content than you dreamed possible for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Silverlight provides much of the power of Windows Presentation Foundation, but with less overhead and easy integration with HTML and AJAX-style applications. Silverlight 1.0 Unleashed is the authoritative book that covers the technology in a practical and approachable fashion, authored by Silverlight guru and Microsoft developer Adam Nathan.

• Covers everything you need to know about Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) in Silverlight
• Examines the Silverlight feature areas in depth: graphics, text, audio, video, animation, ink, events, and more
• Demonstrates how to create reusable controls and perform common tasks (such as drag-and-drop) using basic building blocks
• Explains how to download assets asynchronously to maximize your user experience
• Demonstrates how to create hybrid applications that mix Silverlight content with HTML or Flash content
• Highlights features scheduled for future versions of Silverlight while showing how to achieve your desired results with the current version

Introducing Microsoft Silverlight(TM) 1.0 (PRO-Developer)

Product Description
Get a first look at Microsoft Silverlight with this practical introduction. This ideal reference delivers pragmatic advice, from in an insider s perspective, of how the tool was developed from concept to release. An expert on Silverlight and a Technical Evangelist on the Silverlight team delivers a first look at the new cross-platform, cross-browser plug-in and details the relationships among Silverlight and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5 technologies. Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) are Web applications that have the features and functionality of full desktop applications. Processing tasks are performed on the client, but data is stored on the server, allowing a much richer experience. With Silverlight, RIAs install quickly via a small, on-demand plug-in. This book shows how the first release of Silverlight will help simplify development and deployment of RIAs. Includes a companion Web site with code samples in Visual C# and Visual Basic.

Key Book Benefits

Delivers practical advice, grounded in an insider s view of how the tool was developed from concept (Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere) to release

Provides context about the relationships among Silverlight and the various .NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5 technologies

Places RIAs in context for Web and Windows® developers

Features a companion Web site with code samples in Visual C# and Visual Basic

About the Author
Laurence Moroney is a Developer Platform Evangelist for Microsoft, specializing in Silverlight. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was Technical Evangelist for Mainsoft. He has authored or coauthored seven previous books

Silverlight 1.0

Silverlight—the hot new web technology based on the powerful WPF graphics platform that ships with Windows Vista—is the web developer’s choice for creating cross-platform interactive applications that work in multiple browsers. This one-of-a-kindreference shows you, with full-color illustrations, how to create rich interactive apps with Silverlight.

In these color-filled pages, a crack team of Wrox experts gives you a comprehensive introduction to Silverlight. You’ll see the vivid graphics and video images you can achieve. You will learn to use the component languages, tools, and techniques of Silverlight to create applications that enhance the user experience. You’ll also discover how to leverage existing technologies, such as JavaScript®, XAML, ASP.NET, and AJAX, and incorporate them with development tools like Visual Studio®, Expression® Encoder, and Expression Blend. Soon you’ll be building everything from basic static pages to Internet applications that integrate rich media and animation.

What you will learn from this book

• Easy ways to incorporate graphics, animation, audio, and video into Internet applications
• Methods for creating rich media apps that run on Windows® and Mac®, as well as in Internet Explorer, Firefox®, and Safari
• How to write standard JavaScript within an HTML page to manipulate and program against any XAML DOM element, storyline animation, or video
• Ways to integrate Silverlight within existing HTML pages, web sites, and ASP.NET applications
• How to handle data access in Silverlight applications using AJAX

Who this book is for

This book is for professional web developers who want to take advantage of Silverlight’s capabilities to create rich interactive applications.

“[This book] makes a great companion for anyone who wants to learn the fundamentals of Silverlight without wading through the reference material in the SDK. If you’re looking for a trustworthy guide to show you how Silverlight can light up your web applications, you’ll find this book a great starting point.” —Tim Sneath, Group Manager for Client Platform Evangelism, Microsoft Corporation

About the Author
Devin Rader is a Product Manager on the Infragistics Web Client team, responsible for leading the creation of Infragistics ASP.NET and Silverlight products. Devin is also an active proponent and member of the .NET developer community, being a co-founder of the St. Louis .NET User Group, an active member of the New Jersey .NET User Group, a former board member of the International .NET Association (INETA), and a regular speaker at user groups. He is also a contributing author on the Wrox title Professional ASP.NET 2.0 and a technical editor for several other Wrox publications and has written columns for ASP.NET Pro magazine, as well as .NET technology articles for MSDN Online. You can find more of Devin’s musings at www.geekswithblogs.com/devin.

Jason Beres is the Director of Product Management for Infragistics, the world’s leading publisher of presentation layer tools. Jason is also one of the founders of Florida .NET User Groups, he is founder of the New Jersey .NET User Group, he is a Visual Basic .NET MVP, he is on the INETA Speakers Bureau, and he is on the INETA Board of Directors. Jason is the author of several books on .NET development, an international speaker, and a frequent columnist for several .NET publications. He also keeps very active in the .NET community.

J. Ambrose Little is the User Experience and Guidance group lead at Infragistics. He is a Microsoft Solutions Architect MVP, an ASPInsider, author of numerous articles, co-author of Professional ADO.NET 2 and ASP.NET 2.0 MVP Hacks and Tips from Wrox, and he has spoken at various user groups, events, and conferences. He’s been designing and developing web sites and applications professionally for more than 8 years.

Grant Hinkson is Director of Visual Design at Infragistics, a software company specializing in reusable interface components and application design. He is passionate about design, usability, and technology and is rewarded by working with a team of people who share similar passions. He loves both design and development and thrives in the worlds of Silverlight and WPF, where he gets to exercise both sides of his brain. Grant has been involved with both WPF and Silverlight since their pre-Beta days, working with Expression Blend when it was affectionately known by its codename Sparkle. Grant is author of the Fireworks to XAML Exporter, is a frequent contributor to Adobe’s Developer Center site, and has spoken at major industry design events.