The only real tool for developing cross-platform rich Internet applications (RIAs) for that last 11 years has been Flash; until now! Silverlight 3 allows you to develop cross-platform rich Internet applications in a fraction of the time because of the extensive and very powerful .NET 3.5 libraries, the powerful, design friendly Blend 3 IDE, and an enhanced workflow that allows designers and developers to work on the same set of files at the same time.

• Develop stunning RIAs in a short time.
• Learn some basic object-oriented programming principles.
• Get familiar with the Blend 3 development environment.

What you’ll learn

• Learn the Blend 3 and Visual Studio 2008 IDEs.
• Learn how to create stunning animations using Silverlight 3 Storyboards.
• Learn how to incorporate video and sound into your RIAs with the Silverlight MediaElement.
• Learn about and how to develop quickly using Silverlight 3's reusable resources such as UserControls, ControlTemplates and DataTemplates.
• Learn about the new Visual State Manager and the State panel in Blend 3 to quickly and easily add MouseEnter and MouseLeave states to your UserControls.
• Put everything you have learned together to create a sample Silverlight 3 website.

Who this book is for

Web designers and developers wanting to learn Expression Blend 3 from the ground up. Those who have a background in the development of RIAs and want to learn this technology.