Join for XAMLfest Recorded Sessions, Online Live June 1 – 5

XAMLfest Online will be delivered via a combination of live and recorded content. Recorded content can be accessed at any time, but each recorded session should be viewed prior to its related live session. Live sessions will take place twice daily for a duration of 2 hours each. Morning sessions will focus on designer-oriented content, whereas afternoon sessions will focus on developer-oriented content. All participants are invited to attend both sessions, but those choosing to attend only morning or only afternoon sessions will still have a seamless experience.

Register for each session you’d like to attend. Click the session name to register.

	Monday XAML	Tuesday Layout & Controls	Wednesday Prototyping	Thursday Patterns	Friday Upsizing
Recorded	XAML Continuum Designers / Developers Blend / Visual Studio Silverlight / WPF XAML / .NET Styles / Resources Available May 25	XAML Fundamentals Layouts Controls Element binding  Available May 22	Prototyping Generating sample data Domain modeling Data binding Available May 25	Patterns + Practices Role of Integrator Model-View-ViewModel (M-V-VM) design pattern Available May 25	Upsizing Endpoints and Service Oriented Architectures Upsizing to WPF Reuse across Silverlight and WPF Available May 25
Live for Designers	XAML for Designers Use Blend to create a basic Silverlight application. Explore how Blend provides tools to build great user experiences. Define simple styles, and add them to a resource collection. June 1, 2009 / 9:00 AM PDT (noon EDT)	Layouts and Controls in Blend Use Blend to create application layout and to add controls to the sample application. Explore basic element binding in Blend. June 2, 2009 / 9:00 AM PDT (noon EDT)	New Prototyping Features in Blend 3 Use Blend to add screens, compositions and navigation behaviors to the sample application. Add sample data sources to screens, sketch prototype user experience, and generate a spec document. June 3, 2009 / 9:00 AM PDT (noon EDT)	Styles, Resources, Templates and Animations Add styles, resources, and templates to UX. Use the Visual State Manager to animation between element states. Use content imported from Adobe® Photoshop® to add assets to UX and re-skin controls in XAML. June 4, 2009 / 9:00 AM PDT (noon EDT)	Using Blend to Create WPF Apps and Controls Use Blend to create a WPF application. Migrate screens, resources, styles, and assets to WPF app. Explore similarities and differences between Silverlight and WPF applications. June 5, 2009 / 9:00 AM PDT (noon EDT)
Live for Developers	XAML for Developers Use Visual Studio to create a basic Silverlight application. Explore the anatomy and architecture of a Silverlight application in Visual Studio, focusing on the Resource markup extensions. June 1, 2009 / 1:00 PM PDT (4 PM EDT)	Layouts and Controls in Visual Studio Use Visual Studio to explore application layout in XAML. Explore the binding markup extension, and build a value converter for the sample application. June 2, 2009 / 1:00 PM PDT (4 PM EDT)	Building a Domain Model in Visual Studio Use spec document to build a domain model consistent with sample data. Add notification interfaces to enable consumers to subscribe to changes in domain model. Bind UX to domain model. June 3, 2009 / 1:00 PM PDT (4 pm EDT)	Implement the M-V-VM Pattern Implement the M-V-VM pattern for the application over the domain model defined in the previous step. Bind UX to view model. Explore templates and animations in XAML and .NET code. June 4, 2009 / 1:00 PM PDT (4 PM EDT)	Code Reusability between Silverlight and WPF Implement a service endpoint that provides a domain model bindable by Silverlight and WPF. Explore XAML and .NET code reuse across Silverlight and WPF. June 5, 2009 / 1:00 PM PDT (4 PM EDT)

Here’s the complete description of each session.

XAML Continuum

XAML is the lingua franca of both Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation, Microsoft’s presentation technologies for the future. In this introductory session, learn how XAML empowers designers and developers to build rich Web and desktop applications. You’ll see how Blend can be used by designers to create assets and applications, and how Visual Studio 2008 to quickly implement an application’s functionality. What’s more, you’ll understand how Blend and Visual Studio work together to enable seamless workflow between designers and developers. Available May 22, 2009.

XAML for Designers

Throughout XAMLfest, you’ll participate by building a Silverlight application from the ground up. In this session, you’ll jump Microsoft Expression Blend to begin creating this demonstration app. You’ll learn the basics of project creation, see how to navigate within Blend, and how XAML defines an application’s user interface. June 1, 2009 / 9:00 AM PDT (noon EDT)

XAML for Developers

In this first session geared towards developers, use Visual Studio 2008 to create and explore a basic Silverlight application. You’ll gain a better understanding of Silverlight anatomy and architecture, and you’ll see how Resource markup extensions work. You will also gain a better understanding of the deployment model used by Silverlight, and the role of Silverlight’s cross-platform, plug-in-based CLR. June 1, 2009 / 1:00 PM PDT (4 PM EDT)

XAML Fundamentals

In this recorded session, you’ll gain a solid foundational understanding of how XAML is used to build applications. First, you’ll see how XAML’s layout containers can be used to create interfaces that scale and re-size cleanly and intelligently. Next, you’ll see how you can use a variety of built-in controls to quickly create a working user interface. Finally, you’ll understand the role of XAML in data binding, and you’ll see how you can bind controls and properties using markup or code. Available May 22, 2009.

Layouts and Controls in Blend

In this live session, you’ll continue to build the sample application that you started creating the previous day. Here, you’ll create your application’s layout and begin adding controls. You’ll explore basic element binding using Blend. At the end of the session you’ll have a working Silverlight application that exhibits some basic functionality. June 2, 2009 / 9:00 AM PDT (noon EDT)

Layouts and Controls in Visual Studio

This session will begin with an exploration of application layout in XAML, using Visual Studio. And although there is a lot of functionality built-in to the existing framework, API and controls, there are times when you need to add some custom functionality in order to get your application to behave just the right way. To that end, you’ll use Visual Studio to build a simple value converter that can be used by your sample application. Along the way, you’ll understand the role of value converters and you’ll see how you can use code-behind to create and manipulate XAML objects.  June 2, 2009 / 1:00 PM PDT (4 PM EDT)

Prototyping

With today’s emphasis on usability and appealing user interfaces, it’s more important than ever to prototype your applications. In this session, you’ll see how new tools in Blend 3 enable you to quickly create working prototypes that can provide a foundation for building the actual application. You’ll learn about SketchFlow, “Wiggly styles”, sample data, and you’ll see how you can create a prototype that allows you to easily gather user feedback. Finally, you’ll see how you can save hours and hours by using Blend 3’s spec generation tool. Available May 22, 2009

New Prototyping Features in Blend 3

In this session focusing on practical guidance on prototyping, you’ll use Blend to add screens, compositions and navigation behaviors to the sample application. You’ll add sample data sources to screens, sketch prototype user experience, and generate a spec document.  June 3, 2009 / 9:00 AM PDT (noon EDT)

Building a Domain Model in Visual Studio

In this session, you’ll use the spec document that was generated in the earlier design session to build a domain model consistent with sample data. You’ll also add notification interfaces that enable consumers to subscribe to changes in the domain model. Finally, you’ll bind the user experience to the domain model.  June 3, 2009 / 1:00 PM PDT (4 pm EDT)

Patterns and Practices 

With the release of its Expression tools for designers, Microsoft has prompted a re-evaluation of user interface design and workflow distribution. Now that Expression is approaching its third major release, a number of patterns and practices have emerged. In this session, you’ll see an approach to workflow that plays to the strengths of both designers and developers. Also, you’ll understand the importance of the “integrator” role in making sure this workflow runs smoothly. Available May 22, 2009

Styles, Resources, Templates and Animations 

XAML makes it easier for designers to take on more responsibility when it comes to implementing user interface design. In the past, most everything beyond static screenshots and mockups required a developer to write behind-the-scenes code. In this session, you’ll see how Expression empowers designers to add styling, create templates, and define animations. You’ll see how the Visual State Manager is used to provide animation between element states. You’ll also see Blend 3’s new support for importing Adobe® Photoshop® content. June 4, 2009 / 9:00 AM PDT (noon EDT)

Implementing the M-V-VM Pattern 

The Model/View/ViewModel (M-V-VM) pattern is a modern variation of the classic Model/View/Controller (MVC) approach to UI design. In this session, you’ll use Visual Studio to implement M-V-VM for the sample application. You’ll bind the user experience to the view model, and explore templates and animations in both XAML and managed code. June 4, 2009 / 1:00 PM PDT (4 PM EDT)

Upsizing

Up until this point, most of the work you’ve done in XAMLfest has been using Silverlight, with sample data. In this session, you’ll see how an application can leverage endpoints and Service-Oriented Architectures. You’ll also see how Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) fits into the picture – how XAML and .NET enable reusability between Silverilght and WPF applications, and how to leverage features that are unique to WPF. You’ll also get a sneak peek at some of the exciting innovations coming in .NET 4.0. Available May 22, 2009

Using Blend to Create WPF Apps and Controls 

You can build great Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) apps with Blend, too, and in this session you’ll see exactly that. You’ll build a rich desktop client to complement the sample application you’ve been working on, and in doing so you’ll learn how to migrate screens, resources, styles and assets from Silverlight to WPF. This session will explore the similarities and differences between Silverlight and WPF applications.  June 5, 2009 / 9:00 AM PDT (noon EDT)

Code Reusability between Silverlight and WPF

In this final session of XAMLfest, you’ll gain a solid understanding of WPF application architecture and development. You’ll implement a service endpoint that provides a domain model that can be used by both Silverlight and WPF. In addition, you’ll get some hands-on experiencing developing controls and applications with Silverlight/WPF re-use in mind. June 5, 2009 / 1:00 PM PDT (4 PM EDT)

Comments

• Anonymous
  May 11, 2009
  My colleague, John Pelak, is bringing another edition of the XAML Fest series to the Boston area, this

• Anonymous
  May 13, 2009
  My latest in a series of the weekly, or more often, summary of interesting links I come across related to Visual Studio. Greg Duncan posted a link to the Managed Stack Explorer on CodePlex . Brad Abrams announced that the .NET RIA Services May 2009 Preview

• Anonymous
  May 13, 2009
  Vi segnalo questa interessante iniziativa in programma ad inizio Giugno dedicata alla formazione su Expression

• Anonymous
  May 14, 2009
  XAMLFest events are a great (and free) way to learn about Silverlight and WPF through a combination of

• Anonymous
  June 01, 2009
  Now that I’ve written a rough application spec, (see previous blog post), am I finally really to start