In June of 2011 I started the journey of writing a Silverlight book. The Silverlight team was about to release version 5 with an incredible set of new features that would revolutionize how it can be used in the enterprise. I knew there were already a number of books available to use a reference for fundamentals and controls, so I wanted to dig deeper and hit the topics I was challenged with in my job as a consultant as well as those questions that continually seem to surface on blogs and forums. I began with an introduction that analyzed client technologies available at the time, especially focusing on how HTML5 was evolving but not yet mature. The focus of the book is my “sweet spot” as I have been developing Silverlight applications for the enterprise since it’s version 3 release in 2008.
No one could have realized just how much change would take place over the following year. Silverlight 5 was released but without a roadmap for version 6 and Windows 8 was announced. Fortunately it was soon discovered that Windows 8 provides a path to build applications using C# and XAML, has full support for running Silverlight 5, and through the Portable Class Library even provides a path to create code that can be used to target both present state and future state applications.
I had the privilege of working with a phenomenal team at Addison-Wesley Professional along with two very experienced Silverlight developers as technical editors who helped shape the book to contain the depth and quality of information that is available today.
The book is in stock at Amazon.com as of today. There are a number of ways you can order the book:
The publisher’s website provides you with the table of contents and provides a sample chapter to download that covers the Model-View-View Model (MVVM) pattern.
The book also features the Jounce MVVM Open Source Framework I developed along with a sample application that covers quite a few features.
Is this book relevant? I believe it is if you’ll accept my biased opinion because companies have Line of Business applications today, they are not releasing Windows 8 applications right now, and Silverlight remains a very viable solution for these applications. The majority of concepts covered in this book translate to the C#/XAML stack used for Windows 8 Metro applications and apply to building enterprise applications in general. There has been tremendous support for this and I’ve included some of the most difficult patterns and problems to tackle with solutions that translate to other platforms as well.
I want to thank the community for their incredible support as it has been an amazing journey. I also would ask that if you have invested in the Rough Cuts, eBooks, paperback, or other editions, that once you’ve had time to read this book you take the time to post your review and comments online. It is your reviews and comments that other developers will trust when they are making the decision to invest, so honest feedback helps them decide whether or not this is a resource that will provide them with value. It also helps me improve how I deliver content to make it the best possible quality for you.
So what’s next for me? I’m already several chapters into my next book. It will cover Building Windows 8 Metro Applications with C# and XAML, and I’ll include information about how Silverlight developers today can take advantage of the Metro platform for tomorrow’s applications. This book will be available for early access to read, review, and provide feedback through the Safari Rough Cuts program. Stay tuned and I’ll announce when more information becomes available.
Thanks again!
