Synopses & Reviews
.NET 3.5 will help you create better Windows applications, build Web Services that are more powerful, implement new Workflow projects and dramatically enhance the user's experience. But it does so with what appears to be a collection of disparate technologies. In Programming .NET 3.5, bestselling author Jesse Liberty and industry expert Alex Horovitz uncover the common threads that unite the .NET 3.5 technologies, so you can benefit from the best practices and architectural patterns baked into this newest generation of Microsoft frameworks.
While single-topic .NET 3.5 books delve into Windows Presentation Foundation and the other frameworks in greater detail, Programming .NET 3.5 offers a "Grand Tour" of the release that describes how the four principal technologies can be used together, with Ajax, to build modern n-tier and service-oriented applications. Developers have struggled to implement these patterns with previous versions of the .NET Framework, but this hands-on guide uses real-world examples and fully annotated source code to demonstrate how .NET 3.5 can make it easy.
The concepts and technologies that this book covers include:
- XAML -- Microsoft's new XML-based markup language for UI, used with WPF
- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) -- a new presentation framework and graphics subsystem for Windows that puts Vista-like effect in your grasp
- Ajax
- Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) - a new standards-based framework that enables applications to communicate across a network using a variety of protocols
- Workflow Foundation (WF) -- framework for defining, executing, and managing workflows
- CardSpace -- framework for managing the identities of your users
You'll learn how to use each of the four frameworks alone and in concert to build a series of meaningful example applications. Examples are written in C#, and all of the source code will be available for download at both the O'Reilly and the authors' site, which offers access to a free support forum.
Between them, authors Jesse Liberty and Alex Horovitz have nearly forty years of experience in delivering commercial applications for companies such as Citibank, Apple, AT&T, NeXt, PBS, Ziff Davis, and dozens of smaller organizations. Their combined experience is valuable for telling the story of .NET 3.5 and how it will shorten the development life cycle for applications developers, and enhance your productivity.
Synopsis
Liberty and Horovitz uncover the common threads that unite Microsofts .Net 3.0 technologies, so that developers can benefit from the best practices and architectural patterns baked into the new frameworks.
About the Author
Jesse Liberty is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft in the Silverlight Development Division where his business card reads "Silverlight Geek," and he is responsible for fostering a Silverlight Developer community, primarily through Silverlight.net.
Jesse is the author of numerous books, including O'Reilly Media's Programming Silverlight 2 and the perennial best-seller Programming C# 3.0. Jesse has two decades experience as a developer, author and consultant and has been a Distinguished Software Engineer at AT&T; Software Architect for PBS/Learning Link; and Vice President at Citibank. He provides full support for his writing, and access to his blogs, at JesseLiberty.com.
Alex Horovitz is Sr. Director of Enterprise Architecture & Standards at K12, Inc. where he develops enterprise applications leveraging the Model-View-Controller design pattern and re-usable Frameworks. During the 1990s he worked at both NeXT Computer and later at Apple.
Table of Contents
Dedication; Preface; Who This Book Is For; How This Book Is Organized; What You Need to Use This Book; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; Comments and Questions; Safari® Books Online; Acknowledgments; Part I: Presentation Options; Chapter 1: .NET 3.5: A Better Framework for Building MVC, N-Tier, and SOA Applications; 1.1 Integration Versus Silos; 1.2 What? All That in One Book?; Chapter 2: Introducing XAML: A Declarative Way to Create Windows UIs; 2.1 XAML 101; 2.2 Simple XAML Done Simply; 2.3 Over Here...No, Wait, I Meant Over There!; 2.4 It's Alive! (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Animation); Chapter 3: Introducing Windows Presentation Foundation: A Richer Desktop UI Experience; 3.1 Starting Simple: Panels; 3.2 Nesting; 3.3 Resources; 3.4 Transformations; 3.5 Animation; 3.6 Data Binding; Chapter 4: Applying WPF: Building a Biz App; 4.1 Breaking the Application into Pieces; 4.2 Adorners; 4.3 Business Classes; 4.4 Page 1--Adding Items to the Shopping Cart; 4.5 Page 2--Validating the Credit Card; Chapter 5: Introducing AJAX: Moving Desktop UIs to the Web; 5.1 Web Applications Just Got a Whole Lot Faster; 5.2 Getting Started; 5.3 Creating a "Word Wheel" with AJAX; 5.4 ScriptManager; 5.5 What's Next?; Chapter 6: Applying AJAX: ListMania; 6.1 Creating the To-Do List Manager; 6.2 Personalizing the To-Do List; Chapter 7: Introducing Silverlight: A Richer Web UI Platform; 7.1 Silverlight in One Chapter; 7.2 The Breadth of Silverlight; 7.3 Diving Deep: Building an Application; 7.4 Controls; 7.5 Events and Event Handlers; 7.6 Creating Controls Dynamically; 7.7 Data Binding; 7.8 Styling Controls; Part II: Interlude on Design Patterns; Chapter 8: Implementing Design Patterns with .NET 3.5; 8.1 .NET 3.5 Fosters Good Design; 8.2 The N-Tier Pattern; 8.3 The MVC Pattern; 8.4 The Observer Pattern/Publish and Subscribe; 8.5 The Factory Method Pattern; 8.6 The Chain-of-Command Pattern; 8.7 The Singleton Pattern; Part III: The Business Layer; Chapter 9: Understanding LINQ: Queries As First-Class Language Constructs; 9.1 Defining and Executing a LINQ Query; 9.2 Extension Methods; 9.3 Adding the AdventureWorksLT Database; 9.4 LINQ to SQL Fundamentals; 9.5 Using the Visual Studio LINQ to SQL Designer; 9.6 Retrieving Data; 9.7 LINQ to XML; Chapter 10: Introducing Windows Communication Foundation: Accessible Service-Oriented Architecture; 10.1 Defining a Service More Precisely; 10.2 Implementing Web Services; 10.3 UDDI: Who Is Out There, and What Can They Do for Me?; 10.4 How It All Works; 10.5 WCF's SOA Implementation; 10.6 Putting It All Together; Chapter 11: Applying WCF: YahooQuotes; 11.1 Creating and Launching a Web Service; 11.2 Consuming the Web Service; Chapter 12: Introducing Windows Workflow Foundation; 12.1 Conventional (Pre-WF) Flow Control; 12.2 Using Windows Workflow; 12.3 Understanding the WF Runtime; 12.4 Workflow Services; Chapter 13: Applying WF: Building a State Machine; 13.1 Windows Workflow and State Machines; 13.2 Building an Incident Support State Machine; Chapter 14: Using and Applying CardSpace: A New Scheme for Establishing Identity; 14.1 About Windows CardSpace; 14.2 Creating a CardSpace Identity; 14.3 Adding CardSpace Support to Your Application; 14.4 Summary; Epilogue; Colophon;