14 DAY TRIAL // Now that developers know that Silverlight is not going anywhere, with Microsoft already at work on version 5, they might as well grab some free training resources from the company and make the best out of the technology.
Silverlight 4 Training is available through the Microsoft Download Center, offering devs a variety of free resources designed to simplify the building of Silverlight 4 applications.
Just the past week, Microsoft announced an update to Silverlight 4 RTW, fixing a couple of problems for which it could not provide workarounds.
Users and devs should make sure to run the latest release of Silverlight 4, with the software giant planning to offer the refresh automatically to all those with the runtime installed on their computers.
The company also announced recently that Silverlight 4 will be followed by Silverlight 5 next year, and assured devs of its commitment to the technology.
Those that want to start building apps taking advantage of the current version of Silverlight, which will survive for the most part of next year, would better also access Silverlight 4 Training.
“The Silverlight 4 Training Course includes a whitepaper explaining all of the new Silverlight 4 features, several hands-on-labs that explain the features, and a 8 unit course for building business applications with Silverlight 4,” Microsoft explained.
“The business applications course includes 8 modules with extensive hands on labs as well as 25 accompanying videos that walk you through key aspects of building a business application with Silverlight.
“Key aspects in this course are working with numerous sandboxed and elevated out of browser features, the new RichTextBox control, implicit styling, webcam, drag and drop, multi touch, validation, authentication, MEF, WCF RIA Services, right mouse click, and much more.”
A Beta of Silverlight 5 is expected in the first half of 2011, with the final version of Silverlight 4 successor due by the end of next year.
Until then, devs can keep busy building apps for version 4, and combing through Silverlight 4 Training for development secrets.
“After downloading, run the self extracting executable. When prompted, indicate where you would like to install the files. Then navigate to the installation folder you selected and run the Default.htm page to view the materials,” the software giant explained.
Silverlight 4 Build 4.0.51204 is available for download here.