We are working hard on creating a path through all the material for Getting Started. For now, I’d recommend the following:

1. Go to the GetStarted page and download the components you need

2. Work your way through #1-5 in the “Start Learning Silverlight” section on that same page

3. Take a look at my Key Topic on Starting Silverlight (see the sidebar on the right)

4. Take a look at the Silverlight How-Do-I videos, picking subjects that seem interesting to you.

5. Join the forums, especially the Getting Started forum. They are the very best place to get fast answers. See my Note On Posting Questions On Forums.

A Note About The Videos: we are in the process of checking all our learning material to make sure it is current and accurate. When using an older video, be cautious about changes that may have been introduced in later versions of Silverlight. If you find problems with a video, please do send me email

That said, there are two aspects to having a satisfactory experience with the forums:

• Creating a Question That Is Likely To Be Answered
• Follow-up When Your Question Isn’t Answered

Creating a Question That Is Likely To Be Answered

There are a few techniques that make for a question that is likely to be answered quickly and well. While none of this is a surprise, take a look at the questions that are posted, most don’t follow these simple guidelines:

Summarize your question in the topic

Most folks are more likely to open a question with the topic “How Do I sort a column in a datagrid” than one with the topic “Help, Urgent!” even though the latter may, in fact, be more urgent

Be Brief, Be Precise

A long rambling message whose point is hard to fathom is hard to answer.

Write Down the Exception or Error Message

It is far easier to help someone if they way “when I click on the button the second time I get a an exception saying that I’ve tried to access a null object,” than it is to help someone who writes “Sometimes my program blows up and I get an error.”

Provide An Example

The single most effective thing you can do to get help is to write the smallest and simplest example that shows the problem.  It should be so small it fits cleanly into your message – not as an attachment (many folks are reluctant to open attachments).  It should do only one thing, and that is illustrate the problem, and it should be self-revealing.

What A Forum Question Might Look Like:

Topic: When I add data to my list box I sometimes get an “Index was outside the bounds of the array”

Message: I have a program that adds strings to a list box based on the user pressing a button. Here is a stripped down example. In the Xaml I declare a button and a list box:

using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;

namespace Error
{
   public partial class MainPage : UserControl
   {
      string[] data = new string[] { "a", "b", "c", "d" };

      public MainPage()
      {
         InitializeComponent();
         AddFieldToListBox.Click +=
            new RoutedEventHandler( AddFieldToListBox_Click );
      }

      void AddFieldToListBox_Click(
            object sender, RoutedEventArgs e )
      {
         for ( int i = 0; i <= data.Length; i++ )
         {
            ListOfText.Items.Add( data[ i ] );
         }
      }
   }
}

The error happens on line 22 (adding the data). I don’t see how it is out of bounds.

This is a fairly plausible error for a newbie to run into and it is an inviting question to answer: the topic tells me what I’m dealing with, the message is very short but tells me what I need to know and the example, while short, makes obvious where the problem is.

Then… follow up on unanswered questions

If you post a question and no one answers it for a week, I suggest reposting with, perhaps a catchier title. Examine the message to make sure it more or less meets the criteria discussed above.

If after a few days you still have no takers, be sure to send email to me or to Pete Brown, let us know what happened with the forum (ideally provide links to your messages). We’ll follow up either personally or by making sure the right folks see and respond to your question.

Finally, if we don’t get it done, give us a second chance, but if we fail twice…  well then it is time to write to management! 

There is no reason for your questions ever to be ignored; we are accountable and you should hold us to it.

My principal focus from now until the end of 2010 will be:

• Silverlight On Ramp
• Windows Phone 7
• Silverlight and Data
• Best Practices: MVVM, Test-Driven Design, Agile, MEF and more

These four areas of intense concentration have spawned a number of projects, many of which address more than one area.  The principal projects are…

Silverlight On-Ramp and Site Navigation

Working with Pete Brown, John Papa and others, I’m launching two key efforts here. The first is to inventory, update and create a guide to our existing learning resources. You can read all about this (and participate!) here.

In addition, look for a number of “getting started” or “on-ramp” videos and tutorials from all of us over the coming months.

The Silverlight HVP Project

The next phase of the Silverlight HyperVideo Project will focus on three key areas:

• Best Practices (including agile, MVVM, Unit-testing, test-driven design, creating component applications with MEF and much more)
• Data, including  emerging data technologies, such as oData
• Windows Phone 7

HVP Status

The very next step will be to proceed along two paths: moving to version 1.1 (enhancing the UI to make it more self-revealing) and designing the Mobile HVP version 1.  Here again, significantly enhanced community involvement will be critical.

To find many of these postings I’ve created 5 folders in the sidebar. The first two are on-ramp related, the next three cover the topics of Best Practices, Data and Windows Phone 7

For each of these topics, expect to see a set of mini-tutorials, videos and other material emerging over the coming weeks.

Eschewing Obfuscation

All the myriad ways of reaching this blog will continue to work, but I’m consolidating all my contact information around my full name, and thus the primary domain here is now http://jesseliberty.com (those looking for my personal/political blog will find it as a link off the sidebar)

Similarly, while my email address jliberty@microsoft.com will always work, I’ll be adding jesse.liberty@microsoft.com and of course you can reach me on twitter at @jesseliberty.   I will do the same with all other “social media” in coming weeks.

The Folks Who Create Silverlight

Just for fun, late next month I’ll launch a series of short video interviews with members of the Silverlight Development team. I’ll be asking three key questions:

1. What is your primary area of focus?
2. How and when did you start coding?
3. When did you come to Microsoft and what else have you worked on here and elsewhere?

(This will replace the written interviews I conducted but never felt had enough immediacy to be interesting)

Thanks.

Specifically, I’m hoping you’ll take on the task of itemizing resources  for one of the following areas

• Getting Started With Silverlight
• Transitioning to Silverlight 4
• Forms, Controls and Events
• Displaying Data
• Graphics and Animation (and the VSM)
• Understanding Silverlight Internals (e.g, the Property System)
• Silverlight & Windows Phone 7
• WCF RIA Services
• MVVM
• MEF

It is my hope that each volunteer will be able to list all the resources you can find for one of these areas, and mark each resource by Source, Type and Status:

Source

• Silverlight.net
• Jesse’s Blog
• Pete’s Blog
• Tim’s Blog
• John’s Blog
• Adam’s Blog
• Microsoft Blogs

Type

• V = Video
• H = HyperVideo
• M = Mini-Tutorial
• T = Tutorial
• L = Lab
• W = White Paper
• B = Blog Entry
• O = Other

Status

• 4 = Verified works with Silverlight 4
• U = Needs to be updated, still relevant
• D = Suggest we discard as obsolete or too badly broken

I will then take all the ones that are marked 4 and aggregate them into a Table of Contents of Silverlight-related content.  Items marked U or D I will add to my to-do list.

If you are interested in participating, please send me an email with what area you’d like to take on. My hope is to have your first report by June 1, with a goal of publishing the first TOC by mid-June.

Thanks!

-jesse

Each video stands on its own, but my hope is that put together they will provide a complete survey of Silverlight programming.  The first two videos in the series are Getting Started With Silverlight and Adding Controls To A Silverlight Application.

I will tweet about each video in the series as it is released, and all of them will be listed here.

Note, the new Twitter bird is from the generous folks at Function Design.

This is the first of a series of blog posts directed at folks who are new to Silverlight and/or want to brush up on the fundamentals.  It will consist of mini-tutorials on topics I think need more coverage, and links to existing mini-tutorials, tutorials and videos. We begin… at the beginning.

What is Silverlight, Why Do I care?

This is the traditional place to start, but in all probability if you are here, you know the answer. In brief: Silverlight is Microsoft’s Rich Internet Application enabling technology. The goal is to create applications that are delivered by the browser but which offer the user experience of a desktop application.  There is no question that using a RIA technology offers the ability to create a quality of experience that cannot be matched by more traditional approaches.

Where Do I Get It?

Everything you need to start writing Silverlight applications is available on our Get Started page.

If you don’t already have Visual Studio, consider starting with Visual Web Developer (VWD). You can download both VWD and Silverlight together using the Web Platform Installer

Otherwise,  you may want to take a look at the more powerful  Visual Studio 2008 or the new beta of Visual Studio 2010.  Once you get serious with Silverlight you’ll really want  Expression Blend.  

Navigating the Get Started Page

On Get Started you’ll find an array of options. The first option tells you how to get Visual Studio or VWD, and options 2, 3 and 5 while incredibly useful, are not required for your initial foray into Silverlight… so just grab option 4.

Quick Tour?

In the next section on the Get Started page, you’ll find a quick tour of Silverlight.  

This is a great way to get going. On the other hand, if you are going to follow this series, you may want to watch just #1 (Getting Started video) and hold off on the rest as I’m  going to integrate all of that material (including Tim’s terrific 8 part blog series) as we go.

The Tools

Tim’s excellent first video in his series will definitely get you started on the right foot using the tools. 

I’ve never fully understood why developers don’t spend more time learning the details of Visual Studio; it is, after all, our fundamental tool, the environment in which we live all day. Time spent on getting all you can out of Visual Studio will pay dividends for a long time.

Diving In

With that, you are ready to dive into Silverlight. Arguably, the best way to get a handle on what Silverlight is, is to write a program that uses it to accomplish something reasonably useful. A good starter video on building an application (a bit old, but still correct) is this gentle intro to creating a Silverlight application with Visual Studio, using the Canvas to lay out controls.  Then read Part 2 in Tim’s series on layout.

Next in this series: Three Approaches: Designer, Xaml or Dynamic