Beginning Web Development, Silverlight, and ASP.NET AJAX: From Novice to Professional aims to give you the skills you need to start building web applications with Microsoft’s next–generation technology as quickly as possible. Whether you’re interested in ASP.NET AJAX, Silverlight, or the technologies that support them (WPF, WCF, WF, etc.), this book is the starting point that you need.

It adopts a “zero to hero” approach that concentrates on achieving practical results you can use in real projects rather than presenting a deep academic treatment that can’t be immediately applied.

The aim is to give you, the reader, the knowledge you need to achieve the results you want with the minimum of fuss. When you’ve read this book, you’ll have a solid understand of all the techniques that are available, when to use them, and their relative strengths and weaknesses.
What you’ll learn

* Create next–generation web applications quickly and easily!
* Manipulate data, display information, and communicate with other services using the latest ASP.NET techniques and best practices.
* Discover how the .NET 3.0 extensions (WPF, WCF, and WF) can make your web applications faster, more efficient, and easier to code than ever.
* Understand how ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight can be integrated into your ASP.NET websites in order to provide a cutting–edge user interface for your applications and the implications that such interfaces can have.

Who is this book for?

This book is for anyone with an interest in using Microsoft’s latest web development technologies.

A basic familiarity with the .NET platform is useful, but anyone with an understanding of a web development language will benefit from the book, as all the key topics are presented from first principals.