MCTS on Silverlight 4

RobertKaucher

Just an FYI, there is going to be a beta for this coming soon:

https://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-506&Locale=en-us#tab2

Calling all Silverlight experts--Update your SME profile now! - Born to Learn - Born To Learn - Born to Learn

Anyone interested in SharePoint development might want to have this one uder their belt as well, especially since it's free if you catch the beta exam. I intend on taking it, although I have only been working with Silverlight for a few months now.

RobertKaucher

Even though I know the MS developer certification forum is even less active than the SQL Server forum (watchout for the tumbleweeds) I am going to post a resources list for this cert. I will be updating it as I find stuff.

General Tutorials
Silverlight Training Course (Silverlight 4) | Courses | Learn | Channel 9
MS Expression Blend Training

Lynda.com has a nice intro to Silverlight 3. Still very applicable.
Silverlight 3 Tutorials | Essential Training#
Silverlight 4 Intro to New Features and Controls

Mark Monster - Getting ready for Microsoft Silverlight Exam 70-506
No point in continuing to add my own links after finding this...
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7


Objectives
Laying Out a User Interface (15%)

Video : Using Silverlight Grids and Stack Panels - The Official Microsoft Silverlight Site

Using the GridSplitter control in Silverlight 2

Video : How To Use a GridSplitter - The Official Microsoft Silverlight Site

Explanations of Grid, Canvas, and StackPanel: SilverLight FAQ's - Part 3

Enhancing the User Interface (14%)

Module 8: Silverlight | SharePoint 2010 Training | MSDN

Usage of VisualStateManager to Define User Interface in Silverlight 3: ASP Alliance

Teaching An Old Control New Tricks With Templates | Jesse Liberty

Templates, Visual State and Fun With Controls | Jesse Liberty

Silverlight Tip of the Day #55 – How to Apply Styles in Silverlight – Part I

Implicit Styles in Silverlight 4

Silverlight Tutorial Part 7: Using Control Templates to Customize a Control's Look and Feel

Templating Controls

Applying Animations

Implementing Application Logic (16%)

Error Handling
Creating and Handling Faults in Silverlight
ICommand is Like a Chocolate Cake
5 Simple Steps to Commanding in Silverlight
Using ICommand - Silverlight 4
Dependency Properties Overview

Building a SilverLight Line-of-Business Application (Tutorial with business logic, data validation, and data services - covers lots of infor mostly from this and the following objectives)
> Building a Framework for Silverlight Line-Of-Business Applications
> Building a Silverlight Line-Of-Business Application ? Part 2
> Building a Silverlight Line-Of-Business Application ? Part 3
> Building a Silverlight Line-Of-Business Application ? Part 4
> Building a Silverlight Line-Of-Business Application ? Part 5
> Building a Silverlight Line-Of-Business Application ? Part 6

Working with Data (17%)
WCF RIA Services
WCF Duplex Communication
Entity Framework
WCF Troubleshooting and Exceptions
How to use a DesignInstance to populate controls with design time data in Silverlight and WPF
MVVM, design time data, and Blendability



Interacting with a Host Platform (11%)
Trusted Applications

Tip of the Day #111 – How to Configure your Silverlight App to run in Elevated Trust Mode

Stepping Outside the Browser with Microsoft Silverlight 4

Silverlight 4 elevated permissions

Silverlight Tip of the Day #19: Using Isolated Storage - Silverlight Tips of the Day - Blog by Mike Snow

Local file access - Silverlight 4
Communicating between JavaScript & Silverlight
Calling JavaScript functions from Silverlight 2

Structuring Applications (13%)
MVVM - This is the best tutorial I have seen on this topic. While this is a little out of the scope of this certification I still think it's important. This also touches on Commanding, which you should know for this cert. The tutorial is for WPF but is directly applicable to Silverlight.
Video: http://blog.lab49.com/archives/2650
Source: http://blog.lab49.com/archives/2689
Edit - 12/21/2010 I learned more from transforming this into a Silverlight app than I did from nearly any other resource on this page.

Events Overview in Silverlight

Deploying Applications (13%)

apena7

I just stumbled on this post while researching Silverlight examples on this board. I don't have any experience with it, but the out-of-browser functionality of Silverlight 4 caught my attention and made me interested in learning it. For example, I like to query the free space of several hard drives with PowerShell, but if I can do the same thing with Silverlight and display the information graphically (and refreshing the information every so often), then that would be awesome. I'll definitely check out those links you posted. Thanks!

RobertKaucher

Yes, and if you get the controls in the Silverlight toolkit, you can do some graphs with it as well. You can pretty much do anything in Silverlight that can be done in .NET.

earweed

Just got the invite for the Beta. I MIGHT just study for and take it just to have something meaningful on the old Resume.
Do you have this link up there
Download details: Silverlight 4 Training

RobertKaucher

earweed wrote: »

Just got the invite for the Beta. I MIGHT just study for and take it just to have something meaningful on the old Resume.
Do you have this link up there
Download details: Silverlight 4 Training

That's on the Channel 9 link I have at the top.

I just added a Blend training link that looks good. Lots of related info. I think those top 3 along with this book:
Amazon.com: Silverlight 4 User Interface Cookbook (9781847198860): Vibor Cipan: Books
Would be enough to pass... I should say I hope they are.

Edit: They will not be!

RobertKaucher

Made a few updates. Added some links to a 5 part tutorial on LoB apps. Very good stuff.

RobertKaucher

I'll be taking the beta on Saturday. I don't feel very well prepared. Most of my sources were paid:
Lynda.com's Videos on Silverlight 3 and 4
Amazon.com: Professional Silverlight 4 (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) (9780470650929): Jason Beres, Bill Evjen, Devin Rader: Books: Reviews, Prices & more
Amazon.com: Silverlight 4 Business Intelligence Software (9781430230601): Bart Czernicki: Books: Reviews, Prices & more
Amazon.com: Microsoft Silverlight 4 Data and Services Cookbook (9781847199843): Gill Cleeren, Kevin Dockx: Books: Reviews, Prices & more
Amazon.com: Microsoft Silverlight 4 and SharePoint 2010 Integration (9781849680066): Gastón C Hillar: Books: Reviews, Prices & more

Examples from the SIlverlight COmmunity site were also huge. I'll post my thoughts ont he test, but I think I will need to do a retake.

RobertKaucher

I am pretty sure I failed. I just had too much of a general knowledge of the exam objectives. But it was a good experience and I actually learned some new stuff from the exam. So I will certainly take it when it goes live. This should also put me in the propper range of suggested work experience (6 months) instead of my actual which is really only 3.

I wanted to mention, though, that even with my limited skill I could easily narrow most of the answers down to two and that the correct answer might have been easy to a person with a year of experience working with SL 3 who had brushed up on the new features of SL4.

RobertKaucher

This exam is now live.

Now available! 70-506: TS: Silverlight 4, Development - Born to Learn - Born To Learn - Born to Learn

RobertKaucher

Failed - as expected. Dang....

Devilsbane

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Failed - as expected. Dang....

If it makes you feel better, I'd probably get a negative score if I took it.

RobertKaucher

No, because now I guess I am going to take it again. Guess I will have to make sure I use second shot. I'm thinking 3 weeks for prep. But that deppends on some side jobs I might be doing.

Xcluziv

This seems to be something I'd be interested in persuing. I know I was creating a couple of SilverLight apps for the first time and it seems pretty cool.

RobertKaucher

Xcluziv wrote: »

This seems to be something I'd be interested in persuing. I know I was creating a couple of SilverLight apps for the first time and it seems pretty cool.

I would love to take it again. But I want work to pay...

I am not too sure of the value it would bring on my resume.