Silverlight 4 Training Kit as Windows Media Player Playlist

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5/6/2010

I did something I would like to share and figure this is the best way to do it. I took an email regarding the Silverlight 4 Training Kit and used it to download the local version of the kit. I found out quickly that the links to the videos in the kit still use web-based targets for the video file, so basically the kit wraps everything into one bundle EXCEPT for the actual videos, which are served out by Channel 9.

So here is what I did… I took the kit and wrote a small utility that pulled all the video.xml files out of the kit and parsed each one to get the valid URL for the relative video file. I then took that data and dynamically constructed a Windows Media Player WPL Playlist file which is simply a continuously playing list of the video files in the correct order. This way I can start at the beginning and watch it continuously without having to manually navigate to each file as I need it.

Anyway, here is the playlist file, for anyone interested. I think this is something people will find highly valuable as I did. The descriptive content in the kit is nice and all, but a little tedious for those who just want to work their way through it. Just thought I would share. This way people can have one item (the playlist) to track, and additionally, the playlist is very easy to distribute and launch by either dropping it in the playlist folder ([%userprofile%]\music\playlists) to be picked up by Windows Media Player or simply double clicked to play it. Also works on Windows Media Player 9 and above, which about 99% of people have by now so it is virtually universal.

Content of the playlist file is as follows:

<?wpl version="1.0"?>
<smil>
    <head>
        <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Windows Media Player -- 12.0.7600.16415"/>
        <meta name="ItemCount" content="2"/>
        <author/>
        <title>Silverlight 4 Training Kit</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <seq>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule1-SL4LOB_01_01_Introduction/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule1-SL4LOB_01_01_Introduction_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule2-SL4LOB_02_01_RIAServices/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule2-SL4LOB_02_01_RIAServices_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule2-SL4LOB_02_02_EditingEntities/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule2-SL4LOB_02_02_EditingEntities_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule2-SL4LOB_02_03_ShowingEvents/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule2-SL4LOB_02_03_ShowingEvents_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule3-SL4LOB_03_01_Authentication/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule3-SL4LOB_03_01_Authentication_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule3-SL4LOB_03_02_MVVM/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule3-SL4LOB_03_02_MVVM_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule3-SL4LOB_03_03_Validation/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule3-SL4LOB_03_03_Validation_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule3-SL4LOB_03_04_ImplicitStyles/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule3-SL4LOB_03_04_ImplicitStyles_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule3-SL4LOB_03_05_RichTextBox/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule3-SL4LOB_03_05_RichTextBox_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule4-SL4LOB_04_01_Webcam/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule4-SL4LOB_04_01_Webcam_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule4-SL4LOB_04_02_Drop/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule4-SL4LOB_04_02_Drop_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule5-SL4LOB_05_01_Grouping/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule5-SL4LOB_05_01_Grouping_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule5-SL4LOB_05_02_FluidUI/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule5-SL4LOB_05_02_FluidUI_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule5-SL4LOB_05_03_RightMouseClick/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule5-SL4LOB_05_03_RightMouseClick_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule6-SL4LOB_06_01_Printing/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule6-SL4LOB_06_01_Printing_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule6-SL4LOB_06_02_MultipagePrinting/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule6-SL4LOB_06_02_MultipagePrinting_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule7-SL4LOB_07_01_OOB/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule7-SL4LOB_07_01_OOB_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule7-SL4LOB_07_02_Toasts/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule7-SL4LOB_07_02_Toasts_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule7-SL4LOB_07_03_WindowPlacement/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule7-SL4LOB_07_03_WindowPlacement_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule7-SL4LOB_07_04_ElevatedTrust/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule7-SL4LOB_07_04_ElevatedTrust_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule8-SL4LOB_08_01_CustomChrome/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule8-SL4LOB_08_01_CustomChrome_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule8-SL4LOB_08_02_WindowClosingEvent/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule8-SL4LOB_08_02_WindowClosingEvent_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule8-SL4LOB_08_03_OOBSilentInstall/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule8-SL4LOB_08_03_OOBSilentInstall_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule8-SL4LOB_08_04_XapSigning/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule8-SL4LOB_08_04_XapSigning_kit.wmv"/>
            <media src="http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/videos/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule8-SL4LOB_08_05_MEF/Silverlight4-SL4BusinessModule8-SL4LOB_08_05_MEF_kit.wmv"/>
        </seq>
    </body>
</smil>

Posted at 10:28 AM by Philly XAML | Category: Best Practices; Tips & Tricks | Permalink | Comments (0)

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