templates in silverlight

Templates are used to help when you want to skin and reuse controls. A ControlTemplate is defined in XAML as a resource so that your control can style itself based on that template. For instance, I needed a tab-type control in beta 1, and since there wasn't a tab control yet, I used a template to make radio buttons look like tabs. All I had to do was write some XAML to make it look the way I wanted, and Silverlight handled the rest because internally, since they were radio buttons, I still had access to all of the methods and events that radio buttons get. If I clicked on one tab, the others would automatically become disabled, and so forth.

DataTemplate/ItemTemplate is very useful for controls that access data, like DataGrid or ListBox. Inside your control (lets say ListBox) you would create an ItemTemplate and define how you want things to look for one item. You could databind an image URI to an Image control, a name field to a TextBlock, and add a "Delete" button all at once, and then Silverlight will use that template for as many items that get bound to that list.

For a great example of the DataTemplate/ItemTemplate see ScottGu's Digg example (http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/02/22/first-look-at-silverlight-2.aspx). It was made for beta 1, though, so it may not build anymore with beta 2 but at least his tutorial and code will go a long way. For great info on styling controls, see Karen Corby's blog. Start here (http://scorbs.com/2008/06/11/parts-states-model-with-visualstatemanager-part-1-of/) if you like.

thankyou I  will look over what you said

I am not understanding how to use contentControl or why you need it. Why have it?

You can display data styled is that the idea?

 It is hard finding a simple example  on this but can someone give me a small code snipper to see it working in .net?

i guess if  i was to build my own controls then i see a use but your right , I mean why bother having this control in silverlight?