Discover, Master, InfluenceSlide 1 Introducing Silverlight Paul Stovell Alpha Ape, Lead Code Monkey, Readify.

Discover, Master, Influence Slide 1

Introducing SilverlightPaul Stovell

Alpha Ape, Lead Code Monkey, Readify


Discover, Master, Influence

Was that a flash?

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No, it was just a silver light...

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Should WPF be gold heavy?

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What is Silverlight?

Silverlight is WPF!• With less features• Lives in your web browser• Cross platform• Cross browser• Has a nice installer – it’s a 4 MB download

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Two releases:• Silverlight 1.0– You still have to use JavaScript– Not as many features– Good for video

• Silverlight 2.0 (still in Beta 2)– You can use C# or VB.NET– You get lots of the .NET Framework– More features– Also does video

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WPF XBAP’s vs. Silverlight• XBAPs are WPF applications

– That live in a browser– That are sandboxed– That can do anything WPF can do– That require the full .NET Framework– That aren’t cross-platform, and only work in IE and Firefox

• Silverlight– Also lives in a browser

• But can interact with the HTML– Also has a sandbox– Doesn’t have access to the full .NET Framework– Has a much larger marketing team

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Synergy versus Compatibility

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Developing with Silverlight 2.0

(beta 2)

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Developing with Silverlight

Agenda:• Layout• Styles and resources• Animation• Video and media• Binding• Web Services• HTML Interop

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Getting started - prerequisites1. Install the Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008

(silverlight_chainer.exe – 84 MB)2. Install Blend (2.5, June preview – 33 MB)

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Layout – what’s the same?• Panels: Grid, Canvas, StackPanel• Margins• Width, Height, Min/Max

Layout – what’s different?• Missing UniformGrid, DockPanel and WrapPanel

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Styles and Resources – what’s the same?• Styles, templates, App.xaml

Styles and Resources – what’s different?• No event, property or data triggers• Invented “states” instead• Resources can’t be merged into App.xaml• No style inheritance (BasedOn=)• “Write-once”

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Animation– what’s the same?• Grid, Canvas

Animation – what’s different?• Nothing

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Video and media – what’s the same?• Most primitives (brushes, pens, etc. same)• <MediaElement /> element for embedding video

Video and media – what’s different?• No DrawingBrush or VisualBrush• No BitmapEffects (blur, drop shadow, etc.)• No layout transform

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Binding – what’s the same?• Binding extension• DataContext• DataTemplates (though TargetType not supported)

Binding – what’s different?• No data triggers• No IDataErrorInfo• No element binding• No type descriptors

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Web Services• HttpWebRequest/WCF clients – HTTP and HTTPS only

– Cross-domain calls allowed via CrossDomain.xml– Add Service Reference

• Sockets– TCP stream sockets only– Cross domain in beta 2

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HTML Interop• System.Windows.Browser• HtmlPage.Document.GetElementById(...)• HtmlPage.RegisterScriptableObject(...)• [ScriptableMember]

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Sandbox considerations• Policy-based cross-domain calls (crossdomain.xml)• File I/O limited to isolated storage and

OpenFileDialog• No private reflection• No native method calls• No full-trust option

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Extra services• Deep Zoom• Live Silverlight Streaming services

http://dev.live.com/silverlight/

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Summary

Silverlight:– Lets you write .NET code in the browser– Lets you write .NET code in the browser– Lets you build richer user experiences than possible

in HTML– Aims for synergy, not binary compatibility– Has a way cooler icon than WPF

Remains to be seen: Will it reach Flash adoption levels?

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A Readify Developer Network sessionBy Paul Stovell, Senior Developer, Readify

Email Address: [email protected] Website: www.readify.net/rdn

Discover, Master, InfluenceSlide 1 Introducing Silverlight Paul Stovell Alpha Ape, Lead Code Monkey, Readify.

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