Introduction to Silverlight
BiTWISE
June 24, 2011
About Angela Ward
• Independent consultant since mid-90s on
Microsoft platforms
• OODB, WinForms, XML, .NET
• Business Analyst, QA Test Lead
Presentation Overview
• What is Silverlight?
• How does it relate to other client-side
technologies?
• How important is it?
• Silverlight app development walk-through
What is Silverlight?
• One word definition: Flash
o Browser plug-in: cross-browser, cross-platform
o Use case today: Animated ads, Video
o Use case tomorrow: Applications (Flex)
o Benefits: Adds functionality + write-once-run-everywhere
• Why Silverlight not Flash?
• More words: Flash + .NET
• More words: WPF-subset + .NET-subset
This is a big deal
• Once-every-20-years event
• Existing client-side web technology has
reached the peak of its life-cycle
• Fresh start of a new client GUI technology
• Web is where the action is
o The network is the computer
Comparing client platforms
Desktop: Web:
Win16 HTML / CSS /
Win32 JavaScript / AJAX
WinForms
WPF Silverlight Flash /
Flex
Competing technologies
• Desktop based “smart clients”
o WPF on high end
3D, Hardware acceleration
o WinForms: (Mature, proven)
• Web-based:
o ASP.NET - HTML + CSS
o ASP.NET - HTML + CSS + AJAX
o Adobe Flash / Flex
• Desktop-web hybrid (?):
o Adobe AIR
Demo – Yahoo Finance Charts
Demo – Picnik.com Photo Editor
Feature Details
WPF / Silverlight – Positives:
• Vector based vs. pixel based
o Scalable – Looks good at multiple resolutions
• XAML – Similar to HTML
o Declarative
o Designers and programmers work in parallel
• Rich customization is possible in a well-
designed way
WPF - Negatives
• Windows only
• Requires 50 / 200 MB .NET 3.x runtime
• Steep learning curve
Early Versions of Silverlight
• 1.0
o RTM in Sept. 2007
o Code behind – JavaScript only
• 1.1 / 2.0
o Alpha introduced in Spring 2007.
o Beta at MIX08 in March 2008.
o RTM maybe Q3-2008.
o Code behind - .NET languages C#, etc.
o Partial .NET class library
Silverlight - Positives
• Lightweight at 4-6 MB, quick download
• .NET based
o Write in C# or VB.NET
o Use familiar class libraries
• Rich state-of-the-art GUI
o Vector based
o All types of content handled uniformly
• Secure - sandboxed
Silverlight - Negatives
• Not quite here yet
o “Pig in a poke”
• Sandboxing limits functionality
• Conflicting products within Microsoft?
Demo: Silverlight Airlines
Demo: MS Download Center
Demo: 3rd Party Control Vendor
Silverlight 5.0 Features:
• Won’t know details until August 2011
• Controls:
• Data:
• Communications:
Silverlight 2.0 Features:
• Controls:
o Extensible control base classes
o Common controls:
Textbox, Checkbox, Radiobutton, etc
TabControl, Slider, ScrollViewer, ProgressBar, etc
o Layout controls:
Grid, StackPanel
o Data controls:
DataGrid, etc
Silverlight 2.0 Features:
• Data:
o 2-way data binding
o More LINQ support: LINQ to XML
Silverlight 2.0 Features:
• Communications:
o REST, POX, RSS, and WS-* communication
o Cross domain network access
o Sockets
Feature Unknowns (?)
• Local client integration?
o Read and write local files?
o Read local mic and webcam?
• WCF?
• Depth of class libraries?
o Pay-for-play
Silverlight
Development
Walk-through
Silverlight Tools
• Expression Blend:
o GUI builder
o Graphic designers
• Visual Studio 2008/2010:
o Includes a more limited GUI builder
o Programmers
