Posts Tagged ‘silverlight’

Silverlight Introduction

This article will be very helpful for the beginners who want to know and start development on Silverlight projects, if you are already working on Silverlight you will find complete understanding of Silverlight Introduction. In this article I have started with definition of Silverlight, purpose of the Silverlight technology and different versions released so far. You will also see development tools required to work with Silverlight. End of this article you will get the complete introduction of Silverlight.

What is Silverlight? Silverlight is the new Microsoft technology on web platform for Rich Internet Applications (RIA) launched by Microsoft in 2007.Silverlight supports multiple browsers called cross-browser technology, which includes Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari, opera etc…Silverlight supports multiple Operating Systems called cross-platform technology, which includes Windows family of OS, Mac, and Linux with moonlight technology (Moonlight is an open source implementation of Silverlight, primarily for Linux and other Unix/X11 based operating systems).Silverlight is also supports multiple devices called cross-device technology, which include mobile devices to desktop browsers to 720p HDTV video modes etc…

Silverlight is a browser plug-in approximately 4MB in size, it is client side free software for easy and fast less than 10 sec one time installation available for any client side browsers.Silverlight supports the display of high-definition video files, and sending them over the Net. Silverlight applications are delivered to a browser in a text-based markup language called XAML. XAML is a declarative markup language that you can use to define the UI elements for your Silverlight-based application.Silverlight is considered as a competitor to Adobe’s flash technology.One of the design goals of the Silverlight technology is to fill the gap between windows application and web application in terms of creating Graphical User Interface (GUI). So far web developers were not able to make client happy in terms of UI, but now web developer will be able to full fill this with the help of Silverlight technology. Why Silverlight?

Here is the list of advantage why we should go with Silverlight over the Flash and other technologies already available: Support of .NET framework – if you are already .NET developer it is easy to start programming on Silverlight.Support of Managed code – you can write programming in your favorite language which .NET CLR supports like C#,VB.NET, Dynamic languages(IronPython, IronRuby).Better development tools -Visual Studio 2010, Expression Blend.Large community- available lot of learning resource as compare to Flash technology.Integration with Enterprise based technologies like WPF, LINQ etc…Silverlight releases

Silverlight 1.0

This is the first release of Silverlight technology in 2007. There are lot of releases happened in initial stage of Silverlight technology, however later at end of the year 2007 final release of version 1.0 got released. Originally this release was called WPF/E, which stands for Windows Presentation Foundation/ Everywhere. This release consists of the core presentation framework, which is responsible for UI, interactivity and user input, basic UI controls, graphics and animation, media playback and DOM integration.

The Major drawback of this release is not supporting managed code, which means you can’t use .NET supported programming languages for manipulating GUI elements. This was managed by scripting programming languages like Java Script (Only interpretation no compilation), which is hard for non Java Script programmers.

Applications are written either completely in XAML or in a mix of XAML and JavaScript with DOM (Document Object Model) to manipulate the user interface. Since there is no managed code there is no compilation required only JavaScript is interpreted on the client (browser).

Silverlight application starts by invoking the Silverlight control from the HTML page, which then loads up a XAML file. The XAML file contains a Canvas object, which acts as placeholder for other elements. Silverlight provides various geometrical primitives like lines, ellipses and other shapes, to elements like text, images, and media etc.

Silverlight 2.0

After Silverlight 1.0 there are preview releases to fix bugs from initial release and improved performance issues then released Silverlight 2.0 in March 2008. We can consider this is the first release of the Silverlight for start application development because of lot limitations in Silverlight 1.0 and was not ready for developing applications efficiently. This is the exciting release to the developers, which supports managed code, living in the .NET world without managed code is very difficulty (actually not possible ). Silverlight 2.0 supports .NET programming languages like C#, VB.NET to write business logic or manipulate UI Elements at client side. Silverlight 2.0 is based on .NET Framework 3.5.

You can have a code behind file for every XAML (.xaml) file like ASP.NET (.aspx) pages to handle the business logic. It can be used to programmatically manipulate both the Silverlight application and the HTML page which hosts the Silverlight control. The XAML markup as well as the code, is compiled into .NET assemblies which are then compressed using ZIP and stored in a .xap file.

In this release Silverlight came up with own library, which is subset of .NET framework’s Base Class Library this included controls, components, support of web services and LINQ API features. It is also provides security, not to access Silverlight platform API from outside the world.

Features of Silverlight 2.0: Rich base class library: – This is a compatible subset of the full .NET Framework. It supports Collection, Reflection, Regular Expressions, String Handling, Data Access, LINQ etc…
Powerful built-in controls: – These include verity of controls :

o Extensible control base classes
o Common controls: Textbox, Checkbox, Radiobutton, TabControl, Slider, ScrollViewer, ProgressBar, Calendar etc…
ayout controls: Grid, StackPanel etc…
ata controls:DataGrid, etc..
Advanced skinning and templating support: – This makes it easy to customize the look and feel of an application.
  Deep zoom: – which allows users to zoom into, or out of, an image (or a collage of images), with smooth transitions, using the mouse wheel.
  Networking support:- Out-of-the-box support allows calling REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS and standard HTTP services, enabling users to create applications that easily integrate with existing back-end systems.
  Programming Languages:- including Visual Basic, C#, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby, making it easier for developers already familiar with one of these languages to repurpose their existing skill sets.
  Cross-platform and cross-browser support: – This includes support for Mac, Windows and Linux in Firefox, Safari and Windows Internet Explorer.
  Security: – Silverlight CoreCLR uses an attribute-based security model, as opposed to the Code Access Security (CAS) model of the desktop version of .NET Framework.

Silverlight 3

Silverlight version 3.0 was release in July 9, 2009, which is an extension to Silverlight 2.0 and mainly provides improvements in graphics capabilities, media management, application development areas (additional controls, enhanced binding support, and out-of-browser functionality), and integration in the designers’ Expression Blend 3 tools.

Features of Silverlight 3.0: Improved graphics capabilities to support a richer and more interactive user interface

-> Support for 3D graphics
-> Animation
-> Pixel Shaders
-> Theme application support
-> Enhanced control-skinning
-> Improved text rendering
-> Bitmap APIs
  Enhanced media management supporting high-quality and secured multimedia streaming

-> Support for new media formats
-> IIS Media Services-> Silverlight DRM for media streaming
  Empowers developers to develop data-rich and media-rich interactive RIAs.

-> New networking APIs (new offline APIs Out-of-Browser functionality )
-> Silverlight 3 SDK
-> New FormsXAML controls
-> New DataManipulationXAML controls
-> New ContentXAML controls
-> Other user interface framework improvements
-> Search Engine Optimization (SEO)Silverlight 4.0

Silverlight version 4.0 beta was release on November 18, 2009, at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft Corp.

Features of Silverlight 4.0 beta:

Development tools Visual Studio 2008 SP1: – Visual Studio provides productivity tools for developing applications using managed code. All the existing features of Visual Studio are available for Silverlight. In addition, this version of Visual Studio includes Silverlight-specific features, including IntelliSense, debugging, and Silverlight project templates that create and link all required files. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=FBEE1648-7106-44A7-9649-6D9F6D58056E&displaylang=en
  Microsoft Expression Blend: -This tool can be used to create and modify the presentation layer of an application by manipulating the XAML canvas and controls, working with graphics, and programming the presentation layer with a dynamic language such as JavaScript. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e82db5e2-7106-419e-80b0-65cce89f06bb&displaylang=en
  Install Deep Zoom Composer: – This tool allows you to prepare your images for use with the Deep Zoom feature in Silverlight 3. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=457b17b7-52bf-4bda-87a3-fa8a4673f8bf
  Download Silverlight Toolkit: -This Toolkit is a Microsoft project containing Silverlight controls, components and utilities that can be downloaded and used in your Silverlight applications. It includes full source code, samples and tests. http://silverlight.codeplex.com/releases/view/36060
  Download .NET RIA Services: – Microsoft .NET RIA Services simplifies the traditional n-tier application pattern by bringing together the ASP.NET and Silverlight platforms. The RIA Services provides a pattern to write application logic that runs on the mid-tier and controls access to data for queries, changes and custom operations. http://silverlight.net/getstarted/riaservices/Silverlight vs. Flash

Adobe Flash is the most popular competitor to Silverlight both supports browser plug-in and enables execution of rich content for the Web. Flash is not the new technology, which is already having long life span as compared to Silverlight. But it does not have huge community as expected; it may be cause of limited development tools, which are not kwon to most of the developers. Flash uses ActionScript as programming language and Flex as programming environment, which most of the developer are far from these technologies.

For ASP.NET developers to extend their websites using flash content is not so simples, they need to learning development environment as mentioned above like ActionScript and Flex, apart from that there is no way to generate Flash content using server-side .NET code, which means it’s difficult to integrate ASP.NET content and Flash content.

Silverlight aims to give .NET developers a better option for creating rich web content. Silverlight provides a browser plug-in with many similar features to Flash, but one that’s designed from the ground up for .NET. Silverlight natively supports the C# language and uses a range of .NET concepts. As a result, developers can write client-side code for Silverlight in the same language they use for server-side code (such as C# and VB), and use many of the same abstractions (including streams, controls, collections, generics, and LINQ).
  S.No.

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Learnxpress introduces ImageGear for Silverlight

ImageGear for Silverlight v17 is the most advanced way to create, control, and deliver more secure, high-quality imaging applications. Using ImageGear, you can easily add powerful imaging capability to your applications. ImageGear supports all of the most commonly used graphics file formats and many more, providing complete compatibility when developing Silverlight solutions.

Accusoft ImageGear for Silverlight demo is running in the cloud! It shows how you can build a rich viewing interface that’s highly portable, displays many image types, including PDF, TIFF, and JPEG2000, and supports annotations. All running on the brand new Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform.

• Two new WPF and Silverlight annotations, especially valuable for medical image viewing: Protractor & Ruler
• Reduce memory usage while printing high resolution images

These Release Notes provide basic information about ImageGear to get you started quickly and direct you to any other resources you may need.  For the latest release notes and other ImageGear documentation, go to http://www.accusoft.com/documentation.htm.

The ImageGear for Silverlight documentation provides detailed information about all of the features. The following ImageGear for Silverlight Namespaces are available:

ImageGear.Core

ImageGear.ART

ImageGear.ART.Windows.Controls

ImageGear.Display

ImageGear.Formats

ImageGear.Formats.DICOM

ImageGear.Formats.EXIF

ImageGear.Formats.IPTC

ImageGear.Formats.JPG

ImageGear.Formats.TIF

ImageGear.Formats.XMP Namespaces

ImageGear.Processing

ImageGear.Processing.ImageClean

ImageGear.Processing.Layers

ImageGear.Silverlight.UI

ImageGear.Windows.Controls

Visit http://www.accusoft.com/resourcecenter/documentation/ImageGear-Silverlight/v17.1/ReleaseNotes/index.htm for more information.

Facebook with Microsoft Silverlight

Microsoft has created a sample client application for facebook. Developed using Silverlight 4 Beta, it has a great user interface and inherits all the core features of facebook into your desktop.

Read more…

Nevron .NET Vision 2010 Released

Nevron Software, the global leader in component based data visualization technology, announces the official release of Nevron .NET Vision 2010 Vol.1. Among the many new features and improvements, the release adds vector export capabilities to PDF, Flash, Silverlight (XAML) and EMF formats.

Together with the already supported SVG vector export, the components in the new Nevron .NET Vision suite are now uniquely positioned to offer support for both Rich Internet Applications (RIA) and printed media support inside a single and consistent API. This makes it possible to create complex BI dashboards, SCADA interfaces, workflows, org charts etc. that would meet the diverse media requirements of today’s enterprises.

The leading .NET charting component has also been extended to provide built-in support for the visualization of large data sets. Embedded in the component are advanced multithreaded clustering and sampling algorithms, which allow you to visualize datasets with hundreds of thousands of data points.  The leading .NET diagramming framework now automatically leverages the power of multi-core processors, by using multiple threads to perform complex layouts faster. WinForm controls embedding is a new exciting feature, which makes it possible to create complex interfaces that blend diagrams with existing WinForm controls.
All components in the suite are now fully localizable.

"This major release strengthens the unique position of the Nevron .NET Vision suite on the data visualization market, by allowing enterprises to consolidate their dashboards and diagram development efforts around a single .NET solution that empowers them to consistently generate content for the diverse world of RIA and printable vector formats." says Ivo Milanov, CTO of Nevron Software LLC. "Together with the new multithreading improvements, advanced sampling and clustering and the fast adoption of our Reporting Services and SharePoint product lines, today Nevron is one of the few companies that provide enterprise-grade data-visualization solutions for both developers and IT professionals alike."

For more details on the latest release, take a look at: What’s New in Nevron .NET Vision 2010 Vol.1

Download a fully-functional free evaluation today: http://www.nevron.com

About Nevron Software

Nevron Software is a global leader in component based data visualization technology for a diverse range of Microsoft centric platforms. Built with perfection, usability and enterprise level features in mind, our components deliver advanced digital dashboards and diagrams that are not to be matched. Today Nevron components are used by many Fortune 500 companies and thousands of developers and IT professionals worldwide. Designed by professionals for professionals, Nevron Data Visualization technology delivers rich functionality with exceptional features to your Presentation, Scientific, Financial and Business Intelligence applications.

Introducing Silverdraw

A kerala based techie has creaed a micro blogging site code named Silverdraw (http://silverdraw.com) based on Silverlight and WCF Polling Duplex. According to Anoop Madhusudanan, the creator of the platform, Silverdraw is realtime white board that can sync information between various participants, using Silverlight + WCF Polling Duplex. Presently this is a just a POC implementation. Users can draw together in the white board, and may chat each other.

You will find more details regarding the project at http://amazedsaint.blogspot.com/2009/11/silverlight-wcf-duplex-services.html. The source code for the project is available for download at http://silverdraw.codeplex.com/

Screenshots

The creator has published an article at CodeProject which can be viewed at http://www.codeproject.com/KB/silverlight/silverdraw.aspx

Keywords: silverlight, microsoft, aspnet, anoop, codeproject

Silverlight in Action

Silverlight is the latest framework developed by Microsoft for building robust visually appealing web applications. Many developers are currently in the process of learning the concepts of Silverlight and hence there is a requirement for a good resource material. Even though the web is scattered with plenty of articles and tutorials, there is no substitute for traditional books. Manning Publications Silverlight in Action by Chad A. Campbell and John Stockton (http://www.manning.com/campbell/) provides a comprehensive coverage of Silverlight with the help of detailed explanation, code samples and screenshots.

Chapter 1 provides a nice introduction to Silverlight including the role of developer and designer during the development stage. This chapter also includes a short overview of XAML. Chapter 2 examines the creation and integration of a Silverlight plug-in and also provides a short coverage of Silverlight Application Model and HTML DOM. Chapter 3 examines the layout related aspects such as StackPanel, power grid, display of text, UIEelement and FrameworkElement.

While chapter 4 enables you to interact with users with controls such as Button, Date, chapter 5 provides a detailed coverage of binding data into Silverlight applications with reference to DataGrid and Language Integrated Query (LINQ). Chapter 6 helps you to create Silverlight applications powered with networking functionality. Silverlight is primarily designed to build applications with stunning videos and graphics and chapter 7 examines the related concepts with the help of a mini project. The author demonstrates the application of audios, videos and images in a Silverlight project along with relevant methods and properties in tabular format with associated description.

The next two chapters lay emphasis on graphics and animation such as brushes, transforms, storyboarding and key framing including a short coverage of the usage of Expression Blend. While chapter 10 examines the creation of templates, usage of visual states, VisualStateManager, Chapter 11 provides a detailed analysis of using XAML at runtime, BackgroundWorker and Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR). The final chapter examines the creation of a user control including the usage of a custom splash screen and also provides the required guidelines to host a Silverlight application in a live web server.

The book provides detailed explanation for each concept in an easy to understand manner for the benefit of both beginners and advanced developers. The authors deserve special credit as they have given a screenshot of the final output just above the code snippet in certain chapters. Moreover, the code snippets are marked in relevant places of the analysis which I hope will help readers to understand the techniques very easily.

The complete source code along with two sample chapters is available for download at http://www.manning.com/campbell/. The publisher also maintains a dedicated forum (http://www.manning-sandbox.com/forum.jspa?forumID=369) where you can post queries to the authors. From my point of view, the book will be highly useful for advanced developers but beginners will also find it useful to some extent.

Silverlight in Action is an excellent companion for seasoned .NET buddies

Anand Narayanaswamy, Technical Author/Editor and Microsoft MVP, Learnxpress.com