Silverlight vs. HTML5

Here are some points to consider:

• HTML5 has not been developed enough yet – lots of features has been promised for Internet Explorer 10
• Silverlight offers some features that HTML5 does not offer or it is not as advanced as Silverlight such as:
  • Video streaming
  • Hardware-accelerated graphics
  • Deep networking support
  • File access
  • Out-of-browser applications
  • Ability to call windows system components
  • PivotViewer  control
  • Data binding
  • Templates
• Silverlight has tools that allow creating web applications easily. In addition, Expression Blend can be used to develop rich graphical effects
• Silverlight through web service allows easily access to database   

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What platforms Silverlight support?

Silverlight supports the following platforms:

• Windows – Internet Explorer 6 or later, Firefox 1.5 or later, and Google Chrome 4.0 or later
• MAC – safari 3 or later
• Linux – Currently Silverlight 5 does not work on Linux, but there is an open source named Moonlight that supports Silverlight 2
• Windows Phone – supports Windows Phone 7

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Silverlight vs. Flash

Here are advantages and disadvantages of Flash:

Advantages of Flash:

• Most successful plug-in adobe flash
• Is installed on over 90% of web browsers
• Flash has long history
• Flash is straightforward tool for adding animated graphics

Disadvantages of Flash:

• Flash requires separate design tool, programming language, and programming environment
• No straightforward way to integrate flash with server-side .net code

What Silverlight can offer compared to Flash:

Silverlight’s goal is to combine power and cross-platform support of Flash with .NET. Therefore, client-side code and server-side code is in the same language. Hence, for .NET developers Silverlight is more convenient and powerful for internet applications. However the clients’ need to download a onetime plug-in to be able to view Silverlight based websites.

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Expression Family

Expression Family:

• Expression Web – is a tool that allows users to create production-ready web sites. This tool allows you to integrate page designers and source code editors to construct web sites using, ASP.NET, AJAX, PHP, HTML/XHTML, etc. It also has a SuperPreview that tests websites across several web browsers.   
• Expression Encoder – is a tool that provides a platform to import, edit, and enhance video media in different formats such as AVI, WMV, WMA, QuickTime MOV, MPEG, VC-1, and H.264. It also allows you to create professional training video.
• Expression Design – is a tool that allows graphical artists to generate rich, vector-based graphics and save their work in different standard image formats and also in WPF or Silverlight XAML.
• Expression Blend – is a graphical design tool for XAML apps.

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Add a Page to Silverlight Application

Adding a page to Silverlight application requires these steps:

• In the Solution Explorer right click on View folder under Silverlight application

 

• From the right click menu select Add and then New Item option

• From Add New Item window, select Silverlight (from left hand side) then select Silverlight Page option. Name the page and click OK

 

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Installing Silverlight 5

The requirements for Silverlight 5 are Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 service pack. This link contains Visual Studio 2010 service pack installation: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/confirmation.aspx?id=23691

And the following link contains installation for Silverlight 5: http://www.silverlight.net/getting-started

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Creating a Web Application Integrating Silverlight and MVC

Silverlight and MVC have their own advantages. It is possible to create an application that contains both. I used the follow these steps to create such web application:

• Open Visual Studio 2010
• From File menu select New and Project option

• From New Project window, select Silverlight (from left hand side). Then select Silverlight Navigation Application. This window also allows you to select project’s Name and Location. Once you have selected the options click OK

• In the New Silverlight Application window, in section New Web project type drop down select ASP .NET MVC Web Project and select OK

 

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“Unable to start Debugging. The SilverLight Developer Runtime Not Installed. Please Install a matching version.”

I was getting this error “Unable to start Debugging. The SilverLight Developer Runtime Not Installed. Please Install a matching version.” when I tried running SilverLight applications. Then I tried to create a SilverLight project and still complaint that I do not have SilverLight installed. I found out that the SilverLight Developers is not automatically installed with Visual Studio 2010. To install SilverLight Developers please use this link http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=188039 Once I installed it, I was able to run and create SilverLight projects with no problem.

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