MICROSOFT

SILVERLIGHT

Anshul Gupta
PRESENTATION
OVERVIEW
 What is silverlight?
o How does it relate to other client-side technologies? How important is
it?
 What can it do?
o Feature details and demos
 Silverlight app development walk-walkthrough.
 Expression Blend, Visual Studio 2010
WHAT IS SILVERLIGHT?
 Retained Mode graphics system similar to Windows Presentation
Foundation
o Browser Plugin: Cross-browser, cross-platform
o  Video, vector graphics, and animations
o Benefits:-
o Silverlight offers cross-domain support for applications

o Silverlight plugin is just a 1MB download and is supported in

windows XP and above.

o Silverlight also has a browser plugin but still needs to reach at pace

with flash.
o supports asynchronous calls
VERSIONS
 Version1
 Released in 2007
 Consists of the core presentation framework, which is responsible for
the user interface (UI), interactivity and user input, basic UI controls,
graphics and animation, media playback, Digital rights management
 (DRM), and DOM integration
  It is made up of the following components:
 Input—handling input from devices like keyboard, mouse, stylus etc.

 UI core—managing rendering of bitmap images (including

compressed raster images like Joint Photographic Experts Group

(JPEG)), vector graphics, text and animations
 Media—playback of MP3, WMA Standard, WMV7, WMV8 and

WMV9/VC-1 streams.
 XAML—to allow the UI layout to be created using XAML markup

language.
 Version2
 .NET based
 Write in C# or VB.NET
 Use familiar class libraries
 Rich state-of-the-art GUI
 Vector based
 All types of content handled uniformly

 Secure - sandboxed
 Version 3
 Announced on September 12, 2008 at September 12, 2008.
  It was unveiled at MIX09 in Las Vegas on March 18, 2009. A beta
version was made available for download the same day.
 The final
 Version was released July 9, 2009.
 It supports Out-of-Browser experiences
 On media front:-
 Advance Audio Decoding(AAC),  H.264 video decoding,

 1080p smooth streaming, perspective 3D.

 Version 4
 Beta version of Silverlight 4 on November 18, 2009.
 Final version was released on April 15, 2010.
 Update to Silverlight (4.0.50524.0) was released on 3 June 2010
 Features:-
 Support for Google's Chrome browser.

 Web cam and microphone support.

 Printing support.

 Improved mouse support including right button support and mouse

wheel support.
 New notification support to display messages to end users.

 New and enhanced controls such as a Rich Text Box and an

enhanced Data Grid Control.

 Enhanced animation effects.

 Clipboard and drag and drop support.

 Deep Zoom performance enhancements.

 Additionally, the following features are provided to out-of-browser
(locally installed) Silverlight applications that have been explicitly
granted "trusted" status:
 Full keyboard access while running in full screen mode.

 Programmatic access to a user's local document folder.

 Support for local Component Object Model (COM) objects.

 Version 5
 Beta was announced on December 2, 2010.
 Final release is planned for the end of 2011.
 Features:-
 Supports GPU accelerated video decoding.

 Built in 3D graphics support (not to be confused with stereoscopic

3D).
 Variable speed playback of media content with automatic audio pitch

correction.
 Improved power awareness.

 Built in Remote-control support.

 Supports faster application startup.

 Provides 64-bit browser support.

 Automated UI testing support for applications with Visual Studio

2010.
 Delivers improved text clarity.

 Developers can now debug data-binding expressions, set breakpoints

on bindings.
VISITING THE SILVERLIGHT GALLERY IN
FLASH
ALBUM VIEWER APPLICATION NOW
RUNS WITH SILVERLIGHT AND
ASP.NET AJAX
COMPETING
TECHNOLOGIES
 Web-based:
 Adobe Flash / Flex
 “Ajax”: HTML + CSS + JavaScript
 Desktop based “smart clients”
 WPF on high end
 3D, Hardware acceleration

 Win Forms: (Mature, proven)

 Desktop-web hybrid (?):
 Adobe AIR
SILVERLIGHT AND WPF: DIFFERENCES
 WPF:
 Windows only
 Requires 50 / 200 MB .NET 3.x runtime
 Steeper learning curve
 Silverlight:
 Cross OS, cross browser
 Small download (approx. 4 to 5 MB)
 Reduced feature set
 Sandboxed – Secure but limiting
HOW IMPORTANT IS SILVERLIGHT?
 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
 The network is the computer
WHAT CAN SILVERLIGHT
DO?

FEATURE DETAILS
SILVERLIGHT FEATURE
 IIS smooth Streaming
 Out of browser
 Sketch Flow
 Deep zoom
 Pivot viewer
 New controls
 Media Format Extensibility
 Perspective 3D Graphics
 Skinning and styling
GUI SYSTEM FEATURES
 WPF subset
 Vector based vs. pixel based
 Scalable – Looks good at multiple resolutions
 Dynamic layouts
 XAML – Similar to HTML
 Declarative
 Designers and programmers work in parallel
 Rich customization is easier
 “Lookless” controls
 Styles and templating
NON-GUI FEATURES
 More then just “eye-candy”
 Open File Dialog
 Threads
 Direct cross-domain access rather than proxied by your server.
FEATURES IN ACTION:

DEMOS
DEMOS: SHOWCASE
DEMO: DEEP ZOOM
DEMO: HOME SHOPPING
NETWORK
DEMO: SILVERLIGHT AIRLINES
 SILVERLIGHT
DEVELOPMENT
WALK-THROUGH
SILVERLIGHT TOOLS
 Expression Blend:
 For graphic designers
 GUI builder

 Visual Studio 2010:

 For programmers
 Includes a more limited GUI builder
SILVERLIGHT INTRO
TUTORIALS
SCOTT GU'S SL2 DIG CLIENT
THANK YOU