Tutorials SilverlightThe release of Silverlight 2 also introduced a collection of controls which are built in, and these controls allow developers as well as designers to rapidly construct applications. Form controls which are included with Silverlight are RadioButton and CheckBox, and it also features management panels which are built in such as StackPanel.
Another important tool which can be found in Silverlight are the functionality controls, and good examples of these include Calendar, Slider, and the ScrollViewer. The ability for developers and designers to manipulate data is a must, so Microsoft has included controls such as ListBox and DataGrid to be used for this purpose.
The controls which are built into Silverlight allow for an intricate control templating structure, and this allows developers to work closely with designers to construct solutions which are well polished. Beta 2 also introduces Visual State Manager, a templating model that allows templating to be accomplished easier with the controls. Text wrapping and scrollbars are available for TextBox, and Autosize and Reorder has been added to the DataGrid. Instead of being packaged inside the application, the controls have now been placed within the runtime. Another important aspect of Silverlight is its support for networking.
The second release of Silverlight saw a dramatic increase in networking capability. Out of the box support is offered for POX, RSS, and SOAP, along with the basic HTTP services. It also allows for multiple domain network access, which means that the Silverlight clients can gain direct access to the data and resources which are available on the web. Built in sockets are also available for the support of networking.
The base class library for Silverlight is described as being very rich, and a large amount of functionality is offered within the library, and this includes XML, generics, threading, and globalization. It also involves enhanced APIs that allow the HTML DOM/JavaScript to be integrated with the .NET code. Support is offered for LINQ and regional data caching.
When it comes to .NET APIs within Silverlight, one thing that you should keep in mind is that they are compatible with the entire .NET framework. Beta 2 offers a number of advanced threading capabilities, and these include ADO.NET data services and SOAP.
The need for both data handling along with networking is critical, and Silverlight provides a great deal of support in this area. Despite this, one piece of technology which many find to be quite fascinating is Deep Zoom. This is a new technology available in Silverlight 2 Beta which gives users the ability to visualize images on the web in a manner that they have never done in the past.
The zooming and panning tool is based on high end technology from Microsoft, and raises the standard when it comes to how images should be viewed. For those who develop with Silverlight, the Deep Zoom image is basic since it can function like other images in Silverlight, and can be altered with basic Silverlight tools like Storyboards.
With the introduction of Beta 2, a fresh file format based on XML has been created which works with the Deep Zoom images, and it also functions with the MultiScaleTileSource which allows for the existing databases to make use of the Deep Zoom tool. Additionally, an enhanced event notification for the Zoom/pan tool has been added to Beta 2.
When many people first become familiar with Silverlight, one of the first questions they raise is in regards to the browsers it supports. Silverlight supports every major browser which is featured on the Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.
Microsoft has spent a great deal of time considering the difference which exist among the different platforms, and is designing Silverlight to cater to them. The most important goal for Silverlight is to ensure consistency among Internet Explorer, Firefox, and the other browsers it supports. Microsoft has also announced plans to extend Silverlight support on the Linux OS through a business deal with Novell.
When it comes to the distribution of Silverlight, one thing that developers and designers should keep in mind is that Microsoft has designed this tool for many potential applications. Therefore, internal clients of Microsoft along with global third parties can benefit through the use of this tool.
Some of the customers who use Silverlight include the NBA, BMW, and ET online, and with this large and prominent portfolio of customers, Silverlight usage is expected to be picked up and adopted by customers all over the world.
Because Silverlight is designed to offer high fidelity on numerous system configurations, many of its features such as HD video will require developers and designers to use newer computers. As of this writing, Microsoft has not yet released the exact system requirements which are necessary for seamlessly using this tool.
First Page: Microsoft Silver Light Technical Details
