Silverlight development with Visual Studio 2008

Microsoft's Silverlight Browser plugin allows developers to run rich Internet programs (RIAs)-including animations, vector graphics and video playback, and more. See how to develop Silverlight and feel the new way of development!

After years of development, we have seen the prosperity of Web applications. Early Web sites only supported static HTML pages, pictures, and text messages. Then, server-side technology such as cgi,asp and JSP make the Web hard yo program become a reality, users can suddenly do a lot of things on the web, such as online purchase of goods, booking and so on. Client technologies such as JavaScript help improve the user's Web application experience and make them more responsive. Although AJAX-related technologies have matured for many years, it is in recent years that people have been spending a lot of time developing AJAX Web applications. All of this is for the same purpose-making Web applications more interactive and responsive.

Today, there is another term--ria, an acronym for rich Internet applications. For Microsoft, Ria actually represents rich Interactive applications. Microsoft has recently launched a related technology/product named Silverlight. Silverlight, formerly known as Windows Presentation Foundation/everywhere (wpf/e), is a browser plug-in that enables developers to create RIA programs including animations, vector graphics and video playback, and so on.

This article will help you understand the development of Silverlight and hope to give you a good explanation of Silverlight development.

Silverlight Status Quo

Currently, there are two versions of silverlight:1.0 (release) and 1.1 (alpha release), the main difference is whether or not to support. NET language version 1.1. For version 1.0, you must use JavaScript to write your program logic. In version 1.1, you can use C # or VB to develop program logic and run it through the CLR.

The Silverlight runtime currently supports the following browsers:

Internet Explorer 6/7

Firefox 1.5/2.0

Safari 2.0

This paper focuses on the content of Silverlight1.1.

Get Development tools

In order to develop Silverlight applications, you must obtain the following runtime/tool:

At run time:

To view the Silverlight application in the browser, download the following:

Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 Release Candidate

Mac

Windows

Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Refresh

Mac

Windows

Microsoft asp.net futures (July 2007)

The ASP.net futures download contains the latest ASP.net controls to support the Silverlight program.