Getting Started with Silverlight: Part I.

Development tools

Of course, you need only one document editor and one compiler for any development. But you have no reason not to use world-class development tools. So I'm going to recommend a development tool here that allows you to build Silverlight applications more quickly and easily. Note that these are not necessary (repeat, if you are a fever-level developer, then you only need a notepad and a compiler:-)). Although they are not all free, I strongly recommend them, not just because I work for Microsoft, but because I really think they are the best development tools in the world.

Visual Studio 2008

You have to make sure you have Visual Studio 2008 and you need to install the SP1 patch before installing the Silverlight tool, so make sure you've done the work. Any version of the SP1 patch is OK. If you don't have Visual Studio 2008, you can use the free Express version of Visual Web Developer Express 2008来 to develop Silverlight. If you need to do database development at the same time, you can also get the SQL Server 2008 Express Edition for free.

Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio

Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio

Additional downloads are required, including the SDK, the development runtime (for debugging), and some tools for Visual Studio (project templates, XAML builder, and so on). Simply installing this package will allow you to meet all the conditions necessary to develop Silverlight.

You can download Visual Studio and Silverlight Tools separately. If you already have vs, just download the Silverlight tools and install it. If you haven't yet vs, consider using the Network Platform Installation tool (Web Platform Installer) to install tools such as Visual Studio, SQL Server Express, and Silverlight tools without looking for download links everywhere. You can get the Network Platform installation tool here:

If you already have visual Studio installed, you can still install Silverlight tools through the Network Platform Installation tool, or click here to download it directly.

Expression Blend

Expression Blend is an interactive development tool. It is a visual editor for XAML, which is the underlying representation technology of Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Not only does the design look good, but it also makes it easy to control layouts, animations, styles, and templates. I believe it is an essential tool for XAML development. However, there is no free version of this tool unless you are an MSDN Subscriber. It is also included in Expression Studio. You can download the trial version here. We will use blend to lay out the next step.

Silverlight Toolkit

The Silverlight Toolkit is an expansion pack outside of the core control set. Includes chart controls, date/Time controls, accordion controls (mutually exclusive cascading menus), and more. Best of all, the source code of these controls (also including the core controls) can facilitate your learning and expansion!

The control package can be downloaded from the CodePlex, and we will also use some of these controls in this series.

You can also use other control sets or tools, such as the. NET RIA Services that we'll talk about in the third section, but I recommend the most streamlined tools I think you need to develop Silverlight. Install them before you proceed to the second step of this tutorial.