Light up your website with SILVERLIGHT 2.0

Silverlight is a new Web presentation technology that is created to run on a variety of platforms. It enables the creation of rich, visually stunning and interactive experiences that can run everywhere: within browsers and on multiple devices and desktop operating systems (such as the Macintosh). In consistency with WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), the presentation technology in .NET Framework 3.0 (the Windows programming infrastructure), XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language) is the foundation of the Silverlight presentation capability. 

When Tim Berners-Lee at CERN invented the modern Web, it was intended as a system that allowed static documents to be stored and linked on a network-based system. Over the years, innovation grew, with the logical next step being "active" documents that are generated at the time they are requested with time-specific or user-specific information. Technologies such as CGI empowered this. Over time, the ability to generate documents on the Web became paramount, and the technology evolved through CGI, Java, ASP, and then ASP.NET.

ASP.NET provided a milestone in the ability for a developer to develop quality Web applications quickly using a server-development paradigm and best-of-breed tools from the Visual Studio line of products.

A great barrier in Web applications proved to be the user experience, where technical constraints prevented Web applications from delivering the same richness of user experience that a client application with local data would provide.

Silverlight enables us to create a state-of-the-art application that has the following features:  

1. It is a cross-browser, cross-platform technology. It runs in all popular Web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari, and on Windows and Mac OS X.
2. It provides a consistent experience no matter where it runs.
3. It is supported by a very small download that installs in seconds.
4. It streams video and audio. It scales video quality to everything from mobile devices to desktop browsers to 720p HDTV video modes.
5. It includes compelling graphics that users can manipulate—drag, turn, zoom—directly in the browser.
6. It reads data and updates the display, but it doesn't interrupt the user by refreshing the whole page. 

The XMLHttpRequest object, became the foundation of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) technology that allowed Web applications to provide a more dynamic response to user input, refreshing small parts of a Web page without requiring a complete reload of content. Innovative solutions built on AJAX, such as Windows Live Local maps, took Web applications a step further in being able to have a client-like user experience.

Silverlight is the next step in evolving the potential user-experience richness in which application developers and designers can present to their clients. It does this by allowing designers to express their creativity and save their work in a format that will work directly on the Web. In the past, a designer would design a Web site and a user experience using tools that provide a rich output, but the developer would have to meet the constraints of the Web platform in being able to deliver them. In the Silverlight model, designers can build their desired user experience and express this as XAML. The XAML can then be incorporated directly by a developer into a Web page using the Silverlight runtime. Thus, the two can work more closely than ever before to provide a rich client user experience.

As XAML is XML, it is text-based, providing a firewall-friendly, easy-to-inspect description of the rich contents. While other technologies—such as Java Applets, ActiveX, and Flash—exist that can be used to deploy richer content than DHTML/CSS/JavaScript, they all send binary content to the browser. This is difficult to audit for security, not to mention difficult to update, as any changes require the entire application to be reinstalled, which is not a user-friendly experience and can lead to stagnation in pages. When Silverlight is used, and a change is needed to the rich content, a new XAML file is generated server-side. The next time the user browses to the page, this XAML is downloaded, and the experience is updated without any reinstallation.

At the heart of Silverlight is the browser-enhancement module that renders XAML and draws the resulting graphics on the browser surface. It is a small download (under 2 MB) that can be installed when the user hits the site containing the Silverlight content. This module exposes the underlying framework of the XAML page to JavaScript developers, so interaction with the content on the page level becomes possible, and thus the developer can, for example, write event handlers, or manipulate the XAML page contents using JavaScript code.

Web developers and graphics designers can create Silverlight-based applications in a variety of ways. You can use Silverlight markup to create media and graphics, and manipulate them with dynamic languages and managed code. Silverlight also enables you to use professional-quality tools like Visual Studio for coding and  Expression Blend for layout and graphic design.

Features of Silverlight:

1. Silverlight combines multiple technologies into a single development platform that enables you to select the right tools and the right programming language for your needs. Silverlight offers you the following features:
2. WPF and XAML. Silverlight includes Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) technology, which greatly extends the elements in the browser for creating UI. WPF lets you create immersive graphics, animation, media, and other rich client features, extending browser-based UI beyond what is available with HTML alone. Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) provides a declarative markup syntax for creating WPF elements.
3. Extensions to JavaScript. Silverlight provides extensions to the universal browser scripting language that provide powerful control over the browser UI, including the ability to work with WPF elements.
4. Cross-browser, cross-platform support. Silverlight runs the same on all popular browsers (on any platform). You can design and develop your application without having to worry about which browser or platform your users have
5. Integration with existing applications. Silverlight integrates seamlessly with your existing JavaScript and ASP.NET AJAX code to complement functionality you have already created.
6. Access to the .NET Framework programming model and to associated tools. You can create Silverlight-based applications using dynamic languages such as managed JScript and IronPython as well as languages such as C# and Visual Basic. You can use development tools such as Visual Studio to create Silverlight-based applications
7. LINQ. Silverlight includes language-integrated query (LINQ), which enables you to program data access using intuitive native syntax and strongly typed objects in .NET Framework languages.
8. If you already use ASP.NET, you can integrate Silverlight with the server and client capabilities of ASP.NET that you are familiar with. You can create server-based resources in ASP.NET and use the AJAX capabilities of ASP.NET to interact with server-based resources without interrupting the user.  

Running Silverlight-based Applications :

Silverlight-based applications run in the browser. Silverlight makes sure that you can run your applications in all modern browsers, without having to create browser-specific code.

To run a Silverlight-based application, users require a small plug-in in their browser. The plug-in is free. If users do not already have the plug-in, they are automatically prompted to install it. The download and installation take seconds and require no interaction from the user except permission to install. 

What’s New in SilverLight 2.0 Beta 2 ??

Silverlight 2 Beta 2 was released recently. Some of the features in the SilverLightBeta2.0. We hope the Final Version of SilverLight2.0 will really Play a good role creating new history in the UI for websites. 

1. UI Framework: Beta 2 includes improvements in animation support, error handling and reporting, automation and accessibility support, keyboard input support, and general performance. This release also provides more compatibility between Silverlight and WPF.
2. Rich Controls: Beta 2 includes a new templating model called Visual State Manager that allows for easier templating for controls. Other features include the introduction of a TabControl, text wrapping and scrollbars for TextBox.  DataGrid additions include Autosize, Reorder, Sort, performance increases and more. Most controls are now in the runtime instead of packaged with the application.
3. Networking Support: Beta 2 includes improved Cross Domain support and security enhancements, upload support for WebClient, and duplex communications (“push” from server to Silverlight client).
4. Rich Base Class Library: Beta 2 includes improved threading abilities, LINQ-to-JSON, ADO.NET Data Services support, better support for SOAP and other improvements to make networking and data handling easier.
5. Deep Zoom: Beta 2 introduces a new XML-based file format for Deep Zoom image tiles as well as a new MultiScaleTileSource that enables existing tile databases to utilize Deep Zoom. Better, event driven notification for zoom/pan state is another improvement in Silverlight 2 Beta 2. 

CATT Ltd has successfully completed several projects in SilverLight 1.0, which is purely developed in ASP.Net 3.5 & SilverLight 1.0. As Silver light is the One of the Emerging Technology in the .net Family. We are also keeping track of the Latest Release & started working on the Beta 2.   

While exploring the Beta 2 version of Silverlight, we realized there are so many new features existing in this Build and it has removed several bugs which are the drawbacks in the SilverLight 1.0 version. Although it is not the final release of the SilverLight 2.0.

We at CATTLtd are ahead in using the Beta 2 Version & exploring all the new features to provide a reliable & excellent UI based application to Our Clients.

Posted By: Kiran Methuku