FAQ Computer Web Technology

1. What is a Silverlight SDK?
   
   
   Silverlight SDK is a set of tools, documentation, samples, and templates for web developers to enable them to easily develop Silverlight enabled applications. The SDK is not really mandatory to develop Silverlight applications; however, the SDK will make development much easier.
2. What is a Silverlight.js file?
   Silverlight.js is a helper file which enables websites to create advanced Silverlight installation and instantiation experiences. You can call the createObject and createObjectEx functions defined in this file to embed the Silverlight plug-in in a web page.
3. What is Silverlight Runtime?
   Silverlight Runtime is a browser plug-in to support Silverlight enabled applications. If the Silverlight runtime is not installed, browsers will not be able to run Silverlight elements in the browser. You can set up your Silverlight tags in such a way that your browser will automatically prompt the user to download and install the Silverlight plug-in when your application is launched in the browser.
   
   Installing the run time is a onetime operation on the client. Once installed, it will be automatically launched when any Silverlight application is loaded in the browser.
   
   Note: Silverlight plug-in and the runtime, both are the same
   
   
4. What are the tools required to develop Silverlight applications?
   
   To run Silverlight applications in a web browser, you need to have the Silverlight runtime installed on the client browser as a plug-in. This is a light-weight version of the .NET runtime.
   However, to develop a Silverlight application, you need something more.
   
   Silverlight SDK: This includes a set of tools required to compile and build Silverlight controls.
   If you are comfortable writing HTML using Notepad and compiling .NET applications from console tools, then you just need the Silverlight SDK to develop Silverlight applications.
   However, most people use some kind of IDE to develop applications faster.
   
   Microsoft offers two separate tools to develop Silverlight applications:
   • Microsoft Expression Studio - This tool is meant for web designers to create rich visual elements for Silverlight applications. Expression Studio is recommended for web designers who create rich internet applications with enhanced visual content and graphics. There are several features provided for creating enhanced graphics elements, with lot of options to pick color, font, etc.
   • Microsoft Visual Studio - This is the integrated development environment from Microsoft to develop .NET applications. Programmers can use Visual Studio to develop Silverlight applications which require programming. Visual Studio allows programmers to develop sophisticated Silverlight applications in any .NET language (like C#, VB.NET etc).
   Here are some other tools that you can use:
   • Install Deep Zoom Composer - This tool allows you to prepare your images for use with the Deep Zoom feature in Silverlight 3.
   • Download Silverlight Toolkit - This toolkit is a Microsoft project containing Silverlight controls, components, and utilities that can be downloaded and used in your Silverlight applications. It includes full source code, samples, and tests.
   • Download .NET RIA Services - Microsoft .NET RIA Services simplifies the traditional n-tier application pattern by bringing together the ASP.NET and Silverlight platforms. RIA Services provides a pattern to write application logic that runs on the mid-tier and controls access to data for queries, changes, and custom operations.
   
   
5. What is a Silverlight plug-in?
   • The Silverlight plug-in is a very lightweight component that is necessary for users to access Silverlight applications. The plug-in download and install takes only a few moments, and do not take up much hard drive space.
   • The Silverlight plug-in is responsible for accessing the Silverlight object in the Web page, downloading and accessing the XAP package, setting up the program environment, and beginning execution of the application.
   • When a Web page containing a Silverlight application is displayed, the user should be given a link to download the plug-in from Microsoft if the plug-in is not already installed.
   
6. What is Microsoft Silverlight?
   • Silverlight is a web based technology, launched by Microsoft in April 2007. Silverlight is considered as a competitor to Adobe's Flash.
   • Silverlight is Microsoft's implementation of a cross-browser, cross-platform client framework that allows designers and developers to deliver Rich Internet Applications (RIA) embedded in Web pages.
   • Silverlight is a browser plug-in approximately 6MB in size; it is client-side free software, with an easy and fast (less than 10 sec) one time installation available for any client side browser.
   • It supports advanced data integration, multithreading, HD video using IIS Smooth Streaming, and built-in content protection. Silverlight enables online and offline applications for a broad range of business and consumer scenarios.
   • One of the design goals of the Silverlight technology is to fill the gap between Windows applications and Web applications in terms of creating Graphical User Interfaces (GUI).
   • Silverlight applications are run as client-side applications without the need to refresh the browser to update the UI. However, because of the built-in .NET framework, Silverlight applications can easily integrate with server-side controls and services. Using Silverlight's implementation of the .NET framework, developers can easily integrate existing libraries and code into Silverlight applications.
   
7. Why to use Silverlight?
   • Support for the .NET Framework – if you are already a .NET developer, it is easy to start programming on Silverlight.
   • Support for managed code – you can write programs in your favorite language which .NET CLR supports like C#, VB.NET, dynamic languages (IronPython, IronRuby).
   • Better development tools -Visual Studio 2010, Expression Blend.
   • Large community- More learning resources available compared to Flash.
   • Integration with Enterprise based technologies like WPF, LINQ etc…
   • Silverlight integrates the XAML declarative language with the .NET framework.
   • It is a cross-browser, cross-platform technology which provides a consistent user experience everywhere it runs.
   • The Silverlight plug-in installs in seconds, and leaves a very small footprint.
   • After you install the plug-in, users no longer need to install anything on their workstations to run Silverlight applications. The applications are available to them from whatever browser they are accessing.
   • It runs a client-side application that can read data and update the UI without interrupting the user by refreshing the whole page.
   
   • It can run asynchronous communications with the server, allowing the UI to continue to function while waiting for the server response.
   • It delivers rich video, audio, and graphics.
   
   
   
8. What is the difference between WPF and Silverlight?
   
   Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) are two different products from Microsoft, but have lot of overlap. Silverlight is a subset of WPF in terms of features and functionality.
   
   Silverlight is a Microsoft technology, competing with Adobe's Flash, and is meant for developing rich browser based internet applications.
   
   WPF is a Microsoft technology meant for developing enhanced graphics applications for the desktop platform. In addition, WPF applications can be hosted on web browsers which offer rich graphics features for web applications. Web Browser Applications (WBA) developed on the WPF technology uses XAML to host user interfaces for browser applications. XAML stands for eXtended Application Markup Language, which is a new declarative programming model from Microsoft. XAML files are hosted as discrete files in the Web server, but are downloaded to the browsers and converted to a user interface by the .NET runtime in the client browsers.
   
   WPF runs on the .NET runtime, and developers can take advantage of the rich .NET Framework and WPF libraries to build really cool Windows applications. WPF supports 3-D graphics, complex animations, hardware acceleration etc.
   
   Silverlight uses a particular implementation of a XAML parser, with that parser being part of the Silverlight core installation. In some cases, the parsing behavior differs from the parsing behavior in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), which also has a particular implementation.