MIX2REMIX - Budapest, Amsterdam, Zurich, Johannesburg & Singapore. . . B-): Silverlight

Getting started with Silverlight 1.0 & 1.1 Development (Part 3)

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:34:58 GMT

Part 3 - Setting up Visual Studio "Orcas"

Quick Steps

Download/Install: Microsoft Visual Studio codename Orcas Beta 1
Download/Install: Microsoft Silverlight Tools Alpha for Visual Studio codename “Orcas” Beta 1

Update

Visual Studio codename "Orcas", has now been named "Microsoft Visual Studio 2008". You will likely start to see references to both "Orcas" and VS 2008, which for all relevant purposes refer to the same thing. Also Microsoft has said that a Beta 2 will be available later in the summer.

Overview

Visual Studio 2005 makes for a great development environment, and can be used for building Silverlight applications. However, the next version of Visual Studio is available now in Pre-Release form, and code named "Orcas". This version, when used in conjunction with the Silverlight Tools Alpha, allows you to create Silverlight projects from scratch in one easy step. There are also a number of other enhancements for development, aside from the Silverlight capabilities. If you are planning to do any kind of coding, for either Silverlight 1.0 or 1.1, I highly recommend you install Orcas and the Tools. This will allow you to also manually edit your XAML files much easier, as you will have node attribute code hinting that is not available in Blend. Orcas also makes editing HTML, XML, JavaScript and C# files easy, especially with the ability to share project files between Blend seamlessly, and simultaneously. While you can compile your projects directly from Blend, I recommend using Orcas for your final output, as you have a more fine tuned control of project settings, as well as Debug functionality. You can keep Visual Studio 2005 installed in tandem with Orcas, for Silverlight development I prefer to just use Orcas running on Vista.

NOTE: Be sure to install Blend and follow the compatibility section for working with Orcas as outlined in the previous post. If you only want to work on code for Silverlight projects you can skip installing Blend all together, however it is easiest to inspect visual files and work with Timelines and Story Boards from within Blend, which even a coder will want to do from time to time.

Orcas is available as a free Pre-Release download from Microsoft as a fully functional Professional Edition version of Visual Studio. Currently the most recent version available is "Beta 1", which includes a license to use the product thru March 13th of 2008. You will want a fast connection and plenty of free hard drive space. There are complete instructions on the download page, I'm including here my recommended procedures. Keep in mind you will need somewhere around 10-20 Gig's of free disk space to download, extract and install Orcas.

Go to the download page: Microsoft Visual Studio codename Orcas Beta 1, review the system requirements and any other information that you may find pertinent.
OPTIONAL: Install Firefox and DownThemAll! a Firefox plug-in to manage the download and increase the transfer time, this will give you file resume capability if there is an interruption, and can complete the download over 10 times faster if you have enough bandwidth. You could also use MSDN Subscriptions and FTM if you have an account, otherwise I highly recommend taking the time to set up Firefox & DownThemAll!, as it can literally save you hours in download time.Go to the download page (per step 1 above), using Firefox, and click "Download" next to each of the files.
1. If you don't have Firefox, download and install it from here www.getfirefox.com
2. If you don't have DownThemAll!, launch Firefox and go to www.downthemall.net, follow the instructions on the page.
3. Go to the Orcas download page listed above with Firefox after installing the plug-in and restarting the browser.
4. Click on the "Download" link towards the bottom of the page for the first file.
5. When the "Save" dialog appears, select the "DownThemAll!..." radial button, and press "Save File".
6. Now you'll get a new dialog, and optionally change the "Destination Path" to a suitable location, and press "Start!"
7. The file will now appear in a "DownThemAll!" manager window showing the progress.
8. Click the "Download" button for each of the remaining files, this time select the "dTaOneClick!" option, and press "Save File", this will start downloading the file to the same location that you previously specified.
9. DO NOT CLOSE THE FIREFOX DownThemAll! Window, as this needs to remain open during the duration of the download. If you need to shut down your computer or browsers you can, but to resume the download, start Firefox and go to the "Tools" menu, "DownThemAll", "dTa! Manager..." and you can monitor the remaining download.
If you are not using Step 2, Scroll to the bottom and download the 8 different files which make up the install. You will need over 5.5 Gig's free to download them all, and at least that much more to complete the extraction.
After downloading ALL files successfully, run the executable file, which has "part1" in the file name.
Choose where to extract the complete file set to.
After the extraction is complete follow Step 7 to create an installation DVD, or skip to Step 8 to directly install, provided you still have a significant amount of disk space free. You can also delete the original files that you downloaded, as the extract files are what you need to complete the installation.
Use a DVD Burner to create a DVD of all the extracted files. You will need a Burner capable of writing to Dual Layer DVD's in order to fit the entire contents. I've found that you can omit the MSDN help files to fit everything on a Single Layer DVD, but this will make full installs more complicated. After successfully writing the DVD, and verifying, you can delete the extract files from local disk to free up space.
Run the setup file and follow the directions to complete an installation of Orcas. You can change some of the install configuration options if you don't need the full set of capabilities.
Download and Run the Microsoft Silverlight Tools Alpha for Visual Studio codename “Orcas” Beta 1.

You should be all set now, you can launch Orcas, and go to create a new project, under Visual C# you'll find Silverlight and a Silverlight Project template to start a new application. You can also open projects created from Blend, and choose to update them automatically to be compatible with Orcas.

At this point you can also install the ASP.NET Futures if you plan to work with features of the next version of ASP.NET on the back-end of your Silverlight applications.

Next Steps

Now that you have Visual Studio "Orcas" installed you can start coding for Silverlight experiences. Next I'll walk thru the available documentation and sample code. Part 4 focuses on getting started with the SDK's which provide a number of Tutorials and other Help.

Written by: Beau Ambur of Metaliq as part of a World Wide REMIX Tour.

Getting started with Silverlight 1.0 & 1.1 Development (Part 2)

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:15:44 GMT

Part 2 - Setting up Expression Blend

Quick Steps

Download/Install: Expression Blend 2 May Preview

Overview

Expression Blend 2, offers the best environment for creating Silverlight based applications. While it is best used in conjunction with other tools like Expression Design and Encoder, as well as Visual Studio, it can be used on it's own to create an entire project. Expression Blend is currently available as a fully released version, targeting WPF development. For Silverlight development you will want to use Blend 2, the most current version is the May Preview. Blend is available for download as a free trial and will run for 30 days in a full functional trial mode. You can also use a product key (J9RVG-FJM6D-2Q9HC-296MR-PHC2M) available on the Blend Product Page which gives you a 180 day trial. To get started, all you need to do is download and run the installer. There are no particular preferences, or other setups that need to be done. Expression Blend is ONLY available for Windows, so if you want to develop on Mac, you need to use Bootcamp or Parallels. Parallels, does quite a good job of running Blend virtualized in Vista on the newer MacBook Pro's, I recommend using the latest Bootcamp bits with Vista for Mac development.

To quickly "test drive" Blend, and validate your installation you can create a quick application. The following outlines creating a new app, make some basic changes, and testing the application.

Launch Blend 2
Click "Continue" for trial mode, or enter the 180 day key
Select "New Project" from the Startup Dialog
Select "Silverlight Application (JavaScript)"
Change the "Name" field for the project or leave the default
Change the "Location" field or use the default
Click "OK", and the base project will be built
Press "F5" or go to the Menu: "Project >> Test Project"
You should see a development web server start, and your browser launched with a blank Silverlight page
Go back to Blend, and double-click the "[T]" icon, this will insert a Text Block
Change "TextBlock" text to "Hello World!", if you lose focus, select the Arrow tool, and double-click the Text Block
Press "F5" or go to the Menu: "Project >> Test Project"
You should see "Hello World!" in the browser, congratulations you're a Silverlight developer

"Orcas" Compatibility

If you plan to use "Orcas", the next version of Visual Studio, which is covered in the next article, you MUST do the following. If you plan to only use the current version of Visual Studio 2005 you DO NOT need to do the following, and should SKIP this step.

Two specific problems that you may run in to, you may not be able to create a new file in the directory, and you may not be able to save the contents of the file to disk. Two ways to resolve this, create and save the XML file with the name and content described below to another directory, like your Desktop. After creating the file, inserting the XML and saving it, copy the file in to your Blend directory, and if prompted to confirm the action, do so in the Windows prompt.

Close any copies of Blend
Find your Blend install directory "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Expression\Blend 1.1"
Create an XML file called "Blend.exe.config" in that directory
Put the following in the new XML file and save it:

<?xml version ="1.0"?>
<configuration>
    <startup>
        <supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727" safemode="true"/>
        <requiredRuntime version="v2.0.50727" safemode="true"/>
    </startup>
    <runtime>
        <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
            <dependentAssembly>
                <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Build.Framework" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral"/>
                <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-99.9.9.9" newVersion="3.5.0.0"/>
            </dependentAssembly>
            <dependentAssembly>
                <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Build.Engine" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral"/>
                <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-99.9.9.9" newVersion="3.5.0.0"/>
            </dependentAssembly>
        </assemblyBinding>
    </runtime>
</configuration>

You can now use Blend normally, and it will function properly with "Orcas".

Next Steps

Now that you have Blend installed you can start building entire Silverlight experiences. Next you'll want to setup a code editor to do more involved development. Part 3 focuses on getting started with Visual Studio "Orcas".

Written by: Beau Ambur of Metaliq as part of a World Wide REMIX Tour.

Getting started with Silverlight 1.0 & 1.1 Development (Part 1)

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:40:44 GMT

This series will discuss how to get started with doing Silverlight Development. All of this information is available from Microsoft in various forms, but this is a top to bottom guide of getting up to speed quickly along with notes on different options along the way. At the end of this you will be up and running to do either Silverlight 1.0 and/or 1.1 Development. This guide presumes that you are using Windows Vista on a PC, however you should be able to use the same guideline for configuring XP, Bootcamp/Parallels, or Mac OS X setups as well.

You'll notice "Quick Steps" bullets, which provide actionable items to complete the overall steps. Each section will go in to further detail with recommendations, information, and links to other information for a more exhaustive guide. I highly recommend reviewing all information to get the most appropriate configuration.

The entire series is:

Viewing Silverlight Content
Setting up Expression Blend
Setting up Visual Studio "Orcas"
Silverlight Documentation and SDK's
Starting, Compiling, Testing & Deploying Silverlight

Part 1 - Viewing Silverlight Content

Quick Steps

Download/Install: Silverlight 1.1 Alpha (Windows) OR Silverlight 1.1 Alpha (Mac)

Overview

The first step in working with Silverlight, is being able to view the applications. You need a few things to view Silverlight content.

Computer (Windows XP/Vista or Mac OS X)
Internet Connection (Dial-up/Broadband)
Internet Browser (Win: IE 6+, Win/Mac: Firefox 1.5.0.8+, Mac: Safari 2.0.4)
Silverlight Plug-in (1.1 Alpha Recommended for Developers)

You can use the links below to view details on system requirements, however most any computer you're currently using for development will be suitable. I recommend any Dual Core Intel machine, preferably with Vista, and using IE 7. Functionality and performance is comparable on a fairly wide range of machines, including Mac and other browsers, but with Alpha & Beta bits you will find some browser or platform specific issues, and it's much easier to just work in IE/Vista initially, and then test on a broader range of machines as you near a production release.

The key question is do you install 1.0 Beta, or 1.1 Alpha? Well normally you would think Beta is going to be better then Alpha, but, the Alpha gives you Silverlight 1.1, which means managed code, and support for more advanced applications. Also by installing Silverlight 1.1 Alpha, you get the entire Silverlight 1.0 Beta bundled in, and essentially have both. You DO NOT need any versions of Windows Media Player installed to run Silverlight content with video. Below are the installer links for Silverlight Runtime's, ONLY install one version, the most recent installer that you run, will be the version that is active in most cases.

Runtime Installers:

OR

Test that your runtime installed properly by viewing a Silverlight app for the version that you installed. The "Tile Text" should work if you installed 1.0 or 1.1. The "Chess Game" will only work if you installed the 1.1 runtime.

Additional Runtime Information

Detailed Installation Instructions:

System Requirements:

Feature Comparison:

Silverlight Runtimes - Features Matrix

Pre-Release Privacy:

Microsoft Silverlight Pre-Release Version Privacy Statement

Next Steps

Now you can start viewing actual Silverlight applications, and explore the content currently created and available. Next you'll want to setup a development environment. Part 2 focuses on getting started with Expression Blend.

Written by: Beau Ambur of Metaliq as part of a World Wide REMIX Tour.