Silverlight Questions

Scott Guthrie blogged about the silverlight issue. 

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/11/04/silverlight-questions.aspx

Silverlight 4 service release

Microsoft released a service release of Silverlight 4 last week.  The update build is 4.0.50826.0 and you can find all the details about it at http://jpda.me/dzXlXu KB2164913.

The primary changes are;

• SDK feature to enable Add New Row capabilities in DataGrid control
• Improving startup performance of Silverlight applications
• Adding mouse wheel support for out-of-browser applications on the Mac platform
• Various media-related fixes around DRM content
• Fixed memory leak when MouseCapture is used
• Fixed memory leak for DataTemplate usage

For end users

For end users, having them simply install the runtime will provide them with the updated bits and benefits of the fixes/features in this service release.  The best way to force encourage your users to upgrade to this service release would be to leverage the MinRuntimeVersion attribute of your object tag:

Notice lines 5 and 6 above.  This would trigger that the end user is required for your application to run and require them to upgrade. The minRuntimeVersion/autoUpgrade are the minimum to require your user to upgrade to the later version.  Ideally you would follow good installation experience guidance (see “Installation Experience Whitepaper” with complete sample source code) to customize your install and/or upgrade experience.

For Developers

If you are a developer and authoring Silverlight applications you may want to grab the new developer bits and updated SDK:

• Windows developer runtime



• Mac developer runtime



• Silverlight 4.0.50826.0 SDK

I would install the developer build first and then the SDK and you’ll have a refreshed environment. 

Note that when you now create a new project you’ll be using the new SDK and so the minRuntimeVersion (see above) of the project templates as well as compiled bits for your SL4 application will be using/requiring the updated runtime.

There are NO Visual Studio tools updates for this release so the Silverlight4_Tools.exe package is not needed to re-install.

Reference

Tim Heuer’s blog Method ~ of ~ failed, http://jpda.me/bCu6Zv

How to implement TextWrapping in a Silverlight AutoCompleteBox

The Silverlight AutoCompleteBox control is a great control, however, there are some properties that it does not expose like TextWrapping that you might need to access.

The AutoCompleteBox inherits from the TextBox control so accessing the underlying controls properties will allow you to do so.

Simple create a new class file like below which inherits the AutoCompleteBox and on the loaded event gets a reference to the underlying TextBox by calling the GetTemplateChild function of the class.  The GetTempleteChild returns the named element in the visual tree of an instantiated ControlTemplete.  Then simply set the value of the TextBox property.

Public Class clsMyTextBox
    Inherits AutoCompleteBox
    Private _text As TextBox
 
    Private Sub clsMyTextBox_Loaded(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs) Handles Me.Loaded
        _text = GetTemplateChild("Text")
        _text.TextWrapping = System.Windows.TextWrapping.Wrap
 
    End Sub
End Class

Interactive SilverLight Bing Maps Control SDK

This is an interactive SDK for bing maps.
http://jpda.me/dp3e9B

Silverlight PivotViewer app from start to finish

Here is a great post on building a silverlight pivot viewer application from start to finish.
http://jpda.me/9qaNMa

Silverlight 4 Tools for VS 2010 and WCF RIA Services have shipped

iGHhttp://bit.ly/bPrAgE

Silverlight Spy

Silverlight Spy provides detailed runtime inspection of any Silverlight application. Use the built-in browser to navigate to a web page.

Silverlight Spy automatically detects the applications embedded in the page and provides various inspection view panes. Explore the XAP package, Isolated Storage, monitor performance, browse the UI visual and logical tree, examine objects, execute code in the DLR shell and more.

http://firstfloorsoftware.com/silverlightspy

Silverlight 4 Overview Document

This is a link to a great document covering the technical features of the Silverlight 4.

http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/learn/Silverlight4/Labs/Overview/WhatsNewInSilverlight4.xps

Silverlight 4 Training Kit Released

This is a great complete training kit for getting started with Silverlight 4 from Scott Guthrie at Microsoft.  This provides a great step by step introduction to silverlight development for line of business applications.

Link to Scott Gu’s blog.

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/04/22/silverlight-4-training-kit.aspx

Link to training course.

http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Silverlight4/

Silverlight 4 Released!

Great blog post from Scott Gu on the release of Silverlight 4 RTM