Deploying Silverlight Application in SharePoint 2010

In the previous article, we have discussed about creating a simple Silverlight Application in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

Now, in this article we will discuss how to deploy the solution in the SharePoint 2010.
The New webpart feature added in the SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 is Silverlight which comes under Media and Content category.

The Solution of the Silverlight application produces a package with extension .XAP

Note: The .xap file is a package which consists of the solution created in the Silverlight Application

Hence, copy the XAP file in the SharePoint Document library and copy the shortcut (Link) of the file.
Now go to the page where you want to deploy the solution.

Insert the Silverlight webpart as shown below

Now, edit the webpart and in the URL property, browse for the .xap file copied from the Shared Documents or copy the shortcut URL as shown below

Now save the page and you will see the silverlight webpart created as shown below

So, when you click the Click this button in the webpart, you will see the message box “This is a simple silverlight Application”

That’s it, we have deployed the silverlight application in the sharepoint 2010. Enjoy.

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Creating a Simple Silverlight Application in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

In the previous article ,we have discussed about the basics of Silverlight and In this article, we will discuss how to create a simple silverlight application using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

Go to Visual Studio File ->New Project

                                           

Select Visual C# in projects -> Silverlight Application (I have used .Net Framework 4.0)

Now, you will see a pop-up window like this

This windows gives the options for the user to create a new web application within the solution so that, we can test the silverlight application created here.

Here in our project, SampleSilverlightApplication.web is the web application created and we also select the silverlight version here.

Once clicked OK, a new silverlight application will be created as shown below

You will two projects created in the solution one is to design and code the application and the other is to test the application.

MainPage.xaml contains the design part of the application and MainPage.xaml.cs is the code behind where you will write the business logic.

In the right side, you will see the ToolBox which consists of Silverlight Controls which you can use for designing the application.

Now drag and drop a Label and Button in the design part and Right Click on the control -> Properties to view the properties of the control

I have changed the properties of label and button

In the .cs file, you will see the NameSpaces for the silverlight application in specific has been added.

Now, we will write the code behind for the button event as

Private void button1_click (object sender, EventArgs e)

{

MessageBox.Show(“This is a simple silverlight Application”);

}

Now save the code and debug the application. The application will render in the web application created in the initial steps.

Important Note: Once you debug the code, you will find solution package with the extension .xap in the Client Bin folder which is present in the Web Application.

This package consists of all the functionalities which is created in the application. 

When you click on the “Click this” button you will see a MessageBox pop-up with the message showing message “This is a simple silverlight Application”

That’s it we have learned how to create a simple silverlight application using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

See also, how to deploy the created silverlight application SharePoint 2010 in this article.
The full code can be downloaded from here.

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Silverlight Basic Tutorials

What is Silverlight?

Various Definitions from the internet:      

1. Microsoft Silverlight is a web application framework that integrates multimedia, computer graphics, animation and interactivity into a single runtime environment.

2. Silverlight is a new cross-browser, cross-platform implementation of the .NET Framework for building and delivering the next generation of media experiences and Rich Interactive Applications (RIA) for the web. It runs in all popular browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Opera. 

The plug-in required to run Silverlight is very small in size hence gets installed very quickly.

3. A web browser plug-in that provides support for rich internet applications such as animation, vector graphics and audio/video playback. Silverlight competes with companies such as Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, Adobe AIR, Adobe Shockwave, JavaFX, and Apple QuickTime. 

4. Like Flash but made by Microsoft instead of Adobe.

5. Silverlight is the new Microsoft technology on web platform for Rich Internet Applications (RIA) launched by Microsoft in 2007

Advantages of using Silverlight Control in SharePoint

 1. Only Silverlight web part is required on the server
 2. Simply Upload to Document Library of SharePoint and new version is loaded on the next page refresh
 3. No IIS Reset is necessary
 4. Debugging can be done locally on the development machine 

Demerits of using Silverlight Control

1. Only Silverlight dlls and SharePoint Object Model dlls can be used or any dlls that is not supported by Silverlight cannot be directly used in the control
2. End users must have the ability to install the Silverlight or they should have already installed it before

Development Tools
 1. Visual Studio 2008 & Visual Studio 2010 with Silverlight SDK installed
 2. Microsoft Expression Blend

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SlideShow with Thumbnails using Silverlight for SharePoint

I would like to share a link which shows how to create a Slide Show for SharePoint using Silverlight in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

http://deepumi.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/simple-image-scroller-slide-show-using-silverlight-listbox-control/

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