Silverlight won t work

Is just one of dozens of tools designed to help programmers create better RIAs. Microsoft engineers built Silverlight as an extension of other Microsoft projects, but the application itself stands on its own. Microsoft promotes Silverlight as a cross-platform, cross-browser technology. That means Silverlight applications should work on either PCs or Mac computers and within browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari. Silverlight should soon work with Linux computers as well -- an open-source project called Mono is spearheading the effort to create a Linux version. Although Silverlight is a young technology, it's no stranger to trouble or controversy. Some developers and users aren't keen on yet another Web technology that requires a downloadable plug-in to work. And a partnership with NBC during the 2008 Beijing Olympics might not have generated as much buzz as Microsoft hoped. But before we jump into all of that, let's first take a closer look under Silverlight's hood. Contents Silverlight Beta Silverlight Development Silverlight Applications Silverlight Video Silverlight Beta One of the tricky things about Silverlight is that there are, as of this writing, two versions: Silverlight 1 and Silverlight 2 Beta. Silverlight 1 supports applications written in the JavaScript programming language. The beta version of Silverlight 2 supports additional programming languages like C# (pronounced "c sharp") and Visual Basic. Both versions of Silverlight work within the .NET framework. So what's .NET? It's another product from Microsoft. The .NET framework is a programming model. Programmers can build applications within this model -- particularly Web

Perpetuum Software LLC announces the final release of Silverlight Viewer for Reporting Services 2008 – powerful component intended for presenting Reporting Services 2008 reports in Silverlight.Silverlight Viewer for Reporting Services 2008 is a Silverlight reporting tool designed especially for work in Microsoft SQL Reporting Services 2008. It represents a native Silverlight control which can be easily integrated into any Silverlight application. The final release of Silverlight Viewer for Reporting Services 2008 provides stable work with all up-to-date technologies: .NET Framework 4.0, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 and beta version of Visual Studio 2010.In the final release, special attention was devoted to usability improvements. Convenient error and troubleshooting handling makes the use of the product easier and more comfortable. Now you can record all the exceptions to the log file for further examination and solution finding. Two modes of error visualization allow the getting of precise exceptions description. To make the UI more user-friendly there were added improved search abilities and loading progress indication.Final release of Silverlight Viewer for Reporting Services 2008 includes modified documentation and Sample Application which will save your time on product functionality examination and implementation into your applications.Don’t invent complicated solutions for displaying Reporting Services reports in Silverlight! Use Silverlight Viewer for Reporting Services 2008.

XAML define the look and behavior of a Silverlight application. While WPF and XAML determine how an application looks and behaves, programmers use other computer languages to build the applications themselves. While Silverlight 1 supports only JavaScript, the beta version of Silverlight 2 supports several dynamic languages. Programmers build their applications using these languages while working within the .NET framework and use WPF and XAML to integrate the application into the Web browsing experience. All Silverlight applications run within a Web browser. Let's take a look at the architecture for the Silverlight platform to see how these elements all work together to give programmers the platform they need to build RIAs. Silverlight Development Like all software, the Silverlight platform has a particular arrangement of functions and features called an architecture. A program's architecture can tell you a great deal about how the program works. It groups tasks together in a logical way and shows how the different parts of a program work together to provide the overall service. Microsoft's goal with Silverlight is to create a powerful but simple platform for the next generation of Web-based applications. Microsoft divides the Silverlight platform's architecture into two major components with an additional installer and update element. The two major components include a core presentation framework and the .NET framework for Silverlight. Let's look at each in turn. The core presentation framework contains the following: A user interface (UI) rendering engine, which generates all the graphics, animation and text within an applicationAn input

Unit testing is important, even for Silverlight applications. At my job, I insist that every application contain at least some unit testing (that doesn’t mean that every application does, but I’ll keep insisting), and that we maintain a minimum of 40% code coverage. Normally, I implement unit testing with NUnit. But NUnit doesn’t work with Silverlight:Fortunately, there are other options. For one, we have the Silverlight Unit Test Framework:The Microsoft Silverlight Unit Test Framework (Microsoft.Silverlight.Testing) is a simple, extensible unit testing solution for rich Silverlight 2 applications, controls and class libraries.The biggest problem I see with the Silverlight Unit Test Framework is that it lacks the ability to automate the tests. Once the tests are added, someone has to run them and examine the results. In other words, there’s no “nunit-console.exe” to run as a post-build step. What I really need is NUnit for Silverlight…Enter Jamie Cansdale of TestDriven.NET fame, who rigged up a Visual Studio NUnit template that includes a Silverlight-compatible version of the NUnit.Framework assembly. The main drawback is that Jamie does not provide the converted NUnit source code. But if you think of this as a stop-gap measure until NUnit 3.0 arrives, then it should work nicely for you.All that being said, as Silverlight developers we are presented with two unit testing options:Jamie’s Silverlight NUnit port for automated, every-time-you-build-unit testsThe Silverlight Unit Test Framework for integration and GUI testingThere may be others, but this is what I’m principally going to focus on for now.Jamie’s Silverlight NUnit port: How to Get StartedDownload Jamie’s .vsi template linked to on his post. Double-click the .vsi to install, selecting “Yes” when the warning dialog pops up.Open any Silverlight project (or create a new one), right-click to add a new project, and you’ll see:That gives you the following project layout:SilverlightTests.cs starts with a basic unit testing framework which you can then start modifying and adding to: 1: using System; 2: using System.Reflection; 3: using NUnit.Framework; 4: 5: namespace SilverlightNUnitProject2 6: { 7: [TestFixture] 8: public class SilverlightTests 9: { 10: [Test] 11: public void SystemVersion () 12: { 13: Assembly systemAssembly = typeof (Uri).Assembly; 14: StringAssert.Contains ("=2.0.5.0,", systemAssembly.FullName, 15: "Check we're testing a Silverlight 2.0 assembly"); 16: } 17: } 18: }If you’ve used NUnit before you should be in familiar territory now. I like to set “nunit-console.exe” to run as a post-build step so that every time I perform a build, the unit tests are run. Something like:“C:Program FilesNUnit 2.4.7binnunit-console.exe” $(TargetPath)That’s it for Jamie’s Silverlight NUnit port. I hope he either makes the source available or integrates the functionality into TestDriven.NET.The Silverlight Unit Test Framework: How to Get StartedThere’s a lot of great tutorials on how to get started using the Silverlight Unit Test Framework. Jeff Wilcox, who is on the Silverlight Toolkit team, posted the introductory one back in March, 2008. It’s good stuff, and worth a read. I won’t try to repeat his or others’ work, but instead just point out a couple of things, especially as we are