Welcome to Silverlight tutorials. Silverlight is a platform for building rich internet applications. This tutorial will explain the concepts behind Silverlight, and will show you how to build it into your web applications. After completing it, you will have a better understanding of Silverlight applications using XAML and C#.
Silverlight supports Mac OS10, although Silverlight version 2 or later only runs on Intel-based Macs. On modern Macs, both Firefox and Safari are supported. Microsoft's own Silverlight plug-in does not run on Linux, but the Mono open source project has an offshoot called Moonlight, which is a Silverlight compatible plug-in that runs.
Microsoft Silverlight is an application framework for writing and running rich internet applications that was actively developed and marketed by Microsoft from 2007 to 2012. This is a technical overview of the platform's history. Silverlight 1, which was developed under the codename Windows.
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.
Silverlight supports Mac OS10, although Silverlight version 2 or later only runs on Intel-based Macs. On modern Macs, both Firefox and Safari are supported. Microsoft's own Silverlight plug-in does not run on Linux, but the Mono open source project has an offshoot called Moonlight, which is a Silverlight compatible plug-in that runs.
Silverlight Download
What is Silverlight
Silverlight is a browser plug-in, designed for building rich internet applications; applications that run in the browser like normal web applications, but which try to advance the user interface beyond where HTML can go. For example,
Download Silverlight For Mac
Silverlight is a framework for building rich, browser-hosted applications that run on a variety of operating systems.
It can also co-exist with HTML. Therefore, Silverlight can enhance an existing web application.
Silverlight works its magic through a browser plug-in. When you surf to a web page that includes Silverlight content, this browser plug-in runs, executes the code, and renders that content in a specifically designated region of the page.
The important part is that the Silverlight plug-in provides a richer environment than the traditional blend of HTML and JavaScript that powers ordinary web pages.
You can create Silverlight pages that play video, have hardware accelerated 3D graphics, and use vector animations.
From a developer's perspective, the most interesting feature of Silverlight is that it brings the .NET Framework programming model to the client side of your web applications.
Silverlight is designed to run inside the web pages, so it can run as a browser plugin. It provides graphical services for rendering bitmaps, vector graphics, highdefinition video, and animations.
You can write in C#, or Visual Basic .NET, and use the .NET Framework class library features on the code that runs in the web browser.
Silverlight user interfaces, themselves use a very similar model to Windows Presentation Foundation(WPF), which is the user interface framework in the full desktop .NET Framework.
If you know WPF, Silverlight is easy to learn. Silverlight is a much smaller download than .NET. It is roughly a tenth of the size, so only a subset of the class library is present, and various implications have been made to WPF's model.
Despite the reduced scale, experienced .NET developers will feel instantly at home in Silverlight.
Platforms and Browsers
The platforms and browsers supported by Silverlight are −
Windows
Silverlight supports Windows, as you would expect of a Microsoft product. It requires Windows XP Service Pack 2 at least or recent versions of Windows.
The older versions are not fully supported. For example, Silverlight will not run at all on Windows ME, and Windows 2000 has limited support.
As for the browsers, Silverlight supports Microsoft's own Internet Explorer, of course, and it supports Firefox, and Google Chrome version 4.
Broadly, Silverlight supports the common web browser plug-in API. It works in a wider range of browsers than the officially supported list.
Mac
Silverlight supports Mac OS10, although Silverlight version 2 or later only runs on Intel-based Macs.
On modern Macs, both Firefox and Safari are supported.
Linux
Microsoft's own Silverlight plug-in does not run on Linux, but the Mono open source project has an offshoot called Moonlight, which is a Silverlight compatible plug-in that runs on Linux.
Moonlight runs in Firefox, and interestingly has always been able to run in Standalone mode.
One of the reasons the Mono project decided to build Moonlight in the first place is that they thought Silverlight would be a useful technology for building user interface widgets that run on the desktop.
Microsoft Silverlight will reach the end of support on October 12, 2021. Silverlight development framework is currently only supported on Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 11, with support for Internet Explorer 10 ending on January 31, 2020. There is no longer support for Chrome, Firefox, or any browser using the Mac operating system.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the current level of support Microsoft will provide for Silverlight?
Microsoft will provide technical help for customers using versions of Silverlight 5 only. Paid technical help is available to customers requiring support with issues beyond install and upgrade. Microsoft will continue to ship updates to the Silverlight 5 Developer Runtime for supported browser versions given that their extensibility model supports plug-ins; this includes updates for security vulnerabilities as determined by the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC).
Silverlight 5 will support the browser versions listed on the system requirements page through October 12, 2021, or though the lifecycle of the underlying browsers, whichever is shorter. The support page will be updated to reflect compatibility with newer browsers and operating system versions.
Windows 7 will reach its end of support date on January 14, 2020. Will Silverlight be supported as part of the Extended Security Update (ESU) program available for Windows 7 customers?
Silverlight’s lifecycle policy is independent from the Windows 7 policy. After January 14, 2020, customers using Silverlight on Windows 7 will no longer be supported and will no longer receive automatic security updates.
What happens on October 12, 2021? Will existing applications stop working?
Microsoft is not planning to take any specific action to terminate Silverlight applications. After this date, however, Silverlight will be in an unsupported state and will not receive any future quality or security updates.
Will companies be legally allowed to continue to run Silverlight assets after October 12, 2021? What happens to the license to use Silverlight after October 12, 2021?
Silverlight’s license is a perpetual license and is not tied to the continuation of support. While support will be ending in October 2021, this date does not affect the license, which continues in effect for as long as the customer is using the software and complies with the terms of the license.
Can companies obtain a custom agreement to extend Microsoft support past 2021?
There are no plans for extending Silverlight support beyond the existing support dates listed here.
What will happen to the microsoft.com/silverlight website after October 12, 2021?
The microsoft.com/silverlight website will still be available. However, the Silverlight installer will no longer be available after the end of support date of October 12, 2021.
What is the recommended technology/development framework for customers who want to migrate applications from Silverlight?
There are various options for migrating applications from Silverlight. We recommend that you evaluate the requirements of the application that you are migrating and determine the technology that best suits the application in question:
If your application is non-browser dependent and you’d like to migrate to a Windows Desktop application, we recommend you migrate your application to UWP or WPF on .NET Core.
If your application is web-based, we recommend that you look into Blazor, which allows re-usability of .NET Silverlight code. Blazor lets you build interactive web UIs using C# instead of JavaScript. Blazor apps are composed of reusable web UI components implemented using C#, HTML, and CSS. Both client and server code are written in C#, allowing you to share code and libraries.