Microsoft Silverlight

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Microsoft Silverlight

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Basic data

developer Microsoft
Publishing year September 5, 2007
Current  version 5.1.50918
(Jan. 15, 2019)
operating system Windows , macOS
programming language C ++ , C #
category Browser plug-in
License EULA / proprietary
microsoft.com/silverlight

Microsoft Silverlight is a browser plug-in that enables rich Internet applications to run. Silverlight is also used as a framework for apps for Windows Phone 7 . Silverlight is a proprietary , programmable plug-in for the Windows and macOS operating systems that is offered for the Internet Explorer and Safari web browsers . Silverlight is based on a reduced version of the .NET Framework .

In addition to the open W3C web platform Ajax , Silverlight competes with OpenLaszlo , Adobe Flash / Adobe Flex and JavaFX .

Microsoft will support Silverlight 5 through October 2021.

functionality

The Silverlight architecture

Silverlight applications are downloaded from the web server and typically run in the browser on the client . The application communicates with the web server using HTTP-GET . For programming using .NET, the ADO.NET Data Services, which can automatically provide databases as a web service for a Silverlight-based RIA client, are suitable .

With regard to its UI presentation layer, Silverlight is derived from the Windows Presentation Foundation . WPF was introduced with the .NET Framework 3.x (3.0 / 3.5). The main component of the vector-based graphic display and the design of application interfaces is the universal and text-based XML format XAML ( eXtensible Application Markup Language ). While WPF was developed for the graphic display and animation of Windows desktop applications, a web-compatible variant has been developed under the code name WPF / E ( E for Everywhere ), which is equipped with XAML reduced by elements and functions.

Versions

Silverlight 1

Silverlight 1.0 was released on September 5, 2007. Until April 2007 it was known by the provisional code name "WPF / E" (the abbreviation stood for "Windows Presentation Foundation / Everywhere"). Silverlight 1 is a JavaScript - API available and can use JavaScript, but also with other scripting languages like Python and Ruby develop. Silverlight 1 consists of the core of the presentation framework, which is responsible for the UI ( user interface ), interactivity and user input, basic operating elements, graphics and animation, media playback, digital rights management ( DRM ) and DOM integration. It is divided into the following components:

Inputs
Processing of information from devices such as keyboard, mouse, drawing tablet.
User interface core
Control rendering of bitmap images (including compressed raster images such as JPEG , vector graphics , text, and animation)
media
Playback of MP3 , WMA standard, WMV7 , WMV8 and WMV9 / VC-1 streams
XAML
Possibility of user interfaces using the Extensible Application Markup Language to make

A Silverlight application starts by calling the Silverlight controller from the HTML page, which then loads a XAML file. The XAML file contains a Canvas object that acts as a placeholder for other objects. Silverlight provides various basic geometric shapes, but also elements such as text, images and other media. The elements can be positioned exactly to achieve the desired layout. These elements can be animated by using so-called event triggers. Some effects are predefined, others can be designed as a composition of these. Keyboard and mouse events can also be processed by ordinary scripts.

Silverlight 2

Silverlight 2, released in 2008, contains a large number of XAML controls known from WPF applications. In addition to the canvas, which was the only layout panel available in version 1.1, additional layout controls are now supported, the StackPanel and the Grid, which serve as containers for other controls and facilitate the positioning and resizing of the elements. Even complex functionalities such as data binding , the use of templates (templates) , custom controls and controls for data manipulation and data visualization (ListBox, DataGrid) have been added. Silverlight 2 also supports classes for Internet communication via REST , POX, RSS and WS, and cross-domain network access. The Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Ajax and LINQ are integrated.

Silverlight includes a media player that supports Windows Media Video (WMV), VC-1 Video Standard, HDV , Windows Media Audio (WMA) and MP3 formats .

Silverlight applications are typically developed using Microsoft Expression Blend and Visual Studio . It is planned to use Silverlight for mobile devices with e.g. B. Publish Windows Mobile . The platform supports deep zooming technology for high-resolution images, and with the Microsoft Streaming Server it is possible to offer videos and Silverlight applications as streams .

Silverlight 3

Microsoft has been offering Silverlight 3 for Windows and macOS for download since the beginning of July 2009. Hardware acceleration support for videos and the ability to develop applications for the desktop and for the Internet are new.

  • Silverlight 3 enables so-called "rich media websites" with " full HD smooth streaming (1080p)", with which, among other things, the quality of the video can be changed while viewing. It also offers 3D functions and support for multi-touch input devices .
  • Silverlight 3 is suitable for developing "rich Internet" applications for the browser and the local computer. This means that Silverlight applications can be executed directly on the computer - with ("online") and without ("offline") an Internet connection. This process is known as the “Out-of-Browser (OOB)” technique.

Silverlight 4

On April 13, 2010, Microsoft Silverlight 4 was presented at the Microsoft developer conference. The innovations include a printing system with a print preview. Also new are the WCF RIA Services , which contain network functions to create multi-layered applications. Support for webcams and microphones and thus local recording of audio and video has also been integrated. Silverlight 4 is said to be 3 times faster than its predecessor.

In July 2010 Microsoft reported a distribution rate for the Silverlight plug-in of 60%, with the distribution rate jumping from 45% to 60% in just four months. With this, observers see the “critical mass” reached, which Silverlight is likely to make into a “full-fledged” competitor of Adobe's Flash faster than generally expected.

Silverlight 5

Version 5 was released on December 9, 2011. The execution speed has been improved. Complete 64-bit support and the display of H.264 data using the GPU were announced as innovations . In addition, the network functions are outsourced to a separate thread , which should prevent applications from stalling. The integration of external web content via HTML5 is also easier with Silverlight 5. In addition, Microsoft's “Trusted Application” model was introduced, which enables applications provided with a certificate to carry out certain actions directly from the browser. In addition to the certificate, a suitable entry in the registry is required. Silverlight 5 also offers hardware-accelerated 3D support. Support was promised until 2021.

compatibility

It is offered for several, but not all, operating systems and web browsers.

  • Silverlight no longer works in Chrome and browsers derived from it, as Microsoft does not offer a PPAPI plug-in.
  • From version 52, Firefox is no longer NPAPI compatible. In the absence of a PPAPI plug-in, Silverlight support is no longer available.
  • Although Opera is not officially supported, Silverlight also worked there with restrictions, for example animations were not displayed. Since Opera was continued as a Chromium fork, there is no longer any compatibility.
  • For Linux and FreeBSD , the Silverlight functionality is provided by the free Moonlight project, but its development has been discontinued so that Silverlight 5 and newer are not supported.
  • The “Pipelight” plug-in has been available for Linux and FreeBSD since 2013 to support Silverlight in Linux-based (“native”) browsers. To do this, Pipelight creates a connection between Silverlight in Wine and the browser. The development has now been stopped and the developer recommends on the official website not to use the plugin due to security risks.
  • Microsoft is working with Intel to advance the porting of Silverlight to Intel's Moblin .
  • “Silverlight for Mobile” is used to view Silverlight content on mobile receiving devices such as cell phones or PDAs. Although the software was expected in the 2nd quarter of 2008, there is still no official version. Silverlight for Mobile will initially support Silverlight version 2 and .NET languages.
  • Silverlight requires at least an x86 processor with SSE support. Supported processors include Intel Pentium III and higher and AMD Athlon XP and higher. The AMD Duron series is also supported.

"Silverlight will continue to be a cross-platform solution, working on a variety of operating system / browser platforms, going forward, he said. "But HTML is the only true cross platform solution for everything, including (Apple's) iOS platform," Muglia said. "

- Mary Jo Foley : She quotes Bob Muglia, Microsoft's manager in the server business

criticism

Microsoft's development of Silverlight has been criticized for focusing on its Windows operating system. Although Microsoft is working with Apple and Novell as part of the Mono project , which also includes the alternative Silverlight implementation Moonlight , the Flash developer Adobe has questioned Microsoft's efforts to offer Silverlight platform-independent.

There are also reservations about Microsoft regarding compliance with and use of web standards, as Silverlight does not use the SVG standard for vector graphics recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium . Microsoft preferred to build in its own, structurally compatible with SVG implementation in XAML. According to a Microsoft MVP , however, it was not possible to use SVG, otherwise Microsoft would have added GUI elements to SVG first, and it would no longer have been SVG.

In Silverlight 4.0, in addition to the controlled execution in a sandbox, there is also the option of an explicit local installation (this is only available for out-of-browser execution). If the user accepts this installation, the restrictions of the sandbox will be reduced and it will be possible to use COM objects - for example for integration with desktop applications. The affected parts of such locally installed Silverlight applications would then no longer be platform-independent.

literature

  • Thomas Claudius Huber: Silverlight 4. The comprehensive manual. Galileo Press, Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-8362-1413-1 .

Web links

Videos and tutorials

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release History. In: microsoft.com. Retrieved January 17, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Microsoft support lifecycle. In: support.microsoft.com. Retrieved December 11, 2019 .
  3. ↑ M. Werner and B. Rieger: Developing interactive web applications with Silverlight 2. 2008, ISBN 978-3-8158-3009-3 .
  4. ^ Silverlight Architecture. Retrieved June 5, 2007 .
  5. ↑ Silverlight 1.0 Beta QuickStart. Archived from the original on June 2, 2007 ; accessed on September 29, 2015 .
  6. ^ Herbert Braun: Microsoft publishes Silverlight 3. In: Heise online . July 9, 2009. Retrieved June 14, 2017 .
  7. ↑ blogs.msdn.com
  8. ↑ Sören Hentzschel: soeren-hentzschel.at: Mozilla announces the end of NPAPI for the end of 2016. October 10, 2015, accessed December 11, 2019 .
  9. ^ Microsoft.com: Compatible Operating Systems and Browsers. Retrieved July 11, 2010 .
  10. ↑ Pipelight: using Silverlight in Linux browsers. (No longer available online.) FDS Team, August 16, 2013, archived from the original on August 22, 2013 ; Retrieved August 29, 2013 .
  11. ^ Pipelight. Retrieved July 21, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Darryl K. Taft: Microsoft, Intel Team to Put Silverlight on Moblin Linux. In: eweek.com. September 23, 2009, accessed June 14, 2017 .
  13. ^ Silverlight for Mobile. (No longer available online.) Silverlight.net, archived from the original on February 22, 2012 ; Retrieved March 9, 2008 .
  14. ↑ zdnet.com
  15. ↑ Java Entrepreneur: Adobe CEO questions Microsoft Silverlight cross-platform commitment ( Memento from July 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
  16. ↑ Ryan Paul: Microsoft's Flash-killer Silverlight steals the show at MIX07. Retrieved May 6, 2007 .
  17. ↑ David Betz: Silverlight's Adoption as Public De-Facto Standard. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 20, 2008 ; Retrieved June 20, 2007 .
  18. ↑ Abel Avram: Silverlight 4's COM + Automation Raises Security and Portability Concerns. Retrieved February 23, 2010 .
  19. ↑ Wolfgang Möhle: The price is (too) high. iX issue 2/10. In: Heise online. Retrieved June 14, 2017 .