Silverlight is a development platform for creating engaging, interactive user experiences for Web, desktop, and mobile applications when online or offline.
Silverlight is for Client Apps (both inside and outside the browser), Apps that run on Devices, it is the client programming model for Windows Phone and Windows Embedded, and for Media Solutions.



On this website
Silverlight and Phone 7 news
Tech news, software updates and servicepacks.

Articles
Technical articles about creating Silverlight applications in code using Visual Studio, with examples and sourcecode.

Software
Software and tools for Silverlight and WPF.



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Overview
Silverlight is a flexible and powerful medium for producing high quality content: interactive user-interfaces with all kinds of controls, graphics (bitmaps and vector), animation, video, audio and external documents like PDF and XPS. These functions can be put together in any combination.

Silverlight applications are made with Visual Studio (developers) or Expression Studio (designers). A Silverlight application generally has two parts: a user-interface and a functional part. Until now developers and designers were forced to use the same techniques and exchange code in an iterative process until the combination of the interface and the code worked. Now, both groups can use their own environment (IDE), produce their own code, and combine it at a later stage.

A designer can make an interface in XAML and/or XHTML, JavaScript and CSS, and give it to the developer who adds the code for the functionality (using XAML, C#, VB, IronPython or IronRuby). This cooperation is possible because both IDEs use the same platform; the .NET Framework.

Although a project can be carried out by a team in which designers and developers work together, and use their own techniques, it is also possible for one person to make a single application and use a single IDE in which user-interface and code are combined, using any of the languages mentioned.

Using the .NET platform has an additional advantage. Existing knowledge and code (b.a. used for Windows Forms, ASP.NET websites or WPF) can be re-used in Silverlight projects because it is all on the same platform and the same techniques are used.

Deployment of a Silverlight application is very easy. A project is compiled into assemblies from the IDE and put in a single zip-container together with a manifest file (an index). This single-file application package (with extension .xap) is copied to the server, as it is, and referenced in the webpage in which the Silverlight contents must be shown. Using a zip-container also reduces the size of the download, which improves the experience of the user.



Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform implementation of the .NET Framework for building media experiences and rich interactive applications for the web, the desktop, and the Windows Phone.

Microsoft - Silverlight.
Install, Overview, News, Resources.
http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/

Silverlight Homepage.
Microsoft portal site for the Silverlight development community.
http://silverlight.net/

MSDN - Silverlight Home.
Which Silverlight Site is Right For You?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/bb187358.aspx

MSDN - Silverlight Home.
Get Started, Learn, Community, Forums.
http://www.silverlight.net/

MSDN Library - Silverlight Development.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg130945(VS.95).aspx

MSDN Library - Silverlight.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc838158(VS.95).aspx

Silverlight Virtual Press Kit
The latest news about Silverlight and Expression Studio.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/silverlight/default.mspx

SilverlightShow - Independent Silverlight community.
News, articles, Tips, Books and more.
http://www.silverlightshow.net/

Microsoft Silverlight Release History
Contains information on each public release of Silverlight.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=1b7a3205-b5f8-4e20-bf42-792de5923454


Moonlight
Moonlight is an implementation of Silverlight for Linux, from Novell.

Mono - Moonlight Home
http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight

Novell - Moonlight FAQ
http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/moonlight_faq.html

Miguel de Icaza's web log
http://tirania.org/blog/

Wikipedia - Moonlight
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_(runtime)


Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7 is a mobile operating system based on Silverlight, XNA and the .NET Compact Framework 4.

App Hub - Develop for Windows Phone and Xbox
News, Community, Education, Resources.
http://create.msdn.com/en-US/

MSDN - Windows Phone Development
Building consumer applications for Windows Phones.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402535(VS.92).aspx

Silverlight for Windows Phone - Get started
Silverlight is the application development platform for Windows Phone 7. High performance gaming is also supported through the XNA Framework.
http://www.silverlight.net/getstarted/devices/windows-phone/

The Windows Phone Developer Blog - Alfred Astort
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/