So I finally get the opportunity to learn and develop some Silverllight applications. After seeing some more examples and hearing about it more in my IT circle of friends via blogs, twitter, user group meetings, etc., I actually feel much better about my journey and am confident I can learn it well this time.
My brother Sebastian and I deployed our first Silverlight application to a production server last night. What worked great on Sebastian's local machine resulted to a blank screen on production. When we right clicked on the screen, we had a popup menu with the option of "Silverlight", so it appeared to work. Upon further review, there was a hidden javascript error that detailed as follows:
"Error: Sys.InvalidOperationException: InitializeError error #2104 in control 'Xaml1".
A Google search returned a few websites that talked about "mime types"; I almost dismissed them, but then Sebastian remembered having the same kind of problems with Flash that adding mime types fixed, as well. Afterwards, my troubleshooting lead me to the following post on how to fix it:
http://www.bloggix.com/blogs/microsoft/archive/2008/12/10/error-2104-could-not-download-the-silverlight-application.aspx
In summary, there are two mime types that have to be added to your web properties in IIS under the "HTTP Headers" tab via the "Mime Types" button. This is a screenshot of the Mime Types dialog box and the two I added: .XAML and .XAP:
This indeed solved the problem, and we were at last successful in deploying our Silverlight application on production.
We .NET developers find ourselves at an interesting crossroad today, which can be summed up by a question: when should I take the plung and learn Silverlight/WPF/XAML? If you're like me, this decision may depend on whether or not we have the need to use it - like clients asking for it. If you do, the next thing you'll need is the confidence that Silverlight/WPF/XAML can handle the needs that business applications present to us. There are two schools of thought on whether or not this is true. Some say no; all of the colleagues I hang with, including Rocky Lhotka, say yes.
If you're like me, you don't have a current business need to learn Silverlight/WPF/XAML. Despite that, I'm still going to everything I can to learn it well. In my opinion, and many others that I respect, Silverlight/WPF/XAML is the future of UI development. Many believe that in about 5-10 years it will be take over as WinForms and WebForms. As Rocky explains in his post, once you get past the learning curve the UI development is much more productive.
To assist me in my commitment to learn Silverlight, I've volunteered to do a Silverlight presentation in about 3 weeks. The best way to learn anything is to teach it; so I'm very much looking forward to it. If I can get through this presentation, I know I will comfortable enough with Silverlight to start using it on a regular basis. My hope is that I'll also find new ways to use Silverlight, along with using it as a regular part of my freelance projects. Once I do that, I should be ready for primetime consultant work with future clients that my ask for it.
I wanted to get the word out on something my company is offering to everyone. Magenic consultants in Atlanta (including me) will be presenting a free day of training available to the public (lunch included, of course.) The goal of this tech day will be to show how to build a complete working application using the latest technologies – WCF, WPF, and Silverlight. If you're a developer, these are technologies that you can't afford not to know about; many people believe they are the future. This will be split into 6 sessions:
- WCF service
- WPF overview / common controls
- WPF data binding / simple animation / other controls, possibly reporting
- Silverlight - compare with WPF
- SilverLight - controls, data binding, possibly reporting
- Putting it all together, Q/A session.
Magenic Tech Day will be held on Saturday, November 15, 2008. More details are to come; but for now if you're interested in attending, just send me a note @ RafaelV@magenic.com or use this contact form.
This week, Google has unveiled their new web browser. Google Chrome. I've been using it since yesterday, and here's my two cents:
- If you're a fan of Google way of designing application interfaces (simple, clean, uncluttered, fast, and yet powerful), then you'll like Google Chrome. You've got tabs, helpful hints that make finding sites easy, and all the basic features you'd get from IE or Firefox without the options that you don't need. I love how you can click and drag a tab out and turn it into its own window. That's hot!
- There were early complaints about the EULA, which stated they could freely track ALL of your browsing and personal info. As of today, that is no longer the case.
- Silverlight 2 applications are not working properly, and sometimes not at all (like for me!) Flash appears to work AFTER you reinstall it. I find it hard to believe that no one at Google thought it would be a good idea to test for this! I consider this an "air ball".
- I thought for sure that Chrome would be bogged down with links to their other Google applications and that they have an option for you to login with your Google account. Not so! That's a big "and one" in my book.
- More info about Chrome that I read from Shawn Wildermuth.
Over all, this isn't a bad first swing at a web browser. I know it will improve in the future. Only time will tell if it's gonna be a IE killer; but I'd say for now everyone safe for a while. That being said, I like it enough to continue using it - kinda diggin' the new browser history page.
Last night, I went to a Tech Night at Magenic where all of us got to see the basics of creating a Silverlight and WPF applications. After seeing how simple it is to create them, and the power of the technology as far as what you can do with, I'm starting to get really excited about using Silverlight in a live project. However, I need to focus on the goals I have at hand first. But in the meantime, it'll be good for me to keep paying attention to as much as possible in anticipation of being able to that in the future.
Here's something cool you can do with Silverlight - give an object the ability to be clicked and dragged.
http://simplesilverlight.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/drag-and-drop-silverlight-example/
http://simplesilverlight.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/silverlight-and-the-nba/
It looks like the wonders of Silverlight have made to World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) website. They now have a video player developed using Silverlight where you can view entire ECW shows as broadcasted on the SciFi channel. Whether you're a wrestling fan or not (which I am), the player is well put together, and is very easy to use.
http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/silverlight/ecw
My friend at Schematic wanted me to inform you all that the cool part of the new NBCOlympics.com video player is the enhanced features. This is where the true richest and powerful of Silverlight 2 comes into play. You can find them by clicking on the rectangular button next to the "Share" button.
My bad, yo!
Schematic has been working hard on the video player to be used for NBCOlympics.com. In a join effort with Microsoft, it was built using Silverlight 2 Beta 2 - which was just released to the public last week. A friend of mine who's been working on this project asked me to check it out yesterday, and it is magnificent!
There's already plenty of videos to check out, including scenes from the 2004 Olympics, and other events leading up to 08.08.08.