Hi,

Whenever you go to online help by clicking "F1" for a specific Silverlight API in the Visual Studio 2008,  you will end up seeing a Silverlight3 Beta content.   This can be clearly identified by the following two aspects.

1. Under the search topic, you will see the following lines

[Note: This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

 2. Check the "URL:" combo, it contains the URL path ending with **VS96.aspx.

For eg., when you click F1 for "Projection" property, it will go to the online help page with the topic "UIElement..::.Projection Property".  Under this topic you will notice that "[Note: This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]" is displayed.   Also in the URL path, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.uielement.projection(VS.96).aspx is mentioned.

These are the clear indications that you are seeing the old content.

Workaround:

There is a workaround available to see the correct content.  Just expand the  "F1 Options:" combo box, you will see two topics with the same name or with some suffix attached to it.   For eg., in this "Projection" help case you will see "Projection Property" and "Project Property (2)".  On clicking "Projection Property (2)" you will get the latest content.   This can be verified by above mentioned check.

1. You will not see the "Note" message as mentioned above.

2. Check the URL path, it will end with VS95.aspx.

Warning:

Please don't generalise the above mentioned workaround for all the Silverlight related topics.  Sometimes you will get to see more than 10 topics in the F1 options combo box and it is difficult to find the latest topic(you have to check manually).    And for some topics, you might get the latest topic itself as it might not have changes since Beta release.   Please ensure this at your own discretion.

This problem is applicable for Online help (F1) only.

cheers,

Saran.

Dear all,

The offical release of Silverlight3 happened on 10th July 2009.     I had already conveyed about the new features that are introduced in Silverlight3 in my Presentation at Community Tech days Jun 2009 as well as in my previous post in this my blog.   Anyhow I'll just re-iterate the major features that are released as part of Silverlight3.

Out of Browser:

This enables the user to run the Silverlight applications offline(like WPF application).    The locally installed application can be invoked from Taskbar also in addition to the Desktop shortcut and StartMenu.  This feature is supported in Windows as well as in Macintosh.   It also equipped with Network detection support and auto update mechanism.

Graphical enhancements:

Now Silverlight3 leverages the GPU to enable richer and immersive graphical experiences.  SL3 provides new Bitmap and Pixel APIs, it also allows the user to created Pixel shader effects like BlurEffect, DropShadow effect.

Productivity improvements:

Now the SL3 toolkit contains 100+ controls with styling and template customization support.   It also provides lot of enhancements in data binding such as Hierarchical Data binding, Element to Element binding, Validation error template, DataForm control with Master/Detail view support etc.,

Media enhancments:

SL3 delivers an excellent performance on Graphics and Video rendering by utilizing GPU instead of CPU.   This enables the SL3 to render HD videos with superior quality and performance.  Silverlight 3 includes new media codec support for H.264 video, AAC audio and MPEG-4 content.   With the support for raw bitstream for Audio/Video, SL3 can now support any non-native formats.   The HD support in SL3 combined with smooth streaming support IIS media services(free server product), can now deliver a better and efficient video experience over the web.

VS2008 tools for SL3:
There is a free download available for VS2008 to support SL3 development.  It has support for Intellisense, Compilation, SL3 app debugging and much more. 

Expression Blend3:
Along with this SL3 release, a Release Candidate of Expression Blend 3 is also published.  This comes with lot of new features like Sketchflow, Intellisense, Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator Import, Sample Test data, TFS integration, Behaviours etc.,  The final release of Expression Blend 3 is targetted for next month.

To download Silverlight3 Browser plugin, SDK and tools, do visit "www.silverlight.net"

Happy programming.

Cheers,

Saran

Dear all,

Its been a long time since I blogged in this CNUG.    Last time I had presented my experience as a speaker in CTD held on Nov 2008.   This is my second presentation in this forum meet.    I had presented on new features in Silverlight 3.   An interesting topic that is often felt as complex or difficult to understand, even I was having the same expression before diving into this.     Silverlight is very easy to start with simple applications, as we dig deep into advance concepts like RIA services, data binding it demands more understanding of the Silverlight architecture, but still it is not difficult to understand.

In this Community Tech days, I had surfed on the new features of the Silverlight3 that are broadly categorised into the following topics.

1. Media

2. Graphics

3. RIA productivity

4. Out of Browser Capability

5. Expression Blend3

1.Media:

In the media aspects, it has features like Smooth streaming, support for more format choices, True HD playback, external media format support and content protection.

2. Graphics:

In the graphics area, Siliverlight provides lot of new features to enhance the User Experience to the next level.  It has some important features like Perspective 3D Grapics, Pixel Shader effects, Theme application support, Animation effects, Bitmap Caching, New Bitmap API,  and Enhanced Control skinning.

3. RIA productivity:

SL3 is now equipped with 60+ out of the box controls to enhance the productivity of developers, it has the support for deep linking.  It enables the user to resolve SEO(Search Engine Optimisations) related challenges posed by RIAs.   It also provides enhanced data support like DataForms, Element to Element binding, Data Validations etc.,  It also improves the performance through Application library caching, Binary XML and Local Connection feature.  It is also the first browser plug in to provide support to advanced accessibility features with its full access to System colors.

4. Out of Browser capability:

This new capability of SL enables the user to run the Silverlight application in their own desktop without the need to be connected to the server online.  It is supported in Windows and Mac PCs.  As these applications run in their own Sand box with isolated storaged it will the same security restrictions as a classical web page.  Silverlight can now detect the internet connectivity and triggers the network related events accordingly, using these events the user can handle the data storage accordingly.

5. Expression Blend 3:

This EB3 release corresponds to the SL3 release.  It comes up with the feautes like Sketch flow, Support for importing Adobe Photoshop and illustrator files, higher accessible interactivity, support for sample data etc..   Expression Blend3 is now comes with Team Foundation Server support that makes its easier to integrate with team system.  Now the Expression Blend user can collaboratively working with other users in the team.

Developers who are new to Silverlight, it is still not too late to start with this wonderful technology.   First put your hands into this technology and feel the difference that you can make to this web user exeperience.

Thanks for all the participants who had attended this woderful session.   I apologise for not being there for a long time to talk to you personally(I had a planned appointment at 12:00 noon so I need to leave early).   

If you need to share your experience and clarifications then please do reach me at "saranroyal@hotmail.com".

Have a great time developing SL3 applications.

cheers,
Saran

Hi folks,

It was very heartening to know that, even in the midst of heavy deluge a huge set enthusiastic professionals had turned up for the Community Tech days.

I was one the honoured to deliver a session on "Know your tools better: Tips and Tricks on how to enhance .Net development using VS2008 and other tools" organised by our esteemed Chennai .Net user group.

This session is basically touchces upon the Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts available in VS2008(inclusive of features existing in 2003 and 2005).   I had explained some of the new features in VS2008.

Some of the highlights of this session are :

• Extension Methods
• Advancement in code snippets
• Addition and Removal of 'using' clause automatically
• Code Analysis
• Code Metrics
• Performance Wizard
• Multi Targetted environment
• SOS.dll
• Multi targetting support
• AJAX support for ASP.NET
• JavaScript Debugging Support
• LINQ Intellisense
• Javascript Intellisense support
• Intellisense Filtering
• Transparent Intellisense
• Design-Code split view
• In built Silverlight Library
• Visual Studio LINQ Designer
• Inbuilt C++ SDK

In summary, VS2008 had been equipped with lots of features that could definetly enhance the productivity .Net development.

Presentation slides will be uploaded soon....

See you with some more interesting stuffs soon.

cheers,

Saran.