Getting Started with Silverlight 3

by kirupa | filed under Silverlight, WPF, and Blend

This is an archived tutorial from the kirupa.com legacy collection. It covers software that may no longer be available, but it is kept online because the ideas still hold up.

NOTE

this article has been replaced with a revised Getting Started guide!

Silverlight, now in its third version, is a plug-in that allows users to view interactive content inside their browsers. The interactive content can range from simple animations to full motion video to run-of-the mill business applications. That's nothing particularly new or interesting. We've had plug-ins that do all of thsese that for a long time.

Why Silverlight?

What is interesting is how Silverlight does it. Silverlight is in in many ways a subset of the WPF and .NET Framework that many designers and developers are already familiar with. When you take the more useful, web-specific components out of the .NET Framework, combine it with the media support and designer-friendliness of WPF, and sprinkle several dashes of Controls, Dynamic Languages, and a high-performance Execution Engine, you have Silverlight.

Setting up for Silverlight Design and Development

Getting started with designing and coding Silverlight applications is pretty straightforward. The following list contains everything you need:

	Expression Blend 3 + SketchFlow For designing and developing Silverlight and WPF applications, the only tool you really need is Expression Blend 3. You get a fully interactive artboard and design surface along with a code editor for writing your C# or Visual Basic code NOTE Blend 3 does not provide you with debugging abilities. For debugging support, you will need Visual Studio along with the downloads listed under Optional below.
	Install Silverlight 3 To actually view Silverlight content, both ones you create as well as what others create, you will need the Silverlight runtime!
	Silverlight and Expression Blend Tutorials Once you are setup with everything you need, the only thing remaining is to learn how to use Expression Blend to create great Silverlight content. Good thing this site has that covered!
Required for Development Using Visual Studio If you are planning on using Expression Blend for both designing as well as coding your applications, the following list is optional.
	Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Standard or Higher For developing and debugging Silverlight 3 applications, you will need Visual Studio 2008 Standard or higher. You can also use the free Visual Web Developer Express if you do not have the full Visual Studio. After installation of either Visual Studio or Visual Web Developer Express, install the Service Pack 1 to ensure you are setup for installing the Silverlight Tools.
	Silverlight 3 Tools The Silverlight Tools download is pretty much a giant bucket of sorts containing everything you need to get up and running for Silverlight development. You get the developer runtime and various patches and additions to allow you to develop your Silverlight applications in Visual Studio 2008 SP1 or Visual Web Developer Express SP1. NOTE It is very important that your Visual Studio or Visual Web Developer Express installation has Service Pack 1 installed.
	Deep Zoom Composer One of the cool features in Silverlight is the ability to visualize large quantities of image data. In order to do this, you will need to prepare your images into the Deep Zoom format, and Deep Zoom Composer allows you to do just that.
	Silverlight Toolkit The Silverlight Toolkit contains a lot of controls developed by Microsoft that don't always ship as a part of Silverlight or the SDK.

While the list seems pretty daunting, if you are coming from a .NET or WPF background, you probably already have most of the prerequisites for Silverlight development already installed.

Just a final word before we wrap up. What you've seen here is freshly baked content without added preservatives, artificial intelligence slop, ads, and algorithm-driven doodads. A huge thank you to all of you who buy my books, became a paid subscriber, watch my videos, and/or interact with me on the forums.

Your support keeps this site going! 😇

Kirupa's signature!

Need help?

Ask on the forums!

Customize Theme

Getting Started with Silverlight 3

NOTE

Why Silverlight?

Setting up for Silverlight Design and Development

Required for Development Using Visual Studio

The KIRUPA Newsletter

Follow:

Popular

Loose Ends