For my first ever mobile app project (which will eventually become an actual commercial project), I would like to try out .NET MAUI. Unfortunately since it's still in pre-release, there is scarce documentation and no tutorial projects for it. I did find the Xamarin tutorial here:
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/xamarin/hello-world-tutorial/intro
... but I don't think it's compatible with .NET MAUI.
Are there any other places where a newbie mobile developer who knows Visual Studio and C# can see an example app and be able to learn through creating an app on the level of, say, the Contoso University web app I went through to learn ASP.NET Core with data model? Can a Xamarin tutorial be tweaked to work with .NET MAUI? If so, I would be happy to help with that process. Now that I think about it, since I developed my web site based on the Contoso model, maybe I could help create a mobile app in .NET MAUI for that Contoso project? Anyone at Microsoft interested?
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We need to create an application that can be used via the browser but that can also be used while offline.
The browser Version will be used by our customer to do calculations. Each customer needs to log into the application with a username and Password.
The offline version will be used by our own employees. They need to be able to use this Version while not connected to a Network.
The data that is needed for the application will be stored in XML files.
We are mainly programming with C# and the .NET-Framework. We thought about using WPF for the client version.
I have read that you can use Silverlight or XBAP to create a browser Version of the WPF application. AFAIK Silverlight is a dying Technology. How about XBAP? Would you still invest into this Technology?
The other solution would be to create two front end applications: The WPF application as an offline application and a web application (e.g. ASP.NET MVC) as a web application. Thought, this would mean that we would have to create two frontends (more work).
Is there another alternative?
Would it be better to create an HTML/JavaScript application (e.g. with AngularJ or something similar)?
As a former Silverlight Developer I can only recommend not to use Silverlight for new application development. Microsoft has suspended the further development of Silverlight and you will not get any new features (only security fixes). I really liked the technology and the similarity to WPF but for me it is deprecated.
Even some Browsers (like Chrome) do not support Silverlight anymore and you need a workaround to get it running (See also Chrome doesn't support silverlight anymore? How to solve this?)
Develop a Backendsystem that provides a REST-API (using ASP.NET WebApi as an example) for your clients and develop a Browser client application using modern HTML/CSS/JavaScript Frameworks. If needed/required a desktop application using WPF that consumes the REST-API.
Silverlight may be dying, but that does not mean you should avoid using it. Silverlight is still a viable technology that you can use, however browser trends seem to be phasing out Silverlight support. As far as I know, Microsoft Edge browser is no longer supporting Silverlight, so you will need to use Internet Explorer. This isn't the end of the world, but it's something to think about.
As for WPF, this too is being replaced by Windows Universal Apps, albeit slowly. However this isn't too much of an issue as the skills you have learnt in WPF are easily transferrable. WPF itself is not receiving as many new features as it used to, you could say it's finished.
It isn't always easy to keep up with the latest trends, and there will always be something cool and hip just around the corner, however one thing is for sure, the .NET Platform, including the new refactored Universal App APIs are here to stay, and won't die any time soon.
The current trend sees Web Technologies, such as ASP.NET playing a much bigger role than traditional desktop/tablet/phone applications. I would say that developing for a web browser is certainly a popular choice.
That being said, Windows Universal Apps is also a good choice, in fact, any technology that makes use of the .NET Framework is ideal.
As for my recommendation, I would suggest looking into an ASP.NET web application or Web API to which a desktop application, such as WPF (still a viable technology for enterprise applications) or Universal Windows App can hook into. An ideal scenario would be that both applications share the same back-end code, which is certainly possible as they both use the .NET Framework.
For your requirements, it may even be possible to avoid having to create a desktop application altogether, a web application can be hosted on a machine on the local network and clients can still use the web app. This is assuming that these clients don't have internet access of course.
TL;DR: .NET is legit, use ASP.NET.
I am new to this technology. Actually I am confused, Silverlight, is it a web development language, desktop application or both?
Can I develop web site using Silverlight?
Silverlight is a subset of WPF. WPF is used for Windows based application and silverlight is used for web based application. However both use XAML language from UI perspective. http://www.lynda.com/ has nice videos for learning Silverlight.
Actually I am confused SilverLight is web development language or desktop application or both?
Both (as well as being usable for development targeting XBox 360) … although its use for client side web development is something of a joke (as it is like less well supported Flash).
At my job we are developing a GIS application which will be developed using Silverlight + .NET
But, I heard that Silverlight will not be supported by Microsoft as also they are stopping Silverlight, is it true ?
Is it suggestable to use Silverlight if so with which version of silverlight we can use. ?
Thanks.,
Use Silverlight 5. Current version have 10 year support, and it better than Flash, java or damn it html.
In the future you can migrate to another .NET-based framework by easily porting code.
About silver light support, you can find these answers from Microsoft Silverlight Support Lifecycle Policy.
Keeping in mind that MS would support these browsers till 2021, I would recommend using Silverlight5 if you really have to use Silverlight.
However for new developments I would recommend you to evaluate Html5 as well.
YES! Silverlight is still the best technology to use for web based Line of Business applications. Silverlight will be supported for another 10 years and it will be available within Windows 8 desktop. Silverlight +[Arc]GIS are a great combination. It is so easy to create full functioning application and with little effort. Silverlight is not dead. It is still a great technology to use that is available on (almost) every platform.
Ultimately it comes down to:
1) What do you know: Are you an HTML/JavaScript ninja? Then use that, do you know Flex better then your own children? Or are you a skilled .Net assassin?
2) How much time do you have? Do you want to learn something new and have gobs of time? Then go for that new shiny object (HTML5) and get yourself some street cred.
This probably belongs on programmers.stackexchange.com. However:
Silverlight will continue to be supported for some time, but all signs point to it no longer being actively developed.
If you want a technology that's actively developed, I'd recommend HTML 5 for web based applications and WinRT for Windows 8+ native applications.
Ultimately, though, you should go with what works best for your situation. After all, WinForms is still used on many successful greenfield projects.
Silverlight is based on the NPAPI architecture that is no longer supported on Google Chrome (from browser version 42 upward) though you can still run it on IE and Firefox. HTML5 is supported on all browsers.
From a career standpoint, using Silverlight (which uses XAML) gets you an easier entry into developing apps for Metro/Windows Store/Universal Windows Apps (these can be developed using HTML5/JS too but you'll find a larger developer base using C#/XAML).
Finally if you're already a WPF developer, it's fastest if you develop for Silverlight. See Silverlight vs Flash vs HTML5.
Is there anyway to insert the MS Pubcenter Ads into a WPF 4.0 C# application. If so, please show me step by step how.
The pubcenter does not support ads within anything other than WP7 or Win8 apps. Hopefully this will change to include standard desktop apps as we have a moderately successful game on WP7 that I would like to integrate ad support for and release on the desktop, but for now we'll need to look elsewhere for desktop ad revenue. I haven't found a solution yet either, unfortunately, so if anyone has a suggestion I'd like to hear it too.
I'm in the early planning stages of an internal application and I'm considering ASP.NET MVC and Silverlight 4 as my possible platforms.
The Environment
We're a Microsoft shop and we're in the process of migrating desktops to Win7 (from XP) and servers to W2k8, I'll be able to get Silverlight 4 installed as part of our baseline Win7 build
The Application
Provide a dashboard to monitor system status
Monitoring third party connections
Monitoring database tables for particular events
Monitoring SQL Server Log Shipping
...
Provide portal like access to system tasks to end users
Bulk updates to databse rows
Running SSRS Reports
Re-running automated tasks that have failed
...
The Team
We're a small team of 2 and neither of us have production exeprience in Silverlight or ASP.NET MVC so we'll be learning whichever we go for.
What would you pick and why?
The answer really depends on your experience. If you are an experienced web developer and have a lot of practice with ASP.NET then use that for sure. If your background is WPF and WinForms then use Silverlight.
My experience is that the ramp up time to use Silverlight for an ASP.NET developer is significantly longer than it is for a straight .NET application developer. The ASP.NET developer has to unlearn a great deal before they begin because the development paradigm for Silverlight is more akin to app development.
The other alternative is to use both. ASP.NET for the navigation, authentication, general layout and Silverlight for the data realisation (graphs etc).
I would pick ASP.NET MVC. I have experience in both Silverlight and ASP.NET MVC and Silverlight undoubtedly has a steeper learning curve. While it will definitely enable you to develop rich user interfaces (it enables amazing composition) it may be overkill for an internal application.
ASP.NET MVC on the other hand will enable you to do what you are aiming to achieve but I believe (due to the learning curve) you'll be able to do so MUCH more quickly. It is also much easier in my experience to enable dependency injection and write unit tests for ASP.NET MVC than it is for silverlight which may or may not be a consideration..
Silverlight. I think ASP.NET MVC more for public websites, whereas internal applications - Webforms or Silverlight in your case.
Silverlight - Desktop > Web for applications (not for simple data presentations though) whenever possible. The bad news is that desktop is not always possible. The good news is that it is possible for you. You can even use the out of browser features which is even cooler.
Use Silverlight with the MVVM pattern.