I've already worked with WPF but i don't know anything about SilverLightnow I need to develop an application which can run on both Mac and Windows,so i was thinking to write an WPF Application with MVVM for Windows and run it on Mac Using SilverLight?Is that possible to port from WPF to Silverlight and how much work needs or maybe should I write the application with SilverLight from beginning,even for my Windows users?Which one is better and faster?
a quick answer is Yes..
but lot of things to do. You could share most of XAML view across platform but not all of them.
try to put all business logic into service layer like BAL or middle tier
put presentation logic into ViewModel class library
create separate XAML View (for SL and WPF)
there are several docs about target multi-platform here..
A Cross-platform WPF, Silverlight & WP7 Application at codeproject
Sharing Code Between Silverlight and WPF
Related
I'm hoping someone here can explain to me the difference between WPF and XAML exactly in this context:
I have an application (an XBAP specifically) written in VB.NET using MVVM & Repository Pattern, implementing the the usual INotifyPropertyChanged, OLEDB etc etc.
The front end of the application is written in XAML.
From what I understand there is nothing specifically "WPF" about this application. In my view its XAML + VB.NET; where does the WPF come in? Given windows 8 and the "death of Silverlight/WPF" that I keep hearing about, what should I be doing to "upgrade" my application to ensure its future?
I would greatly appreciate someone clearing up this confusion for me.
XAML + your code behind is WPF. You are using WPF. XAML is the markup used for defining the interface in WPF.
And I wouldn't worry too much at this point about "the death of Silverlight/WPF". Just because Windows 8 supports HTML5/JavaScript doesn't mean WPF has gone away. At least, not yet.
See also.
An XBAP (XAML Browser Application) is a kind of WPF XAML application, that runs in the browser. Nothing more, nothing less.
WPF isn't going away anytime soon; in fact, it received a number of enhancements in .NET 4.5. Windows 8 will continue supporting WPF whether it's run on the desktop or as an XBAP. There's no need to "upgrade" your app, but if you want to take advantage of the Windows Store and the new user interface, it's not difficult to port your WPF XAML to WinRT XAML.
See, WPF can be called as the Successor of WinForms . In WPF WE have this XAML that is simply XML but Is more powerful and has greater properties .
WPF isn't dead !
Talking about Windows Store Apps, Silverlight has lots to do with WPF and XAML
Your XBAP application uses WPF : XAML for the UI and VB.NET for the code behind.
If you want to be sure, check if the namespaces you use in the code begin with "System.Windows".
Your XBAP is just a kind of project you can create with the WPF technology. (that's an application which shows several web pages as its UI).
I saw a lot of question on this topic and it took me some time to decide whether or not I would write another one ... but I think my question is a bit more complicated ... so here we go.
I'm currently working with a WPF application using MVVM.
The application is built with:
WPF
Prism V2
Ideablade (devforce) to access a database
Avalon dock for the docking feature
Telerik for the grid component
Views and ViewModel are generated with .tt file.
Views are generated in xaml (for WPF) files.
I know that:
Telerik has Silverlight controls
Using Prism V2 will probably help me doing a Silverlight version of the application
I don't know:
If the usage of devforce can be a show stopper
If the usage of avalon dock can be a show stopper
My question:
Appart from generating xaml for Silverlight ... where do I start ...
----EDIT----
Please, avoid any comments like "Silverlight will die" or "Silverlight xaml is a subset of WPF xaml".
It is a proof of concept and should be made using Silverlight. For the xaml, I can modify the application to use only simple ui element that can be both in Silverlight and WPF.
Depending on how you actually used Prism and other frameworks this can be a lot of work or quite easy.
I'd start at the 'bottom' because I'd expect the Models and ViewModels to be quite portable, at least that is what I have experienced so far. She fact that Silverlight more or less forces you to write async code everywhere might encourage you to investigate in (yet another) framework such as Rx
The Views could be quite a hassle; you will have to find controls that provide the same features that you are using in WPF, build them or invent something new. That can be a lot of work.
Another thing to consider is when your WPF app relies on many desktop features you might consider creating an Out of Browser Silverlight App.
As with any project try to find areas that will probably need a lot of attention and do those first; it's a waste of time to get a lot of stuff working to find out later that you will have to replace it because of an impossibility elsewhere.
I had a few questions on WPF & silverlight?
When to use WPF? Some examples on
real time projects where WPF is used
When to use silverlight? some examples of real time projects where silverlight is used
What is the difference between
them?
Can WPF and Silverlight be used together?
How do WPF and silverlight differ from traditional asp.net applications (form based & MVC)???
Does Silverlight use WCF to do it's code behind stuff..like it provides an interface and uses web service to get the code behind?
WPF vs Silverlight will tell you what you want to hear...
WPF is a thick Windows client platform that has access to the full .Net Framework. Silverlight is a browser-based technology that has access to a subset of the .Net Framework
In short I would generally use WPF for form/window applications and use Silverlight for online things. Though these both can be used for either, that is how/when I would use it.
WPF and Silverlight both use XAML, so if you can code in one, you can pick up the other just as easy.
WPF is a client based platform while Silverlight is web based. WPF has the full .NET framework available while Silverlight has a streamlined "smaller" version of the framework.
The nice part is both use the same markup (XAML). Both also can work with the MVVM pattern for easy conversion from client to web app and vice versa.
I would read up a little on the web as these arethe basics of these 2 technologies.
WPF and Silverlight are conceptualy completly different things. They use same technology, but their purpouse is completly different.
WPF is thick client framework, that is supposed to replace WinForms in (I hope) nearest future. It has acces to full .NET framework.
Silverlight is Flash-like technology for rich internet applications and thin clients. It is complementary to standard ASP.NET technology. If you want to increase amount of eye-candy or give user much richer interaction options for your web, this is way to go.
They both use same visual-description technology (XAML) and same principles (DataBinding, Templating, Separation of visuals and code, etc..). But their intended usage is different.
If we develop a winform app using an MVC architecture, it should not be too hard to change over to WPF at a later date, correct?
Well designed WPF application heavily leverage data-binding. As such, you might consider using classes such as ObservableCollection and others and implement IPropertyNotify when designing your model.
Look up some references to the M-V-VM pattern advocated by Microsoft product groups (e.g., Blend) for more information.
It seems that in Codeplex there is an MVC winform open souce fmwk for developping winforms app
That framework is koossery.MVCwin, located on Codeplex at http://koosserymvcwin.codeplex.com
I just installed visio, and the installer almost seemed like it was built in flash.
The buttons kinda glowed when I hovered over them, and when I clicked on 'continue' the form phased out in a cool way.
I'm assuming it was built in WPF.
Anyhow, so are WPF more flash-like (visually speaking).
Do they have new properties where you can make forms phase out nicely/smoothly compared to winforms?
Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft. However, I don't work on Visio, WPF, CLR or Silverlight team. So, the following is my personal take on these technologies. If you want to quote me, don't do it implying it's the official Microsoft position. :-))
Update: Anything I say below about Flash/Flex/AIR might be wrong, as I have not worked with these technologies and what I know about them is based on what I read on the intertubes. :-) If you notice anything wrong, just shout in the comment and I'll correct it.
To the best of my knowledge, the Visio installer is not built with WPF. It's all unmanaged code; it's just people took a lot of care to make it really polished.
WPF is the new UI platform for building standalone applications for the Windows OS. It supports a declarative UI language - XAML, and related CLR types to program against. WPF is a different platform than WinForms, although it is possible to build applications that mix UI built with both. WPF supports a lot of things that WinForms does not, like bitmap effects, animations, control styling and so on and exposes them both in XAML or through code. Also, WPF relies heavily on vector graphics, as opposed to the pixel graphics in WinForms. In short, WPF is quite powerfull and allows building very snazzy UI. (Don't take my word for it, though, as I am biased; go check around for what people are saying about it or buiding with it. :-))
WPF and WinForms do not compete with Flash/Flex. WPF and WinForms are both UI frameworks for building standalone client applications. As far as I know, Flash/Flex are frameworks for building rich internet applications - RIA (though lately people started interpreting this abbreviation as rich interactive applications).
Adobe did come up with AIR about half a year (or maybe a year) ago, which allows building standalone client applications, so you could say that Adobe is trying to position Flash/Flex/AIR to compete with WPF. Of course, that's my take on it and I doubt Adobe's official positiong is anything like that.
If you want to compare particular MS technnologies with Flash/Flex, take a look at Silverlight - it's the MS RIA platform.
Silverlight is related to WPF in the sense that they share XAML and the corresponding CLR types. Silverlight supports only a subset of what WPF offers, though, as it is not targeting Windows OS only and thus is limited by the fact that it has to be portable.
Quick update to reflect the changes in the year since I've written the answer :-)
With Silverlight 3 shipped, SL and WPF are getting even closer and sharing bigger set of supported features. In addition, most of the new XAML controls are built for platform at the same time. Thus, SL/WPF are getting to a point of singularity...
Also, SL 3 supports out-of-browser applications. In that sense, SL is not only starting to compete with Flash/Flex, but it is also encroaching on AIR's turf.
And no, I still don't work on the WPF or Silverlight team. :-)
WPF is being used as a replacement for WinForms, and as a competitor to Flash in the form of Silverlight. WPF consists of an entirely new object model that sits on top of DirectX (at least the desktop version). You can create WPF windows, controls, etc, entirely using C# or another .Net language just like you can render WinForms. However, Microsoft has also created a markup language called XAML (eXensible Application Markup Language). Nodes in an XAML document (XML) map to objects in a similar fashion to the way ASP.Net maps to web controls. XAML typically exists in a .Net project alongside a code-behind style C# file (or VB.Net or whatever). The C# file interacts with the objects generated by the XAML. This is fairly consistent with the "graphics via markup, logic via code" model that Microsoft and others are pushing.
One of the overlooked features when discussing WPF is the completely awesome data-binding that Microsoft wrote for WPF. The new data binding framework is a quantum leap beyond Windows Forms 2.0 data-binding. Microsoft added a couple of new interfaces that make it much easier to make an object or collection emit data-biding events properly. They also provided a very rich set of data-binding classes. You can bind anything to just about anything else. You can bind one-way data to control, control to data, two-way control to data and back, control to control, etc.
Back on the graphics side of the house, WPF makes it fairly easy to make an existing control look like anything. WP lets you compose your own template for what a class of buttons should look like, or one button, or all buttons. Or radio buttons. Or labels. You get my drift. Imagine if CSS included the ability to define what an input button would look like using other HTML controls.
They also provide a number of layout controls. You can continue to use exact positioning like in WinForms, or you can leverage of variety of techniques to make your window act more like a web page that grows and shrinks with resizing, etc.
The downsides: It is too easy to create spectacular effects that crawl on slower machines. Some of the graphics do not take advantage of hardware of graphics cards, though Microsoft has incrementally improved support for this. I believe when 3.0 first came out drop shadows were rendered purely using software. I think 3.5 or 3.5 SP1 changed it so that WPF would utilize graphics hardware for the task. Microsoft has said they will continue to enhance WPF in this fashion.
WPF is .Net 3.0 and above, which runs on XP SP2, Vista, and Servers 03 & 08. So don't plan on deploying WPF to a customer with Win2k desktops.
Summary: If you are doing desktop programming in .Net, you should be doing it in WPF unless you are targeting Win2k. You can avoid the downsides of WPF, and there are many upsides. Microsoft will probably throw away WinForms in some future release, or at very least you will stop seeing new features, etc.
As far as Silverlight goes, the betas for SL 2.0 look good. I think that Silverlight will require some wide-spread adoption. Microsoft has already tried to get this going. The NBC Olypmics site used Silverlight, and Major League Baseball uses it for its MLB.tv product. As soon as Silverlight gets a good install base I think you will see the Microsoft side of the development world starting swinging away from Flash and to Silverlight.
Edit after using Silverlight 3 and MVVM:
I have moved away from WPF and am doing a lot of Silverlight 3 development. But I think my comments here will still apply to the WPF developer.
I have been using the MVVM pattern in my app (think MVC with a twist). The Microsoft Patterns and Practices team has released a set of libraries known as Prism that supports various aspects of MVVM. There are WPF and Silverlight versions. Take a look at MVVM and Prism if you are going to be doing WPF or Silverlight development.
You can do a lot of flash w/ Winforms, or with custom components. But if you want out-of-the-box bang-whizz availability, WPF is the way to go.
Yeah, I think the intention is to be flash-like, it seems to me that MS has set its sights on taking down Adobe.
The way I see it: WPF is to Flash as WinForms is to Flex. WPF has more emphasis on vectors and states than on programming.