Does Silverlight work with IE 6, are there any gotchas?
Just wondering if this is an alternative for customers stuck with IE 6.
I have worked on sites that run on IE6 and we were able to work well in Silverlight. As Silverlight is a Plugin, it doesn't matter what they underlying browser is, as long as it is the once supported by Silverlight team. We didnt come across any issues, we had worked on data driven app.
For client OSs the answer is yes
More detail on wikipedia about compatible OSs and browsers
Related
I'm planning web application and considering silverlight as development platform. Will it help to solve browser compatibility issues? The app intended to be used on desktops only (no mobile).
Yes, it will solve browser compatibility issues, and could work on both Mac OS and Windows with the very same code.
The only drawback is that, the first time your user connect to your application, he will need to download the Silverlight plugin.
Awesome you would say? Well, unfortunately some people that probably never try to do something like image processing or advanced line of business application in a browser decide that plugins are not so cool and that you would be able to do the same thing with the magic power of HTML5.
We are still waiting to have the same possibility in HTML5 that we have in Silverlight or Flash, but plugins are already dead. At least as long as no big compay want to push them again.
So, my advice would be: don't start a project in Silverlight. You will have problems, even if you do not target mobile. For example it becomes harder and harder to find compatible good tools (like ReSharper, NCrunch, or even just a decent unit testing library). And in further release of Windows and Mac OS, it will probably not be supported at all (IE for Windows RT already does not support Silverlight).
Sorry man, Silverlight is dead, you arrive after the battle.
If your developing your application for an Intranet, I would say Silverlight is an excellent choice.
If you are developing for the Internet, use an HTML based language
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.
I'm considering XBAP with full trust, but just heard about SL5's ability to P/Invoke. This is quite exciting because XBAP deployments are very difficult considering it only really works with IE, works sometimes with Firefox, and never with chrome.
Does anyone have details on this feature, and its cross browser support (on an x86 machine of course)
There are some examples of using P/Invoke on Silverlight 5 RC here and here. Just today I posted on my blog regarding the possibility to access native DLL:s other than the regular system DLL:s.
I normally run Chrome, and Silverlight P/Invoke works like a charm. I assume that IE should not be any problem either. Have to admit I have not tested Firefox or Opera, but maybe someone else has some experience with this?
Regards,
Anders # Cureos
We have been using Adobe Flex for a major project but it's just too slow.
We're considering switching to Silverlight.
The problem seems to be that Silverlight is not as widely supported by browsers as Flex/Flash is.
For example I tried to access the Silverlight showcase using Safari for Windows but it didn't work.
A web RIA platform surely has to have browser ubiquity as its foundation?
Browser Plugins are essentially native applications, so you essentially need a Plugin for each architecture.
For example, there is no 64-Bit Flash Plugin for Windows, so I always have to use 32-Bit IE for that. I also believe that there is no Linux-PPC support, but it's been a while since I've looked at that. And that new JavaFX stuff from Sun also does not run on many platforms and browsers.
For a list of supported Platforms, Wikipedia has a neat table:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverlight#Compatibility
IMHO Flash is the only thing that comes near perfection. Microsoft is just supporting a few major browsers.
Does anyone know if silverlight plugs into chrome, or when they plan to support it?
This guy have had partial success with silverlight in chrome, but it does not seem to be supported:
http://wildermuth.com/2008/09/02/Silverlight_2_and_Google_Chrome
From The Microsoft Silverlight Team in the silverlight forum:
Hello, currently we don't have plans
to support Chrome. We will support it
in the future if it gains enough
market share. Please understand, each
browser implements the plug-in model
differently, so it'll be a lot of
effort to officially support a browser
100%... By the way, IE 8 also runs
each tab in its own process. If a tab
crashes, other tabs will still work
fine.
UPDATE:
Jon Galloway has just posted instructions on how to get silverlight successfully running on Chrome here:
http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2008/09/17/silverlight-on-chrome.aspx
The official word on what is supported looks like this:
alt text http://www.jesseliberty.com/sl/browsers.jpg
The reality is that we do run on a lot of browsers, but things change might quickly in these here parts.
For what it is worth, the Dev Branch of Google Chrome was recently updated to support Silverlight 2. I tried it and it works for me. Of course, you have to use the Dev release of Google Chrome. You can get more information about switching to Chrome Dev here.
Silverlight already works with web-kit, and since Google's Chrome is based on web-kit, it shouldn't be too much effort to get it working.
Indeed, this gentleman seems to have had some success.
Based on this, I would suspect that Silverlight will be fully supported by Chrome by the time it goes gold.