Jesse Liberty

CreateSilverlight() and its wrapper, CreateSilverlightEx() both take an optional sixth and seventh parameter. The sixth, initParam takes a string parameter that you can easily fetch in your javascript code; it becomes an attribute of the Silverlight control (plugin) itself.

For example, you can modify the starter sample that Visual Studio 2008 creates for you by adding this line to Default.html.js:

The sixth parameter must be a string. How you use that string is entirely up to you.  . To see using this parameter at work, modify HandleMouseUp in  Scene.xaml.js as follows:

handleMouseUp: function(sender, eventArgs) 
{
    var mouseUpAnimation = sender.findName("mouseUp");
    mouseUpAnimation.begin(); 

    var paramValue = this.plugIn.initParams;
    alert(paramValue);
}

In this case, you're accessing the value of the parameter passed in by the user, and placing it into the alert box when the button is clicked.

One of the parameters you pass in when creating a Silverlight object is the parameter isWindowless. That parameter defaults to false.

Normally, you do want isWindowlessto be set to false, because when it is set to true, you pay a very large performance penalty. However, there are two circumstances under which you must set it to true.

1. If you want the background to be transparent, you must set isWindowless to true
2. if you want to overlay an HTML control on top of your Silverlight control, you must set isWindowless to true.

The second issue of using an HTML overlay arises quite frequently. To see this at work, create a new Silverlight 1.0 application in Visual Studio 2008.

Add the following select statement to default.html

    <select id="colors"  style=" position:relative; left:20px; top:30px ">
        <option>"Black"</option>
        <option>"Red"</option>
        <option>"Orange"</option>
        <option>"Yellow"</option>
        <option>"Green"</option>
        <option>"Blue"</option>
        <option>"Indigo"</option>
        <option>"Violet"</option>
    </select>

Run the application and you'll see that the drop-down is immediately covered by the button created by the sample XAML. . As noted above, the default is for isWindowless to be false and therefore for Silverlight controls to be windowed. Windowed Silverlight controls have a z-index of 1 and are always on top.

Open up default.HTML.JS and change the isWindowless parameter to true, and run the application again. This time the HTML overlay appears on top of the Silverlight control. Windowless Silverlight controls do not have as z-index of 1, and so you can overlay HTM controls on top of them.

Microsoft is currently offering Microsoft Expression Encoder for a free 180 day trial complete with support for Silverlight as described in previous Tips of the Day hand, as shown in various Learning Videos.

To download your free copy, go to the Silverlight site and click on Get Started. Scroll down to Designer Tools and click on Expression Encoder. Note, the initial licenses is for 60 days, but the directions on the download page include a trial product key that extends the license for 180 days.

If you drag a movie into Microsoft expression encoder, not only can you add the movie and set metadata and otherwise manipulate the media, but you can also choose a template for the output that includes a Silverlight player that encoder will create as part of its output. You can use this player as-is, or you can edit it in Visual Studio to your own specification.

Even this starter player can save you a great deal of hand coding and make the creation of a complex video player a simple task.

You can see an illustration of how to do this in our learning video on the creation of a hyper-video player, and you may want to review our two-part series on creating a full video player here and here.

This morning I awoke at my normal hour, stepped out onto my driveway slid 15 feet and instantly realized that I had but three choices:

1. Continue sliding until I slid down the steep part of my driveway some 200 feet into the roadway or
2. Fall backwards and crack my head, potentially leaving an artistic but unpleasant blood blot at the top of my driveway or
3. Fall forward in an athletic and graceful tumble

Needless to say, I chose option three; put my arms out in front, forgot to roll and won a free ride in our town ambulance. I was then rewarded with 10 hours in the emergency room, four hours in the operating room and will now be doing my tip of the day using dictation software.

Here's how. If you installed the 1.0 SDK to Visual Studio 2005, a directory was created under Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C# named Silverlight (which contains a zip file). You can copy and paste that entire directory (with its zip file) into Visual Studio 2008\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C# as is and it just works.

Doing so will give you the project template in Visual Studio 2008 to create Silverlight 1.0 projects

(Click on image to see it at correct size)

NB: This is the first Tip of the Day, but not the last, on Programming Silverlight. The idea was inspired by the incredibly useful Visual Studio Tip of the Day offered by Sara Ford. 

Each Tip of the Day will be tagged, and will have a subject beginning "Did you know…"

I had the opportunity to speak yesterday to the SWANH (Software Association of New Hampshire) user group in Bedford New Hampshire on the topic of Next Generation Interfaces.

This is not the type of talk I usually give, as it was targeted at folks who were exploring both Silverlight and Flex, and so were more interested in an overview than in getting into the code in detail. They were very understanding of my explanation of how I see my role, however, and I split the difference: spending some time in PowerPoint (with thanks to Brad Abrams for letting me steal some of his excellent slides) and some time building and then reviewing the hyper-video demo.

This was followed by a presentation by a Flex Evangelist from Adobe and then by a Flex user and then a general Q&A. All and all, it was a lot of fun and everyone was very welcoming and friendly.

You can download the slides here (with enormous thanks to Brad Abrams, from whom I stole shamelessly) and you can find the complete example code (along with a video in which I walk through the code more thoroughly and carefully) here

Thanks again.

It is possible, with the new release of Visual Studio, to find that you can no longer run 1.0 applications. Here is the scenario:

1. You install Visual Studio 2008 (RTM)
2. You install Silverlight 1.1
3. You create and run a Silverlight 1.0 application and it asks you to install Silverlight 1.0 saying you have a more advanced copy. When you try, it refuses, and the message won't go away.

Argh. (oh, the video we offer to show you how to uninstall on Vista is broken, so don't bother!)

The fix, fortunately, is quite easy.

1. Open control panel
2. Navigate to Programs and Features.
3. Scroll down to Microsoft Silverlight (under "M")
4. Click on and highlight Microsoft Silverlight
5. Click on Uninstall.

Once it is uninstalled, go to the Showcase page on Silverlight.net and you'll see a box on the left offering to install Silverlight 1.0. Click Install Now and then choose Run. (You may have to give permission to "run Active-X control).

Hey! Presto! Fixed.

I apologize for this inconvenience.