So on the 14/10 Microsoft shipped the latest version of Silverlight called RTW (Release To Web). So finally Silverlight 2 applications using the .net framework will start appearing around the web. With the ability to use .net you are able to create clean, reusable components that you can either create yourself or use 3rd party.

So what are the major benefits of Silverlight 2

1. UI Framework - includes improved animation support, error handling and reportingm keyboard input and general performance.
2. Rich Controls - The Visual State Manager allows for easier templating of controls. New controls have been added to the Beta 2 which include ProgressBar, PasswordBox and ComboBox
3. Networking Support - Improved Cross-domain support and security enhancements. Upload support.
4. Rich Base Class Library - ADO.NET, LINQ, and various other improvements to make network/error handling easier.
5. Content Protection - Now includes DRM powered by PlayReady.
6. Cross Platform, Cross Script - Includes support for Mac, Linux, Safari and Windows

To install Silverlight 2 RTW you can follow these steps

1. Uninstall all Silverlight items from your control panel
2. Uninstall Microsoft Expression Blend (Beta versions only)
3. Restart your PC and create a restore point
4. Download and install the Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1
5. Make sure you have Expression Blend 2 installed. 
6. Download and install the Install Microsoft Expression Blend 2 Service Pack 1
7. Restart your PC
8. Visit http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/resources/install.aspx to determine that the Silverlight RTW runtime is installed.

If you have any issues please feel free to drop me a comment below

You should note that Microsoft are telling us that any Silverlight 2 Beta 2 application will break under the new RTW release. The first step is to update you development machine as instructed above and then in your object tag change the data tag from:

This should allow your application to try and run using the new plugin. You will more than likely hit errors so the next best step is to open up the solution and build the project. I have found that most issues are to do with the XAML and mainly the Visual State Manager. So take a look there and if your stuck let me know or hit the forums.

So after attending MIX08 in brighton we knew there would be an Release Candidate (RC) coming soon but I wasn't expecting it that soon  Quite a few changes have been made in RC0 and while a lot of these effect the XAML there are some changes in the codebehind.

 Installation steps:

1. Remove all Silverlight items from your control panel (runtime, sdk, tools)
2. Remove all versions of Blend (except Blend 2)
3. Restart your machine
4. Install the Microsoft Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1
5. Install the Microsoft Expression Blend 2 Service Pack 1 Preview
6. Restart your machine
7. Open a project

 Hopefully everything should go smoothly and you should be able to open a previous project and create new ones. One thing you will notice is that almost every project will break under the new RC0. This is because of significant changes to the Visual State Manager (VSM).

There is some good news  there are 3 new controls at present (ComboBox, ProgressBar and PasswordBox). There is a new way to skin the control's too which we will go into detail in a future post. One thing to be aware of there isn't a release date for the RC for the client so anything you develop in RC won't be usable with the Beta 2 runtime, but also visa versa anything built in Beta 2 will need amending when RC goes live.

So take a look but just think carefully about which is the correct runtime to use when developing your next app.

Happy Coding!

Well having returned from another Mix event I am happy to say this year was a big improvement over last year! This year was filled with Silverlight content which made a massive difference to last years event where Silverlight was talked about but there was little in the way of actual show 'n' tell.

On Day One I attended the following sessions:

1. Introduction to Silverlight 2 - Part 1
2. Introduction to Silverlight 2 - Part 2
3. ADO.NET Data Services for the Web (a.k.a. Project "Astoria")
4. XNA Game Studio: What can it do and how to get started

On Day Two I attended the following sessions:

1. Internationalizing WPF And Silverlight Applications
2. Internet Explorer 8: Pushing the Web Forward
3. No Silverlight App is an Island (of Richness)
4. n/a
5. Beyond Silverlight with Windows Presentation Foundation

Finally I'd like to say thank you to Microsoft for the drinks at Koba and I look forward to attend many more Microsoft events.

Below are a couple of snaps that I found online (I haven't taken mine off my phone yet )

Well I am packing up for ReMix08 and thought I'd make a final post before I leave. If you are going hopefully I will bump into you at the event

The agenda can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/remix08/agenda.aspx

Stefan Debrov has posted an article on how to 'hack' Blend into having intellisense simular to Visual Studio. Now why I wouldn't normally post about 'hacks' or workarounds a friend has implemented this and told me it rocks so I thought I'd point you all in the direction of the post

The only issue I have heard is that the intellisense suggestions are based upon WPF and not purely Silverlight so if you select something that isn't valid within Silverlight Blend just throws up an error. But it even nicely highlights the issue for you. So if you need assistance and feel more comfortable using the Blend enviroment why not give it a go.

The post can be found here: http://blogs.telerik.com/StefanDobrev/Posts/08-08-04/IntelliSense_for_Expression_Blend.aspx 

Let us know how you get on

The first service pack for Visual studio 2008 has been released. At the same time the guys (and girls ) at Microsoft have been busy and have also shipped an updated Silverlight Tools. The downloads can be downloaded at:

• Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (release and full download)
• Silverlight 2 Beta 2 tools refresh for SP1

Please follow the installation instructions below otherwise you might get some issues.

1. Download Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and burn the .ISO to a disc
2. Close all applications and install the SP1 from the dics
3. Restart your PC once the installation is complete
4. Download and install the new Silverlight 2 Beta 2 tools
5. Restart your PC
6. Begin using Visual Studio on your Silverlight app's  

If you have any questions or issues feel free to post below or seek help in the Silverlight Forums

EDIT: I have come across a small bug, something when installing SP1 on a fresh build of Vista you get an InitalizeError message being displayed and the Silverlight isn't rendered out on the screen correctly. To resolve this simply remove the IIS window component, restart the PC and re-install the IIS window component and it should be fixed

On Channel 10 they have released a video which is showing of some sneak peaks of the Silverlight Mobile plugin working on a HTC device. Anyway why not take a look? I have linked to the video below

The is also now a Silverlight Mobile tag on Channel 10 so keep an eye on SilverlightBlog.com for any future updates.

As some of you might be aware Silverlight will be released for mobile/cell phones in the not to distant future. The first release of the Silverlight mobile plugin will support Silverlight 1.0 using Javascript not the Silverlight 2 using .net. This is exactly the same route that we went down before with the desktop release. There is no public release date yet but I would expect the release Q4/08 or Q1/09 (this is just a estimate though!)

Even though the release is underwraps Microsoft have been very clever and already signed Nokia up to support Silverlight. Nokia have a 53% market share which should put them in a good position with the likes of Adobe trying to grow flash into the same market.

Giorgio Sardo's blog has some interesting demo's and links of the Silverlight mobile plugin in action. To see the demo video's you can visit his blog here.

• Silverlight Mobile Developer
• Silverlight Mobile Demo Videos
• Silverlight Blog Mobile

It's just over a month till Mix08 UK starts and I was looking at the agenda trying to decide the sessions to attend. Now I am primarily interested in the Silverlight sessions and I am definatly attending Mike Taulty's and Jesse Liberty's sessions on Day 2 but as I have been using Silverlight 2 for a while now I'm not sure whether to attend Scott's sessions on Day 1 or maybe take a look at some of the other sessions. The Surface session and the XNA game studio session would be quite interesting.

Are you coming? Have you seen the agenda? If you have choosen a session why not let me know. If your going to the same session as me then why not pop bye and say hi

An example on Silverlight.net highlights in a simple way that you can have multiple themes on the same controls to give a totally different look and feel. It's nothing new in the web world as you are able to change stylesheets using javascript but I thought the example highlighted it extremely well using Silverlight.

The link to the example is here.