by Don Burnett
A lot of Adobe design folks this week who use Flash are taking a look at Silverlight this week and asking questions. I have seen this out there with customers so I am going to take a stab at helping out and making some suggestions to Adobe users if you are indeed interested in Silverlight..
- This is Microsoft's first shot at this kind of thing, so give them a break. Not everything is as polished as a version 9 or 10 product from Adobe, remember they are at a 1.0 product level (if that!)
- Microsoft assumes that you have some programming knowledge, knowing how to animate in flash and use components with flex and even databind to an ADO datasource doesn't necessarily mean that you have the knowledge to put together some programming concepts that Microsoft (coming from software development background) assumes you might know with some of the stuff I'll talk about below.
- This is really great technology. The learning curve might be a little steep for you, but there are resources out there that can help you take advantage of this great new technology.
Okay here's some criticisms of Silverlight so far.. This one comes from a Blend 2.0 user.. I am going to try to answer some of these..
"HELP there are no UI controls in Blend 2.0" for Silverlight..
Silverlight is still in the early development stages so a lot of the UI controls are still being developed. The first version relied on javascript, the 1.1 alpha now includes support for the .net CLR runtime. This lets you add custom controls quite easily. In the Alpha 1.1 sdk they have included some controls that you can use. The unfortunate thing is they don't really give you instructions for incorporating their use into Blend yet. I see this as a big issue if you don't already know how to use WPF custom controls. It's okay to do this for the developer community, but the designer community will need a little more support on how to do things and incorporate stuff to get a functional environment they can actually use.. They want to focus on design and not coding.
Controls supported currently in the 1.1a sdk
Button
Slider
ScrollBar
ScrollViewer
ListBox
These controls work great if you are familiar enough with Visual Studio (most designers are not) and you can even go in and edit their look and feel in the XAML. Microsoft is still finalizing what controls they will subset from WPF in Silverlight. This is because this capability is so new to this version of Silverlight.
I don't think the extra UI controls even made it into Blend. Blend supports user controls in regular WPF so I assume when they have ironed out supporting both the CLR and Javascript and just what UI controls from WPF they will include in the final 1.0 release. We'll then see them supported. Right now Blend really only supports those Silverlight features found in the 1.0 beta in terms of controls. It is possible to use the custom controls from the SDK but it will take some knowledge about how to add them to your project in Blend and have the program recognize they are there.
Another way around this is to just use the HTML controls along side Silverlight on your page. You can either add regions of Silverlight controls alongside regular html ones.. There are several demos out there that do this rather effectively, so it is possible you just have to learn the technique.
I'd point you at the following examples.. of HTML controls alongside XAML (Silverlight)
Viewing Albums with Silverlight and ASP.NET AJAX
And many more samples at http://www.silverlight.net
I am not sure many non-developers will understand placing basic controls in an SDK instead of the Blend 2.0 preview but I am sure that time was an issue about getting all this out the door in the timeframe they had...
NOT TO BE LEFT OUT ASP.NET
If you just want to play with video and XAML and you are an ASP.NET kind of developer you need to download the ASP.NET futures release which includes a Silverlight VIDEO control, and a XAML Control for Visual Studios "ORCAS"..
More designers in need of help to get started questions later this week.. Stay Tuned for More Detail..
EDIT:
PS Someone mentioned that I shouldn't assume all Adobe folk are designers, I don't, it's just the question I tried to answer above was something I saw on other forums that more than one person was asking about.. I fully realize there will be some people out there who won't have any issues with this but there are people that are and my point in this post is not just to help them out but point out that for those people having trouble we shouldn't just leave them out there floundering.
One of the things I really do admire about Adobe is they support all types of customers in all types of situations from beginners on up. Microsoft up until these new products have only supported a more rigid defined customer type. Dealing with support for designers is a little different than dealing with programmers who code C# classes in their sleep (for instance), so it's very important to craft the support and the provided tools to audiences.
Information I present to a designer on how to do something might not be the same way I'd present to a .Net developer. It's not meant to offend anyone but when I see questions like that above, it's obvious to me that there are people out there who just aren't getting it and I'd like to see these people favorably be able to use the toolsets out there as well even if they aren't comfortable diving into an Alpha quality SDK from Microsoft.
If you are in Michigan for instance looking for resources on programming and designing with Silverlight and WPF, you should check out our WPF Design Group. We hold monthly meetings. Our website can be found at: http://www.michiganinteractivedesigners.org.
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