Silverlight architecture

Silverlight

This topic describes the essential architecture and components of Microsoft Silverlight. Silverlight is not only an appealing canvas for displaying rich and interactive Web and media content to end users. It is also a powerful yet lightweight platform for developing portable, cross-platform, networked applications that integrate data and services from many sources. Furthermore, Silverlight enables you to build user interfaces that will significantly enhance the typical end user experience compared with traditional Web applications.

While Silverlight as a client-side runtime environment seems simple and compact in size, the Silverlight development platform integrates a number of features and complex technologies, making them accessible for developers. To create effective Silverlight-based applications, developers need a working knowledge of the platform architecture.

The Silverlight Platform

The Silverlight platform as a whole consists of two major parts, plus an installer and update component, as described in the following table.

Component


Description

Core presentation framework


Components and services oriented toward the UI and user interaction, including user input, lightweight UI controls for use in Web applications, media playback, digital rights management, data binding, and presentation features, including vector graphics, text, animation, and images. Also includes the Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) for specifying layout.

.NET Framework for Silverlight


A subset of the .NET Framework that contains components and libraries, including data integration, extensible Windows controls, networking, base class libraries, garbage collection, and the common language runtime (CLR).

Some parts of the .NET Framework for Silverlight are deployed with your application. These "Silverlight Libraries" are assemblies not included in the Silverlight runtime and are instead shipped in the Silverlight SDK. When Silverlight Libraries are used in your application, they are packaged up with your application and downloaded to the browser. These include new UI controls, XLINQ, Syndication (RSS/Atom), XML serialization, and the dynamic language runtime (DLR).

Installer and updater


An installation and update control that simplifies the process of installing the application for first-time users, and subsequently provides low-impact, automatic updates.

The following illustration shows these components of the Silverlight architecture, along with related components and services.

Silverlight architecture



here is a particular value in the combined set of tools, technologies, and services included in the Silverlight platform: They make it easier for developers to create rich, interactive, and networked applications. Although it is certainly possible to build such applications using today's Web tools and technologies, developers are hindered by many technical difficulties, including incompatible platforms, disparate file formats and protocols, and various Web browsers that render pages and handle scripts differently. A rich Web application that runs perfectly on one system and browser may work very differently on another system or browser, or may fail altogether. Using today's large array of tools, protocols, and technologies, it is a massive and often cost-prohibitive effort to build an application that can simultaneously provide the following advantages:

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Ability to create the same user experience across browsers and platforms, so that the application looks and performs the same everywhere.
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Integration of data and services from multiple networked locations into one application using familiar .NET Framework classes and functionality.
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A media-rich, compelling, and accessible user interface (UI).
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Silverlight makes it easier for developers to build such applications, because it overcomes many of the incompatibilities of current technologies, and provides within one platform the tools to create rich, cross-platform, integrated applications.



source : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb404713(v=VS.95).aspx