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Home Forums General Silverlight Getting Started Silverlight Platform Support
20 replies. Latest Post by Synced on November 16, 2007.
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armanddp
Member
0 points
1 Posts
05-01-2007 1:25 PM |
Saw the great Silverlight demos at the MEDC and Silverlight was demoed running on a Windows Mobile device. Will that bits be made available for download from this site sometime in the near future?
Also, any plans to support any browsers running on the Symbian and other consumer platforms? (Btw. Mac support is fantastic thanks for that!)
robertunoki
22 points
11 Posts
05-09-2007 7:54 PM |
Hello - glad you enjoyed the demos. The demo was a real prototype of silverlight ported to Windows Mobile 6.0 renderering mainly XAML based visuals. (ie - it was real code - no smoke and mirrors) You can check out my blog for a few more specifics on the demo.
We currently don't have a release schedule at this point that I can share. This will be a very likely spot that we will make announcements of availability in the future.
Symbian and other platforms are interesting targets. We have no firm plans at the moment.
Synced
177 points
116 Posts
05-10-2007 11:03 AM |
Good morning.
I work for a company that is building enterprise level solutions on Windows Mobile devices. I am very interested in Silverlight or WPF based technologies on Windows Mobile. However our application runs as a local Winforms application currently. I know that Silverlight is a web based technology but is there any possibility of Silverlight being utilized for mobile applications in this manner?
If not then is WPF or a subset of WPF being ported to Windows Mobile? I see great potential for WPF based technologies on a mobile device however not all will want an internet connection or an active internet connection, so being entirely browser driven may be a problem.
Thanks and take care.
05-10-2007 6:15 PM |
We haven't driven any stakes in the ground of what the containment architecture for Silverlight on Windows Mobile will be. Thanks for sharing your scenario - now is a good time since we are considering these things. We'll release more details as we get things firmed up.
synced
05-11-2007 9:22 AM |
Sounds great :) We were at your MEDC conference last week. If theres any questions I can answer to describe our needs on Windows Mobile please ask. We are one of the leaders in enterprise level applications on mobile devices and as one of the developers I can see WPF display technologies being something very valuable on them.
05-11-2007 11:35 AM |
Is your primary platform that you target Windows Mobile? Or do you have Windows CE devices that you target in addition? Any other platforms?
05-11-2007 12:26 PM |
Yes the primary platform is Windows Mobile. Currently were just transitioning to the .NET CF v2 (jumping to sp2) from v1. In doing so we are targeting Windows Mobile 2005 for our development going forward in our current version. As far as our support for previous versions of our software we still support Windows Mobile 2003, however as mentioned newer development now is being shifted to CF 2 and WM 2005.
I do not believe we have any CE based devices deloyed. We are also looking at Smart Phone in the future but this is not something pressing. I'm not sure if any customers are requesting this, or if its simply the company trying to cover more platforms.
I really like the potential of WPF based technology on mobile devices because it gives us much more to work with graphically. Being vector based if whichever WPF technology makes it to Windows Mobile (be it silveright or WPF) if it also contains layout (which silverlight does not currently) such as Anchoring/Docking that Winforms has then making UI's flexible across many devices should be a very trivial task. Especially for forms where there is not much UI and you simply need it to scale and anchor/dock to resize.
Outside of that though I really am hoping either Silverlight on Windows Mobile or another derived WPF will allow either non-browser based or some sort of manner where the app runs and feels "local". As WPF is a step up over Winforms, we want the same on Windows Mobile.
If we could maintain our current architecture (lots of XML crunching, custom HTTP communication library for syncing data between our Windows Mobile client & server backend) and replace our Winforms front end with WPF/XAML this gives us really rich UI possibilities.
Also just as a matter of opinion. Let's face it mobile devices need flashy UI's and animations. This really isn't possible in Winforms outside of a ton of images which isn't a great solution. Over time Windows Mobile is getting more what I call "consumer" looking than "desktop" looking however bringing a WPF/XAML technology can put us all over the top in what we can be capable of.
For example that MLB demo from the Silverlight on CF demo. Try doing that on Winforms. I'm sure its possible but not very easily and cleanly and taking up a ton of memory with images.
Sorry just blurted out all my thoughts :)
05-11-2007 12:39 PM |
Hey - thanks for the thorough reply. It's helpful and I really appreciate it.
CJCraft.com
50 points
18 Posts
05-19-2007 8:31 PM |
Hi,
I'd also strongly like to request the ability to run Silverlight applications as a local client application, in addition to the default Web based support.
We work with a large number of large enterprise level companies, and our applications tend to demand the ability to handle being disconnected even if it is only for rare and short periods of time. We have always used SQL CE, SQL Mobile, SQL Compact Edition, sometimes with merge replication and sometimes with Web services.
I'd be glad to present our business case in more detail, feel free to contact me.
Thanks,
twisterjosh
4 points
2 Posts
06-16-2007 12:20 PM |
I completely agree. I too would love to see it run as a client side application, in addition to web based... I actually half-way expected WM 6 to have it built in, with much of its apps built on it... I guess not though - although I don't know anything about WM 6 yet, I'm just now getting to the whitepapers.
Thanks for all your work. I would love to see this on Mobile!
adntaylor
2 points
07-06-2007 4:25 AM |
I'm going to chime in with my opinion that it would be brilliant to allow WPF/e for writing apps on Windows CE -based embedded computers; it would make building great looking GUIs much simpler, which would be fantastic for home automation control points, in-store advertising & point of information, and a whole bunch of other things!
Ah go on! If you can get it running on WM6, you can get it running on CE 6!!
Very cool stuff - thanks!
pentian
6 points
4 Posts
07-24-2007 12:11 PM |
I also would like to vote for Silverlight support in WM6, as both a sandboxed web app and standalone applications. In fact, I think it would be absolutely essential with the myriad of different device resolutions out there nowadays (640x480, 320x240, 240x240, 840x480, etc) and it would allow for much greater creativity and richness in the user experience. Silverlight streaming on the handheld would also be amazing, as it would allow for automatic scaling and full screen video over the web. Also imagine the skins that can be created for a replacement shell, allowing UI improvements that can put the iPhone to shame :)
07-25-2007 9:04 AM |
"Also imagine the skins that can be created for a replacement shell, allowing UI improvements that can put the iPhone to shame :)"
My thoughts exactly. The first time I saw the interface for the iPhone my first thoughts were, "Silverlight could so do that!"
I'm excited!
pravinpa...
11-03-2007 1:51 AM |
Hello, Do silver light application runs on Pocket PC/Windows Mobile ? If yes, What are the plugins required to run the application. Can you please provide me the links for downloading plugins, if it is there?
11-05-2007 7:08 PM |
We currently do not have a public release of Silverlight on Windows Mobile. Stay tuned for future anouncements.
11-05-2007 8:17 PM |
That's been the message since May! Why can't we have CTP's of it like we did the Windows versions to work on? So us mobile companies can start investing in the technology as well ahead of time.
11-06-2007 12:19 AM |
Couple of things...
11-13-2007 10:38 AM |
I just wanted to chime in as someone who has been continually keeping an eye on this. I work for a company who writes an enterprise level mobile platform for business apps on mobile devices for both BlackBerry & Windows Mobile. I am really wanting to get a hold of such a technology on Windows Mobile for a long time now.
Unfortunately "the hype" has shifted to iPhone & Android platform and its beginning to get difficult to fend off the higher ups who want to move onto these platforms. As a developer Windows Mobile is the cadillac of mobile OS's and really the only thing missing in comparison to these other devices are 2 things:
1. Proper web browsing experience.2. UI.
Windows Mobile and NETCF gives us an amazing development platform.
This is where Silverlight or WPF for NETCF comes into play. We all know NETCF & Windows Mobile is an excellent platform but its losing steam because its lack of next gen UI and animations.
Even in enterprise applications people are thinking of Windows Mobile as old. I really feel WM is fine how it is, it however just needs a UI refresh and new browser but the browser discussion I am leaving out of this for now, this is not the place ;)
Unfortunately Silverlight on NETCF isn't as great of a priority as the UI engine behind it IMO. Simply for the fact that data plans are way to expensive to support much rich content over most Edge/3G data plans. Most people looking for Silverlight on NETCF are really asking "can we host it in a HTML control" etc and simply wanting WPF functionality in a Winforms app. People can't afford to be streaming video & browsing rich content on a consistent basis. $60 for a 25MB/month plan is not going to allow this.
I really like the idea of Silverlight on WM however the bigger priority IMO is the UI engine itself.
I really am sorry for mentioning iPhone & Android however I am frustrated at how things like this can make higher ups in a company want to shift focus and I wanted to make it apparent how this is becoming a larger problem than when it first surfaced for us.
11-14-2007 2:46 AM |
synced - I echo many of your sentaments in your posting. Thanks for your very kind praise on Windows Mobile + NETCF. We are quite proud of our accomplishments to date and I'm glad that you like our platform. It is very encouraging to hear.
That said, take heart in knowing that I and the rest of the NETCF that built the aforementioned platform, in addition to the Windows Mobile and Visual Studio for Devices teams are keenly aware of iPhone, Android, and all of our competitors. I take to heart the maxim "Know thine enemy." Quite frankly, I think the iPhone is a great thing for the mobile industry in general. It has definitely pushed and strecthed us in many ways. I like challenges!
We are not standing still - we just aren't ready to make public anouncements at this point. I know this is not what you want to hear, but all I can offer is a reiteration of my prior posts. Stay tuend...
11-14-2007 10:49 AM |
Rob,
Thanks so much for the reply. I've said it before in other forums and I will say it again I am always blown away by the new approach MS seems to be taking visibility wise to the community. Being able to give feedback and also receive replies to people on the team such as yourself is refreshing to say the least. Your acknowledgement of iPhone & others is also refreshing because it means your openly identifying shortcomings and don't fear competition. This is great. Unfortunately people at the top of the company are shooting off their mouth in negative ways rather than positive and I think this is what causes most negative press for the company when deep down inside the company are great people as yourself welcoming the challenge to improve.
As far as WM + NETCF my comments stem from working in a mobility company who provides solutions in various mobile platforms and our software platform is most sophisticated on Windows Mobile versus the other platforms because of the capability of what the OS and development libraries provide. We do intensive XML processing including xpath etc and to think of what these little devices can accomplish with modern hardware is amazing. The fact that you keep adding API's from the full framework every version is great as well.
I appreciate the update thanks for the heads up.
I am considering the idea of writting a custom control that can read some very basic XAML+timeline animation so that I can introduce some vector graphics+animating for simple things like buttons etc until we get a proper library as part of NETCF. I haven't decided if this is worth it or not at the moment or how much is involved for getting some simple things supported which people can use Blend to design/animate. It's an idea that popped in my head awhile back.
11-16-2007 2:47 PM |
I also have some other comments more pertaining to NETCF & Windows Mobile touch inputs. I really think these go together with a WPF-like vectoring UI for Windows Mobile etc for nicely ala iPhone but from what I've seen in the WPF ink SDK I have come up with some interesting ideas which as a developer of WM apps I would love to be able to leverage if these were in place to be able to make some very interesting scenarios and what I will call next-gen WM interfaces & interaction.
Should I document my ideas here or is there someone I can direct them to which makes more sense than in a Silverlight forum? ;)