Silverlight Controls and Silverlight Toolkit

Trying to run Silverlight App from public Azure Blob Storage

Hullo there

I'm hosting my alpha Silverlight game website on Azure (at q.cloudapp.net). At the moment, I've included the XAP file as part of the web package, but this is problematic because every time I want to rebuild my Silverlight App I have to re-upload the whole package, taking upwards of 15 minutes to upload, stage then deploy.

For this reason, I have tried to move my XAP file to within a public access container in Azure Blob Storage. I can confirm that the XAP file is there and publically accessible by URL from a browser. So, presumably, to access it, the code at q.cloudapp.net/foo.html becomes:

...
<object id=...>
<param Source="http://cant.remember.url.core.microsoft.net/thegame/TheGame.XAP">

Unfortunately, when I do this, the silverlight App loads within the browser, all the way up to 100% and then... absolutely nothing happens. If EXACTLY the same XAP file is included locally in cloudapp.net, then it works. I have tried re-starting the browser to avoid any caching issues.

Some important observations:

- If I replace the XAP with an incredibly simple 'hello world' example, then it does definitely work. So it must be something about my XAP, I assume.

- If I examine the http requests using a Fiddler-type plugin for Firefox, I can see that the XAP file is requested, transfers to my browser, but then no further file requests are made or denied.

I'm tearing my hair out! I thought it might be something to do with the fact that my XAP does, fyi, try to access local files on the webserver. I have copied all these to blob storage just in case, but to be honest if there are no file requests being made within Fiddler, then surely it can't be this? As far as I can see, it doesn't actually get to the point of executing the Silverlight App at all.

Are there any known issues or can anyone give me some pointers on how I might even go about trying to debug this.

Best wishes,

Carlos

PS: All testing of the new blob-hosted XAP was done using the local developer fabric, and never deployed (as it doesn't work)

Re: Trying to run Silverlight App from public Azure Blob Storage

Check if this has something do with MIME type not being registered on web server. See the following post that talks about it.

Silverlight XAP Mime Type Registration

Re: Re: Trying to run Silverlight App from public Azure Blob Storage

No, I'm pretty certain the MIME types are registered fine - if they weren't, the Silverlight plugin wouldn't begin it's 'circle of blobs' loading routine...

Re: Re: Re: Trying to run Silverlight App from public Azure Blob Storage

Hello, by default, you can't reference an xap file on another domain. But you can modify the settings.

Please unpack the xap package, open AppManifest.xaml, and add a property:

ExternalCallersFromCrossDomain="ScriptableOnly"

Now back to your hosting html page, add the following property to the object tag:

Re: Re: Re: Re: Trying to run Silverlight App from public Azure Blob Storage

Yi-Lun

Thank you so much for this! I searched high and low and was unable to find any relevant articles or pointers, and you have very much helped - it now works, and the evidence can be seen at http://www.squarepeggame.com

Thanks!

Carl

Re: Re: Re: Re: Trying to run Silverlight App from public Azure Blob Storage

EDIT: By the way, is there any way to get the Silverlight App to access local files in blob storage relative to its own directory? (without specifying the absolute URL) Or will the App by default use files from the domain of the host web page? I keep various sound files that are used in the game and it would be helpful if they, too, could be held in the blob rather than as part of the Web Role.

Answered my own question:

TO GET A FILE FROM LOCAL Resources inside XAP

StreamResourceInfo sr = Application.GetResourceStream(new Uri("TheGame;component/Sounds/file.mp3", UriKind.Relative));
meMusic.SetSource(sr.Stream);

TO GET A FILE FROM XAP Resources first, then search XAP domain

meMusic.Source = new Uri("Sounds/file.mp3", UriKind.Relative);

TO GET A FILE FROM DOMAIN OF HOST WEBPAGE (requires cross-domain permission)

newMediaElement.Source = new Uri(System.Windows.Browser.HtmlPage.Document.DocumentUri, FN);

Re: Re: Re: Trying to run Silverlight App from public Azure Blob Storage

for me its displaying the blank page,

i have copy the URL from blob storage abd paste it in source.

in silverlight i have add

After i have run the Webrole project , i have getting the blank page.

can you help me out.

Thanks in Advance

Re: Re: Re: Trying to run Silverlight App from public Azure Blob Storage

This took me forever to figure out. After playing around with everything mentioned here, this was my problem: http://www.thetechnologystudio.co.uk/technologyblog/index.php/2009/06/hosting-silverlight-applications-in-azure-blob-storage/

I had uploaded the file through my web app when it starts, and the content type was set to application/octet-stream. It needs to be application/x-silverlight-app to load correctly.

Re: Re: Re: Trying to run Silverlight App from public Azure Blob Storage

I was also struggling similar way , you may needs to two more items

1. Use fidler/HttpWatch to see how far the call goes . This will also let you know that whether the .xap file recognized as the Siverlight file

2. Make sure the appropriate MIME type is added in IIS

3. Do a iis reset after the changes in step 2

This may help