Since 2007, Microsoft has been very aggressive in developing Silverlight to developers. This simple programming language for plug-ins in web browsers has come a long way from simple animations to handling more powerful applications that could be launched in web browsers.
With the help of Silverlight, developers should be able to render applications that could rival Ajax based application.
Barely one year after Silverlight was properly introduced to developers and users, the programming language is now on second version.
Easily realizing the need for new and improved functions, Silverlight v. 2 has been improved to provide more functions and features.
The second version of this powerful programming language for plug-ins was released October 2008.
Aside from newer features for Silverlight v.2, Silverlight has also released for the first time toolkits for developers to use.
Obviously, the purpose of this toolkit is to improve the development time for developers.
This type of toolkit should be able to handle the same functions offered by Silverlight and effectively implementing them in the browser.
This could be likened to frameworks for Ajax based applications with additional functions specifically geared for an Silverlight.
Toolkit Features
Better Reuse of Functions – One of the disadvantages of Silverlight is that it can’t be easily reused. Developers have to contend with the functionality of the application and will never be useful for other functions.
Although the functions have the ability to launch the online application effectively, it cannot be easily adopted. With the release of the toolkit, developers will now have the ability to reuse the functions for other applications.
Developers should be able to build a generic function that could be integrated to other Silverlight applications.
Improving Productivity – Silverlight v. 2 has come up with new functions that would improve the plug-ins for web browsers.
With the release of Silverlight toolkit, more functions related to the toolkit were released. Some of the additional functions for toolkit are:
ImplicitStyleManager – This feature will enable developers to rely on the toolkit for assigning style. Instead of manual assignment of style, developers could rely on the toolkit and expect compatibility.
AutoCompleteBox – Although this function has been available for sometime in other frameworks and Ajax based applications, Silverlight toolkit will now enable this function for Silverlight developers.
WrapPanel – A highly effective function, developers would eventually find the use of this function when they wanted to display photos without borders.
TreeView – Another function of Silverlight that may have been too late when compared to other functions but this is not just a regular TreeView. It can go directly to the source of functions.
Custom Functionality Prevention
This may sound a little bit odd for developers who wanted to have a customized functions, but Microsoft has made sure to provide as many functions as possible so that developers would still enjoy customization.
Custom functionality has been prevented in the toolkit so that developers will never inadvertently create a loophole for attackers to exploit. Aside from functionality, security have been emphasized in Silverlight lately to properly improve the client side applications supported by this programming language.
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