Silverlight project
Introduction Rich Internet Applications are rapidly gaining mainstream acceptance within business as a viable and more attractive alternative to traditional web forms HTML applications. For many years the predominant RIA framework has been Adobe's Flash engine. This can arguably be primarily attributed to the vast acceptance and proliferation of the Flash Player plug-in. Microsoft joined the RIA battle in 2007 with a RIA platform called Silverlight. Since Silverlight v1 was released , Microsoft have continued development of the platform releasing version two, the incumbent version three , and are poised to release version four final in coming months. They have packaged the Silverlight plugin with the latest versions of Internet Explorer and have made a commitment to establishing versions of the plugin for Mac, Linux, and mobile platforms including Symbian. Microsoft are rapidly becoming a serious contender for RIA dominance, heading for a showdown of sorts with Flash, and are perhaps politically advantaged within Enterprise thanks to a history business orientated support products, tools, and applications.
The emergence of Silverlight as a genuine threat to Flash, and Adobes flagship RIA framework Flex, has given those specialising in RIA development much to think about. Namely, should suppliers of RIA technology be reconsidering their choice of platform, and if they are to make the switch, how can they efficiently port their Intellectual Property into an alternative framework, whilst still maintaining core application architecture? In addition to this consideration, there is likely to be a period of time within which each RIA platform choice offers advantages over the other, and navigating through this period of turbulence will require a clear strategy and keen. During this period it may be advantageous for RIA developers to consider bridging between Silverlight and Flex, maintaining two distinct codebases simultaneously.
This thesis investigates the parallels and discrepancies between Flex (supported by Java and WebORB for Java) and Silverlight (supported by .Net). It outlines a methodology and process for synchronous codebase porting of MXML to XAML, AS3 to C#, Java to C#, AMF to SOAP, etc. In addition it discusses the best graphic design applications for design assets to support both RIA frameworks.
If you want to know more about Microsoft Silverlight, visit the official Microsoft Silverlight website.
If you want to know more about Adobe Flex, visit the official Microsoft Silverlight website.