Silverlight 5 FAQ

This FAQ answers questions about developing in Silverlight 5 with DevForce.

What's new in Silverlight 5?

A summary of the new features in Silverlight 5 can be found here: http://www.silverlight.net/learn/overview/what's-new-in-silverlight-5.  

To get started doing Silverlight 5 development, you'll need the Silverlight 5 Tools, and optionally the Silverlight 5 Toolkit:  both are available here.  Note that the Tools contain the Silverlight 5 Developer Runtime, the Silverlight 5 SDK, and the necessary Visual Studio updates.  

You may also be interested in this from Microsoft:  Ensuring That Your Silverlight Applications Work with Silverlight 5.

Is DevForce 2010 compatible with both Silverlight 4 & 5?

Yes, DevForce has the same feature set for Silverlight 4 and 5.  You can develop your Silverlight application for either version of Silverlight.

Will installing Silverlight 5 affect Silverlight 4 development?

The Silverlight 5 Tools will install the Silverlight 5 SDK alongside the Silverlight 4 SDK. However, the Silverlight 5 runtime is not a side-by-side install, so once you've installed Silverlight 5, you will be using the Silverlight 5 runtime whenever any Silverlight application is executed.  

How do I develop Silverlight 4 applications after Silverlight 5 is installed?

Once Silverlight 5 Tools are installed, when you create a new Silverlight project you will be prompted for the version of Silverlight to target:  you can choose either Silverlight 4 or 5.  For existing projects, the Properties page for the project shows the current version targeted, and also allows you to retarget the project to a different version.

How do I develop Silverlight 5 applications with DevForce?

When starting a new Silverlight 5 application using one of the DevForce Project templates, DevForce will prompt for the version of Silverlight to target:

You can easily retarget an existing Silverlight 4 application to Silverlight 5.  Simply go to the Properties page for the project, and choose Silverlight 5:

Visual Studio will close and then reopen the project, and adjust all references as needed.

When can I start developing for Silverlight 5 with DevForce?

Right now.

Known issues

• If you upgrade to Silverlight 5 after DevForce is already installed, you will not get the seamless assembly reference fixup mentioned above as you retarget from Silverlight 4 to 5 (or vice versa).  The easiest way to fix this is to re-install DevForce.  Alternately, you can add the required registry key:  

You will need to add a registry key named "IdeaBlade2010" under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Silverlight\v5.0\AssemblyFoldersEx
(or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Silverlight\v5.0\AssemblyFoldersEx on a 64-bit OS).  

The default value for the key should be a string pointing to the installation folder holding the DevForce Silverlight 5 assemblies.  

For example, on a 64-bit OS using the standard installation folder:

  

As of release 6.1.5.1 separate SL4 and SL5 assemblies are provided with the DevForce installation.  The folder name indicates the version of Silverlight targeted.

• If working with a release prior to 6.1.5.1 you may need to add explicit references to the System.ComponentModel.Composition and System.Xml.Linq assemblies.  Most Silverlight applications will already have these references, but some Silverlight 4 applications relied on implicit references to these assemblies. If you encounter an AssemblyLoadException asking for a 2.0.5.0 version of a system assembly, the implicit reference is likely the problem.  
  
  
• A few of us have found some problems when using design-time data features when Silverlight 5 is installed:  these problems affect both Silverlight 4 and Silverlight 5 targeted applications.  The problems include a MissingMethodException thrown when restoring an EntityCacheState or using some MEF-related features.