Blend 2.5 verses VS2008SL2B1 projects

Question

I am trying to figure out the difference between Silverlight 2.0 projects created with Blend 2.5 and VS2008 SLBeta1. Blend tends to build <window> and <usercontrol> in its sample silverlight 2.0 projects but VS only builds <usercontrol> for its xaml pages. When I copy a sample from a blend project to vs it reports hundreds of errors. There are some nice starting points (ie photo book & video library) that I would like to modify but I can not get them into a vs2008 project for the web. Blend also includes 2 extra schema in its usercontrols.

How do I get the silverlight 2.0 samples from blend to run in a vs2008 web project?

Answer 1

Blend tends to build <window>

 

This is incorrect. Make sure that you have installed Blend 2.5 March Preview. You have to choose "Silverlight 2 Application"  in Blend.

The following code is from "Silverlight 2 Application"  from Blend. 

<UserControl
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/client/2007"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    x:Class="SilverlightApplication4.Page"
    Width="640" Height="480">

    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White" />
</UserControl>

 

I think you got the wrong version of Blend.  

Answer 2

Hi Michael,

I am running Blend 2.5 and the specific test example is:

1) Open Blend

2) Select Samples Tab and choose 'Photo Book'

3) Select File -> Save All

4) Open VS2008 with Silverlight Beta 1 extensions

5) File -> Open Web Site (browse to project just saved) - Scenario 1:

6) Open Photobook.xaml - note the <window> tag and the lack of design view

7) File -> Open Solution/Project (browse inside folder of saved project and select project) - Scenario 2:

8) Convert to VS2008 format (why? - blend is 4 months older than Nov release VS2008)

9) Open Photobook.xaml - note the <window> tag but now there is an error loading design view.

10) Select properties for the project - it is a windows application not a silvelight project (ie create silverlight project VS2008 is a different type)

11) Create a VS2008 silvelight project and now copy book.xml and photobook.xml and watch all the syntax errors appear

I did not have a problem creating a silverlight 2.0 project in Blend 2.5 or VS2008SLB1. I did have a problem using a project created by blend 2.5 in VS2008SLB1 and deploying it to a host as there is no publish option in Blend 2.5. Blend 2.5 also does not create the manifest or xap file for deployment n silverlight.live.com

I wanted to know why do the two programs build different versions on silverlight 2.0 applications, how do I deploy one built on Blend 2.5 and how do I change a blend 2.5 project to get it to work with VS2008?

Regards,

Brett Styles 

 

 

Answer 3

I think you are confused about Blend.

Actually, Blend can be used to created four types of projects (WPF Application (.exe), WPF Control Library, Silverlight 1 Site, Silverlight 2 Application) . Blend is NOT just for Silverlight 2.

So, I think the sample that you are opening might be WPF application. WPF application is NOT a Silverlight 2 application. So, You won't be able to open WPF as Silverlight 2 project type.

Let's try one thing.

1. Open  Blend 2.5.

2. Choose "Silverlight 2 Application" 

3. Save that project in somewhere.

4. Close Blend

5. Open VS 2008

6. Open that Silverlight 2 application that I created and saved using Blend 2.5.

Let me know if you have any problem..

Normally, we don't do that way. What we used to do is that we create SL 2 in VS 2008. If we want to edit the xaml then we use "Open with Blend" option in VS.

Hope it helps.