Some months ago, a couple of minutes after the first beta of Silverlight has been released, I've posted an article explaining how to configure the new Out of Browser feature in Silverlight 3.0. Now, just after the release of the final bits, I need to return back on the argument because something has changed during this time due to additional features and modification to the API I've explained.
What has changed and What has been added.
There is not any substantial change to the functionality of the OOB applications. As you may expect it is still available a context menu to detach the application from the browser - but this operation now has changed its name from "detach" to "install" - and there is a way to uninstall the application again with the same context menu. While the name of the operation has changed now the method and events related to is has also changed the name following this schema:
| Previous |
Current |
| public bool Detach(); |
public bool Install(); |
| public bool RunningOffline; |
public bool RunningOutOfBrowser; |
| public event EventHandler ExecutionStateChanged; |
public event EventHandler InstallStateChanged; |
public enum ExecutionStates
{
RunningOnline,
Detaching,
Detached,
DetachedUpdatesAvailable,
DetachFailed
} |
public enum InstallState
{
NotInstalled,
Installing,
Installed,
InstallFailed
} |
As you may have noticed one important enumeration member - DetachedUpdatesAvailable - has been removed but this feature has not been lost. Now there a couple of API to support the application updates giving a bit more control in the update flow. We can choice when check for updates using the CheckAndDownloadUpdateAsync() method and getting notified if the update process succeded by the event CheckAndDownloadUpdateCompleted. Here is how to check for updates:
1: Application.Current.CheckAndDownloadUpdateCompleted +=
2: (s, e) =>
3: {
4: if (e.UpdateAvailable)
5: MessageBox.Show(@"Updates have been downloaded.
6: Please restart the application to
7: apply this updates.");
8: };
9:
10: Application.Current.CheckAndDownloadUpdateAsync();
Once you have started the process there isn't any way to stop it or to rollback any downloaded update. You can only notify the user that the updates has been downloaded and that this updates will be available the next time the application will be started.
The most significant change to the Out-of-browser is in the feature configuration. Now the settings are placed in a specific file you can find into the Properties folder in the Solution Explorer. The file OutOfBrowserSettings.xml contains the same properties of the beta with some slight changes:
1. The Title property has been moved to the WindowSettings section
2. Width and Height properties has been added to configure the initial size of the window
3. The Icon size has to be specified using a comma separated value notation
Now Visual Studio 2008 can directly manage this properties using an Out-of-Browser Settings button in the Silverlight properties tab so there is no need to directly edit the xml file.
You have to be aware that there is not full control over plugin features while it is installed on the machine. The sole feature you can activate i the usage of GPU acceleration, but there isn't a way to change the backgroun color of the plugin. Also remember that the usage of html bridge is forbidden while in oob mode.
Updated Sample
I've just changed the downloadable sample attached to my previous article and I give you agan the link here to have a fully functional sample on how to configure and use the out of browser.
Download code: Elite.Silverlight3.ToDoList.zip (2.02 MB)
Demo Video: OutOfBrowserExperience.wmv (3.5 MB)