Kentico CMS comes with native support of Microsoft Silverlight. Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform technology for building and delivering the media experiences and Rich Interactive Applications (RIA) for the Web.

 

Silverlight applications run in the internet browser. All you need is a small plug-in installed in your browser. The plug-in is free and in case that users access a site containing a Silverlight application without this plug-in installed, they will be able to install Silverlight using an install banner leading to the download link.

 

You can find a live example of use of the Silverlight application web part on the Corporate Site sample website, on a page under Corporate site -> Examples -> Web parts -> Silverlight -> Silverlight application.

 

 

How it works in general

 

1. The developer creates a website with a built-in Silverlight application.

2. The site visitor navigates to that site using an internet browser.

3. If the user does not already have the required plug-in installed in the browser, they are automatically prompted to install it.

4. The Silverlight application is executed.

 

Creating Silverlight applications

 

Silverlight is a .NET Framework based technology, so if you are familiar with development using Visual Studio and one of the .NET Framework languages like C#, it will be much easier for you to learn Silverlight.

For developing Silverlight applications, you will need at least Microsoft Visual Studio with Silverlight Tools. There is one more powerful tool for designers - Expression Blend, which enables you to create application design in a really comfortable way. We also strongly recommend installing the Silverlight Toolkit, which brings many new controls that can be used in your Silverlight applications.

 

Visit the Silverlight community site where you can download all the required components. What is more, you can find valuable tutorials there, which can help you get started in the development of Silverlight applications.

 

We also recommend reading the official Microsoft Silverlight documentation.

 

•To learn how to add a Silverlight application to your site, please refer to the Adding a Silverlight application to your site topic.

•If you would like to learn how to configure Internet Information Services (IIS) to enable Silverlight applications on your site, please refer to the IIS configuration topic.