Out-of-Browser Support

The new out of browser experience in Silverlight 3 enables users to place their favorite Silverlight applications directly onto their PC and Mac, with links on the desktop and start menu-all without the need to download an additional runtime or browser plug-in. Further, the new experience enables Silverlight applications to work whether the computer is connected to the Internet or not-a radical improvement to the traditional Web experience.

This topic will show you how to use them.

Out-of-Browser Support

The values in the Out-of-Browser Settings dialog box are used to generate an OutOfBrowserSettings.xml file located in the project Properties folder. Any changes to this file are reflected in the designer. This file is used to populate the application manifest (AppManifest.xaml) with the specified values.

  1. In Project Explorer, select the Silverlight project for which you want to enable out-of-browser support.
  2. On the Project menu, select project name Properties,Select "Silverlight" tab.
  3. On the Silverlight tab, select Enable running application out of the browser.
  4. Click Out-of-Browser Settings. The Out-of-Browser Settings dialog box appears.
  5. Specify values for the indicated fields and then click OK. All fields are optional except for the following:
  6. Window Title,Shortcut name,Application description

    Field Description
    Window Title Appears in the title bar of the out-of-browser application window.
    Width and Height Indicates the initial dimensions of the out-of-browser application window.
    Shortcut name Appears in the out-of-browser installation dialog box and on the installed application shortcut or shortcuts.
    Download description Appears as a tooltip on the installed application shortcuts.
    Icons The operating system chooses the most appropriate icon to display in the following locations:
  7. The installation dialog box.
  8. The application window.
  9. Windows Explorer.
  10. Windows taskbar.
  11. Macintosh dock bar.
  12. Use GPU Acceleration Indicates whether graphics performance is enhanced by using hardware acceleration.

    If you do not specify Width and Height values, the application window will use a default size of 800x600. If you do not specify icons, default icons will be used. If you do specify icons, you should specify one for each size indicated in the designer (16x16, 32x32, 48x48, and 128x128). Icons must be .png files that you have added to the project and that have Build Action values of Content. Additionally, the .png files must be of the indicated dimensions. The operating system will choose the most appropriate size to use in different situations. If an appropriate icon cannot be loaded, the default icon will appear.

  13. In the "Properties" folder of current silverlight project,the file "OutOfBrowserSettings.xml" is added

Out-of-Browser Install, Launch, and Uninstall

To install a properly configured Silverlight application, a user right-clicks the application within its host Web page or its offline application ,then selects Install onto this computer. This causes the following dialog box to appear, which enables the user to specify the location of the application shortcuts.

Run Out of browser application in web page

  1. Run the silverlight application as Silverlight Web Page,right-clicks the application within its host Web page and then selects Install onto this computer and specify the location of the application shortcuts.

  2. After the application shortcuts installed,Lanuch the application where specified,the following dialog box to appear
  3. Uninstall the application:right-clicks the application and select remove this application.

Run Out of browser application within offline

  1. Open xaml editor and switch to offline model
  2. After a new dialog appear,the next operations of install,lanuch,uninstall is same as Running out of browser application in web page