silverlight controls start to emerge

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silverlight controls start to emerge

posted @ Sunday, August 12, 2007 8:42 PM | 14 Comments

as i've been traveling and talking about silverlight, there have been two main things people have been ~~complaining~~ discussing about silverlight, and one of them is the control set (or perhaps lack thereof). i've had conversations with a lot of people trying to explain that you have the full HTML control set at your disposal, and that seems to work in most situations. there may be, however, times when you want ultimate silverlight goodness. i've been saying that i personally think that 3rd parties will beat us to the market with controls...and they are starting to emerge.

take a look at the componentone lab site, featuring "Sapphire" -- their control suite for silverlight. here's a list of a few (note: few, there are a lot):

textbox, masked textbox, numeric textbox
combobox
lists galore
layout controls anyone?: stackpanel, hyperpanel, etc.
date pickers
color picker, sliders, etc.

they really are worth taking a look and i'm sure whomever gets to the market first will get LOTS of attention!

Comments

Steeve Gauvreau

8/12/2007 9:14 PM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

Hi,

I try to see sample of component one that you describe. The only thing I saw is the background blue with effects. Where can I find Textbox, combo box, etc.
Jiping Wang

8/12/2007 11:01 PM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

Won't MS publish a set of official controls ?
Ralph Shillington

8/13/2007 3:15 AM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

You said there were "two main things people have been complaining discussing about silverlight" But you named only one. What is the other one?
Jim Smith

8/13/2007 7:17 AM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

I do not quite understand your word:
>> you have the full HTML control set at your disposal
Do you mean you can put such control inside the silverlight?
If yes, can you give me a simple snippet?
timheuer

8/13/2007 8:22 AM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

steeve: on the left click the 'show me sapphire' and then there is a link to the control gallery

jiping: yes, we have a roadmap for controls

ralph: the need for managed code before starting with silverlight

jim: yes, HTML controls can interop with silverlight and integrate into the DOM, see: http://silverlight.net/Learn/learnvideo.aspx?video=120
Bart Czernicki

8/13/2007 1:03 PM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

Telerik, Infragistics and ComponentOne all have STARTING points of their controls. They are very basic and from what I played with have some performance problems (Alpha I know). The nicest controls I have seen and provide the richest capability are the Netika controls (although they are Windows only req. .net full installed)
Rocky Moore

8/13/2007 9:36 PM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

I expect to see a number of companies offering controls which are ports of their current offerings on other platforms/technologies and I expect to see a number of basic controls from Microsoft in the release of 1.1. That said though, I think it will be interesting to see what kind of original controls appear over the year or two. I mean, with all the added power of Silverlight/WPF, I wonder if any of the current 3rd party companies are planning new types of controls that really use the power avaialble, not just ports.

It will be great to see the new thoughts in UI coming down the road!
Arnaud

8/14/2007 2:36 AM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

Hi Tim!

I'm sorry but I think I have the same problem as Steeve: we cannot click on anything.
There is a black rectangle on the left without anything inside. Is it normal?
You can see my screenshot:
http://www.enregistrersous.com/images/33305454920070814115311.jpg

If you cannot solve our problem, can you give us the URL to download the components?

Thanks
Adrian

8/14/2007 2:56 AM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

same prlm here...

just a black box and backgroud
timheuer

8/14/2007 7:47 AM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

adrian: sorry i don't know a download URL, they are just previewing them now. it is weird you cannot see them. if you right click on the silverlight logo on your screen and choose 'silverlight configuration' -- what is the version number you see?
PBZ

8/14/2007 8:16 AM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

From what I've see so far I'm not impressed. The controls look nice, but even the main page can use 60-70% of CPU?! I know it's alpha, but it's not a good start if you ask me...
Arnaud

8/14/2007 8:47 AM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

Tim, I use Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP Pro SP2
My Silverlight version is: 1.1.20806.0

I even tried to put the side in my "Trusted sites", but it does not work.
Koen

8/15/2007 4:38 AM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

To solve the problem where you only see the background; set your regional settings to English (US). It worked for me.

(i'm not a componentone employee)
Patrick

9/17/2007 6:49 PM | # re: silverlight controls start to emerge

Good lord, Silverlight gobs up CPU like there's no tomorrow. I was very excited about Silverlight. I think I'm gonna have to go down the Flash/Flex road this time.