Silverlight 3 Release Notes

This document contains recent information about Silverlight 3 RTW build 3.0.40624 and associated Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008.   It will be updated periodically as necessary.

Upgrading your Silverlight 2 Applications to Silverlight 3

In Silverlight 2, the object tag in the HTML page of a XAP file looked like the following:

<object data="data:application/x-silverlight-2," style="display:block" type="application/x-silverlight-2"></object>

<a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=124807" style="text-decoration: none;">

<img src="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=108181" alt="{0}" style="border-style: none"/>

</a>

In Silverlight 3, the object tag should look like the following:

<object data="data:application/x-silverlight-2," style="display:block" type="application/x-silverlight-2" >

<param name="minRuntimeVersion" value="3.0.40624.0" />

<param name="autoUpgrade" value="true" />

<a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149156&v=3.0.40624.0" style="text-decoration: none;">

<img src="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=108181" alt="Click here to install Silverlight" style="border-style: none"/>

</a>

</object>

String Truncations

In some of the localized UI for the Silverlight 3 runtime, you might see string truncations in dialog boxes, such as Deferred Privacy Consent, Silverlight Configuration, or Auto Update.  These string truncations will be fixed in an upcoming Silverlight release.

Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008

Silverlight 3 Tools and Silverlight 2 Compatibility
Silverlight 2 projects cannot be created with the Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008. To create Silveright 2 projects, uninstall the Silverlight 3 runtime and the Silverlight 3 Tools from Add or Remove Programs and re-install the Silverlight 2 Tools for Visual Studio 2008.

ASP.NET Controls for Silverlight

The ASP.NET Controls for Silverlight (Silverlight control and MediaPlayer control) have been moved from the Silverlight SDK to the MSDN Code Gallery. All sources for these controls are published to the MSDN Code Gallery. 

Design Preview Disabled in Silverlight 3 Tools

Due to performance and rendering issues, the preview window has been disabled in the Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008. The functionality of the XAML editor remains intact, including IntelliSense, error messages, and the ability to drag controls from the Toolbox into the editor. WYSIWYG XAML design can be done by using Expression Blend or Visual Studio 2010.

Building a project in Visual Web Developer Express Edition fails if the project contains non-neutral resource files
Visual Web Developer Express Edition installs only a portion of the Windows SDK and by default does not support building non-neutral resource files. If you attempt to build a project that contains non-neutral resources, the build process displays the following error:

Task failed because "AL.exe" was not found, or the correct Microsoft Windows SDK is not installed. The task is looking for "AL.exe" in the "bin" subdirectory beneath the location specified in the InstallationFolder value of the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A.

To resolve this issue, try one of the following:

 · Install the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5.

 · Install Visual Studio 2008.

 · Manually set the registry key referenced in the error message to the correct location.

 · Pass the correct location into the ToolPath parameter of the task.

Blend 3 SketchFlow controls on the Visual Studio Toolbox

Depending on the installation order of Blend 3 with SketchFlow and Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008, you might see some controls from the Blend SketchFlow prototype assemblies appear in the Visual Studio Toolbox. For example, the EnhancedTextBox control is used exclusively by SketchFlow. You can ignore these controls or remove them from the Toolbox by using the Choose Toolbox Items dialog box.

Errors opening SketchStyles.xaml in Visual Studio

One of the files in a Blend 3 SketchFlow prototype project is named SketchStyles.xaml. This file contains a variety of styles and other visual information for the SketchFlow prototype viewer. It is not normally necessary to open or edit this file in Visual Studio, as it is automatically generated by SketchFlow. If you do open this file, you will see errors in the Output window related to the FontFamily constructor and the FontWeight property not supporting direct content. These errors are erroneously generated by Visual Studio and can be ignored. The application will build and run correctly.

Invalid values in some common XAML properties will no longer show errors until built or run

When an invalid property value is added to an attribute in XAML, such as <Button Background="somestring"/>, you will not see an error message until you build or run the project.