I developed a lightweight ready to use Silverlight 3 UserControl that customizes the Out Of The Browser install experience and implements the full Out Of The Browser functionality for your application. No further code needed.
Download: http://gallery.expression.microsoft.com/en-us/OOBControl
How to use it:
1. Prepare your solution by selecting the "Enable running application out of the browser" setting in the application configuration options of your project.
2. Open the OutOfTheBrowserSettings.xml by doubleclicking the file found in the solution explorer. Within the OutOfTheBrowserSettings.xml set the value of the ShowInstallMenuItem attribute to "False". This is by your choice and not neccessary to use the OOBControl.
3. In your Silverlight 3 project get a reference to the OutOfTheBrowserExperienceControl.dll.
4. Rebuild your project.
5. Place the Control onto your SL3-App UI.
That's it.
Your Silverlight 3 application is now in full ready for the entire out of the browser experience. That means:
- Clicking the OOBControl starts the install experience by showing the common installation window.
- OOBControl takes the different install states into account by changing its visual states (in and out of the browser).
- If the application is running out of the browser OOBControl is checking if network is available and whether an update is available. If an update is available it will be installed with the next application restart.
Click on the OOBControl demo at the download site to try it out.
Note: If you run the demo at the above download site by clicking the OOBControl on that page don't be confused. After installing the demo application the application will show a messagebox at every startup with the info, that an new version is available. I tried out if this is a bug in my OOBControl but it is not! I uploaded the demo application on a different server and the OOBControl behaives as it should: reliable.
Please post feedback and any suggestions.
Best regards,
M. (LawBot)
Update 01/23/2010
Here are some video downloads on how to use the OOBControl Version 1.1:
In German language:
Ausführliches Demo - OOBControl 1.1 mit ChildWindows
(gezipptes WMV - 6,76 MB - 00:16:53)
In English language:
Short Demo - OOBControl 1.1
(zipped WMV - download file size 1.45 MB - 00:03:56)
Long Demo - OOBControl 1.1 With ChildWindows
(zipped WMV - download file size 8.93 MB - 00:15:30)
Best regards,
M. (LawBot)