WPF/E – Translation: Next Gen Web UI is here.

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I was going to do a WPF/E post, then I wasn't, then I was. Then I came across WPF/E Pad and realized this thing is too cool to not post about. So here it is in a nutshell, along with a few links to other posts.

What is it?

In short WPF/E (Windows Presentation Foundation - Everywhere) brings the power of WPF and XAML to the browser. If you've seen our e-Learning clinic on WPF than you have an idea of the kind of capabilities we are talking about. Remember the old days of manually coding tons of DHTML and javascript in order to get that "rich-client" experience. Well with WPF/E, those days are gone!. The first CTP shipped in December, so it's now available for you to get your hands on.

A few key points.

  1. WPF/E utilizes a browser plug-in to enable displaying a subset of WPF XAML content.
  2. WPF/E is cross browser compliant and is supported in IE and Netscape, Safari, and Firefox.
  3. WPF/E is extremely lightweight with the windows version being approximately 1 meg.
  4. WPF/E includes rich media, audio, and 2d animation support.
  5. WPF/E is extremely easy to incorporate in an existing web application.

What do applications built with WPF/E look like?

Here's a screenshot of an application, WPF/E Pad which is essentially XamlPad for WPF/E that runs in a browser. Pretty cool!

How do I get it?

You can download the December CTP here.

Where can I find out more?

  1. Lorin Catudio's blog which gives a nice compact overview of the technology and how it works.
  2. The WPF/E Dev Center to download whitepapers, articles, samples etc.
  3. Check out Channel 9's recent video with Joe Stegman, Lead PM for WPF/E.
  4. Once you've installed the SDK, check out the Channel 9 samples here.