Using Silverlight 3 beta’s Transparent Platform Extension and Out of Browser Features in Dev10 Beta 1

In Dev10 Beta 1, which was just released, there isn’t any way to enable the Transparent Platform Extensions (aka Assembly Caching) or Out of Browser features for Silverlight 3 Beta.  To enable these manually is pretty straight forward.  However, you should note that they are currently incompatible with each other; you can use one or the other, but not both in the same Silverlight application.

To enable TPE, you need to edit the project file and add a new property:

  1. Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer window and select Unload project.
  2. Right-click it again and select Edit <yourprojectname>.proj
  3. Under the first <PropertyGroup> add the following:
 <UsePlatformExtensions>true</UsePlatformExtensions>

Now, right-click the project again and choose Reload Project.  Save the changes if prompted.

Enabling the Out of Browser feature is the same as in the Silverlight 3 Beta Tools for VS2008 SP1.  You need to paste a chunk into the AppManifest.xml file used as a template when generating the AppManifest.xaml file.  The file is located under the Properties node in Visual Studio:

appManifestXml_VB appManifestXml_CS

 

To enable the OOB settings, paste the following snippet into the file (usually after the <Deployment.Parts> node):

 <Deployment.ApplicationIdentity>
     <ApplicationIdentity 
         ShortName="Your Out of Browser Silverlight Application" 
         Title="Window Title of Your Silverlight Application">
         <ApplicationIdentity.Blurb>Description of your Silverlight application</ApplicationIdentity.Blurb>
     </ApplicationIdentity>
 </Deployment.ApplicationIdentity>