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David Roossien For Prof. Robert Adams CS693 9/2009

Silverlight Photography Website Framework Comparing Component-Based  Designs in Adobe Flex and Microsoft Silverlight. David Roossien For Prof. Robert Adams CS693 9/2009. Presentation Outline. Project Description(s) Client Server Interface Client Designs: Silverlight / Flex

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David Roossien For Prof. Robert Adams CS693 9/2009

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  1. Silverlight Photography Website FrameworkComparing Component-Based Designs in Adobe Flex and Microsoft Silverlight David Roossien For Prof. Robert Adams CS693 9/2009

  2. Presentation Outline • Project Description(s) • Client Server Interface • Client Designs: Silverlight / Flex • Comparison: Silverlight and/or Flex

  3. Project Descriptions • Silverlight Project: • http://blog.davidroossien.com/?p=145 • Flex Project: • http://blog.davidroossien.com/?p=23

  4. Silverlight Project Description • Compare and contrast with a CS 658 project that used Adobe Flex and PHP/MySQL. • Compare features of Adobe Flex with Microsoft Silverlight as it relates to: • Presentation • Client/Server interface

  5. Features (both projects) • User account management • Keyword search for photos • Allow user to customize i.e. drag and drop • Save favorites and return to them later

  6. Server Interface (PHP) • Server side was implemented in CS658 • ActionScript Message Format (AMF, RPC) • Web Services that provide object exchange • Data classes requested by client and provided by server:

  7. Client Server Interface

  8. Client Design(s) • Component based • Main parent component with many child components • Parent is a container for children dialogs • Parent coordinates basic visual tasks • show/hide child • get/set global data • Each dialog component interacts directly with server as required

  9. Silverlight Client Design

  10. Flex Client Design

  11. Component base classes • The base class for a component determines what methods and properties are available to the component • Silverlight: UserControl • Flex: Container

  12. Silverlight User Control • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.usercontrol(VS.95).aspx • Inheritance hierarchy: • System.Object • System.Windows.DependencyObject  • System.Windows.UIElement  • System.Windows.FrameworkElement  • System.Windows.Controls.Control  • System.Windows.Controls.UserControl

  13. Flex Container • http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/langref/mx/core/Container.html • Inheritance hierarchy: • Container • UIComponent • FlexSprite • Sprite • DisplayObject • Container • InteractiveObject • DisplayObject • EventDispatcher • Object

  14. User Control vs Container • UserControl—lighter weight, missing a few important features for a component based design • no layout—a layout component must be added • no show/hide or initialize events • can’t bind animations • Container—heavier weight, includes more features important for a component based design • provides layout (i.e. canvas) • show/hide, initialize events • bindable to animations

  15. Silverlight Binding • Objects rely on their parents for binding • After changing the data in code, must update the parent’s DataContext for child to be updated • Data binding only (not other types of objects)

  16. Flex binding • Declare something [Bindable] • Flex handles the updates • Can bind objects and/or data

  17. Form Validation • Silverlight requires you to generate your own events and write a custom class to validate your data. • Flex provides a set of MXML validators that can be applied to form fields. Fields are validated as you tab from field to field.

  18. Performance • Silverlight provides (requires) a separate thread for asynchronous communication • Silverlight uses multi-threading for animations • Flex (ActionScript) is single threaded • Silverlight binary can be much smaller (2:1 for my projects)

  19. Practical issues • Development environment • Silverlight provides Visual Studio and Blend • Visual Studio provides development and debugging tools • Blend provides design tools • Flex provides Flex Builder, which is based on Eclipse • Supports design, development and debugging

  20. Practical issues continued • Debugging. • Silverlight • has XAML/CLR, intermediary file issue • can’t debug XAML • Flex • can debug MXML and ActionScript

  21. Practical issues continued • Silverlight player is not widely used • Market penetration of the Flash Player ~98% according to Adobe • Flash Player is more widely used than any browser

  22. Conclusions • Flex is more suited to a component based design. • Silverlight requires supporting architecture. • Silverlight is more suited to larger interfaces that require • higher performance animation • greater use of asynchronous communication. • Flex is more suited to smaller, component based designs than Silverlight. • Silverlight requires more investment in architecture and infrastructure than Flex. • Flex is more suited to rapid development than Silverlight.

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