1. What is the single unit for deploying Silverlight applications?
Silverlight applications are downloaded by the browser in XAP files.
2. What are xap files?
XAP files are essentially .zip files that contain an assembly manifest file and one or more assemblies.
3. Can an APACHE server host a Silverlight application?
Silverlight applications can be hosted on most types of Web servers, like Internet Information Server (IIS) or Apache. However, most Web servers are usually configured to serve only a short list of wellknown file extensions.
4. What are the MIME types your web server should support to host Silverlight application?
Extension
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MIME type
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.xaml
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application/xaml+xml
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.xap
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application/x-silverlight-app
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IIS 7, included in Windows Server 2008, already includes all the relevant MIME types for both WPF and Silverlight, including both .xap and .xaml extensions, so if you're using Windows Server 2008, you're all set.
5. How can you optimize xap file size for increasing download speed?
a. Set CopyToLocal as false
By default, any non-system assemblies that you reference will be added to the XAP file generated by Silverlight applications. If you want to optimize your XAP files for download speed, this behavior may not be efficient for some of your modules' references.
Consider the following example. You have created an application with several remote modules. Each module gets its own XAP file. You have also created a shared Common assembly that contains shared services, common interfaces, and so on. Each module references that common assembly. By default, each XAP file will now also contain the Common assembly; this makes the XAP files larger than they need to be.
b. To solve this, change the references to the Common assembly in all of the modules by setting Copy Local to false. This ensures that the Common assembly is not added to the XAP files.
When deploying Silverlight applications created with the Composite Application Library, some common assemblies that can typically be excluded from the XAP files include Composite and Composite.Presentation assemblies and infrastructure assemblies, among others.
c. You can do it using a SMS server.
d. Manually
e. Group policy
Group policy is ideal to deploy Silverlight in small to medium sized organizations or when it is not being deployed to a large number of users simultaneously. For large organizations, Silverlight is best deployed using SMS or another third-party software distribution tool. A limitation of the group policy deployment method is that it applies only to Microsoft operating systems, ignoring Apple operating system clients.
7. How do you know if the problem which has occurred is a web browser problem and not a Silverlight issue?
To isolate browser issues that might be related to the Silverlight add-on, you can selectively disable the add-on in Internet Explorer 7.
To disable a browser add-on
a. Click the Tools menu, click Manage Add-ons, and then click Enable or Disable Add-ons.
b. Change the “Show” Drop-down box to “Add-ons that have been used by Internet Explorer”
c. Click AgControl Class, click Disable, and then click OK.
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Alternatively, you can turn off all add-ons temporarily in Internet Explorer 7 by starting in No add-ons mode.
a. 1. Click Start, click All Programs, and then click Accessories.
b. 2. Click System Tools, and then click Internet Explorer (No Add-ons).
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You can also start Internet Explorer without add-ons by right-clicking the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop and then clicking Start Without Add-ons. Or start Internet Explorer with no add-ons or toolbars by running the command iexplore.exe -extoff.
8. What is difference between asp.net application hosting and Silverlight hosting?
Deploying Silverlight applications is as easy as deploying ASP.NET applications, because Silverlight is normally embedded in a site.
- First enable the xap file extension in IIS - http://simplesilverlight.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/register-xap-file-in-iis/
- Just right-click your ASP.NET application (where your xap-package and the hosting site is located)
- Choose "Publish..."
- Fill out the form
9. To install a Silverlight RIA Services application, do we need RIA services installed in the server machine?
To run Silverlight RIA services application we need .NET 4 installed on the server machine. RIA Services must also be available on the Web server.
The RIA Services assemblies must be available on the Web server. It is recommended that RIA Services be installed on the Web server that will host your application. If this is not an option, due to lack of permissions or some other issue, you can also make them available on the Web server by either including them in the bin folder of your project when it is published or by installing them in the global assembly cache (GAC).
msiexec /i RIAServices.msi /SERVER=true
Following is what is needed:
· System.ServiceModel.DomainServices.Server.dll
· System.ServiceModel.DomainServices.Hosting.dll
· If you are using Entity Framework to access a database, then you will also need to add a reference to the System.ServiceModel.DomainServices.EntityFramework.dll assembly.
· If you are using LINQ to SQL to access data, then you will need to add a reference to the Microsoft.ServiceModel.DomainServices.LinqToSql.dll assembly
If you are using the Visual Studio Build->Publish option to deploy your application, make sure the following three assemblies under the Web Application->References have been marked as Copy Local = True
11. Ideally where should my RIA service dlls lie in GAC or in bin?
Instead of copying the RIA Services assemblies in the Bin folder of every project that uses them, you can install the assemblies in the GAC. Any assemblies in the GAC are available to every application on the server. This approach is easier to maintain because an assembly only needs to be updated in the GAC instead of every Bin folder.
If you are copying the bits over manually to your deployment server, copy the above three assemblies to the Web Applications BIN folder right next to your [WebAppName].dll
12. What is need to make the assemblies Copy Local = True?
Setting these property values to True results in the assemblies getting copied to the bin folder the next time you build the solution. When the assemblies are copied to the bin folder, they will be copied to the Web server when you publish the site.
13. Why my installation works in some PCs and fails to run in other PCs?
Generally this happens because it makes zero sense to have Copy Local = True if an assembly is installed in the GAC.
Because the local copy will never be used, the GAC is always searched first. Leaving it unchanged would cause major confusion. Changing it causes a confusion too, that could perhaps have been addressed with a message box at solution load time.
To overcome this problem you can also add a PostBuild event to manually copy the assemblies into the output directory.
14. Why Copy Local for some dlls is true by default whereas for some others it is true?
The project-assigned value of CopyLocal is determined in the following order:
1. If the reference is another project, called a project-to-project reference, then the value is true.
2. If the assembly is found in the global assembly cache, the value is false.
3. As a special case, the value for the mscorlib.dll reference is false.
4. If the assembly is found in the Framework SDK folder, then the value is false. Otherwise, the value is true.
15. What are the things you need to take care in web.config file while deploying a RIA service?
