Yesterday I was installing a new machine it was a bit confusing as where to get the right Visual Studio project templates for Silverlight version 1.0 and the alpha 1.1 version (now renamed to Silverlight 2.0). I had them working on my hold machine but didn’t actually remember which one I had installed.
So here’s a little overview of the different available tools and templates.

Silverlight 1.0 SDK and project templates
You can get the Silverlight 1.0 SDK including a Visual Studio project template file at this location: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=FB7900DB-4380-4B0F-BB95-0BAEC714EE17&displaylang=en
The SDK offers the option to install a “Silverligh Javscript Application” project template in Visual Studio.
Unfortunately the Visual Studio project template included with the SDK won’t install on the VS 2008 RTM version, only VS 2005. However, a workaround for installing the project template “Silverlight Javascript Application” with Visual Studio 2008 can be found here:
http://adoguy.com/2007/09/02/Installing_Silverlight_1_0_Templates_on_
Visual_Studio_2008_Beta_2_(Orcas).aspx

Silverlight 1.1 (renamed to 2.0) project templates
Silverlight project templates for Visual Studio can be found in the "Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Tools Alpha for Visual Studio 2008" download. Templates included with this download are: 

- Web site template: Silverlight Script Web. This template can be used to create Silverlight 1.0 Javascript web site.

- Silverlight Project (in Visual Basic or C#): this is the template to

- Silverlight Class Library template: this one can be used to create Silverlight client assemblies.

In addition to the project templates the Tools download also installs intellisense and code generators for XAML, debugging of Silverlight applications, integration with Expression Blend.

Note that you might hit a "…\TestPage.html.js access denied" error if you are using AVG anti-virus as I was. There is a comment on Scott Guthrie’s blog that explains how to fix this.

Two weeks ago I received a cool gadget from my colleagues at LBi: a nabaztag :-)
OK, I’ll admit it: I’m a bit geeky so I really loved the gift!

It was not a smooth thing to get it working because of wireless configuration settings. According to the information on the site a wireless security setting to WPA does not work. However after loading a new firmware and changing a default address setting as I found on the forum it’s now alive!

And let me take this opportunity to wish happy holidays to all of you, and a prosperous and exciting New Year 2008.

I hope the next year will bring interesting new projects to you all.

After almost 7 years of .NET projects at LBi I’m leaving for a new challenge at Microsoft! More on that later…

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of my colleagues at LBi in Belgium (previously D.A.D – Digital Age Design). Since the start at LBi I was able to learn a lot and evolve in my technical skills. Working on CMS projects, custom extranet applications MOSS projects :-), interactions with the creative/design department, all part my very interesting path at LBi.

Thanks to my manager Arnaud. And a special mention to the .NET team at LBi: keep up the good work and motivation! You are a great team and I’ll miss you. Here’s one to remember.

L-R: Olivier, Benjamin, Jérémy (the one from the other side of the force), Arnaud (the chef :-), Lieven, Thomas, me, Gauthier, Mathieu, Nicolas and Thomas.

As announced on Scott Guthrie’s blog, the ASP.NET MVC Framework preview has just been released as part ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions CTP Preview. You can now try out for yourself!

If you haven’t read on the new ASP.NET MVC Framework, this new release is Microsoft’s response to a demand for a built-in model-view-controller (MVC) based architecture in ASP.NET.
This does not mean all your ASP.NET applications now need to be developed based on this architecture but it does allow you to apply this architecture when needed/wanted.

Get started here:

1. Download the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions CTP Preview via Scott Guthrie’s site. BWT, there’s much more to the Extensions than only the MVC framework. Read all about it at the above link.
2. Get yourself acquainted with the framework by reading Scott Guthrie’s article series:
• ASP.NET MVC Framework (Part 1) 
• ASP.NET MVC Framework (Part 2): URL Routing
• ASP.NET MVC Framework (Part 3): Passing ViewData from Controllers to Views
• ASP.NET MVC Framework (Part 4): Handling Form Edit and Post Scenarios
3. Checkout some other resources:
• TDD and Dependency Injection with ASP.NET MVC
• ASP.NET MVC Framework (Part 2): URL Routing

And now, let’s check it out!