NAB Preview: Microsoft To Debut Silverlight 4

Silverlight, used to stream the 2010 Vancouver Olympics on NBCOlympics.com, will be featured prominently at NAB. Attendees will be able to learn more about Silverlight 4, currently in beta test and promising to deliver hundreds of features and controls that, when combined with the continued innovation in Microsoft’s tools for designers and developers (Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft Expression Blend), represent the leading edge in rapid, powerful application development.

Features include printing support, rich reporting and charting, and integration with backend systems and server products, including Microsoft SharePoint. The beta version of Silverlight 4 has no “go-live” licensing, and the end-user runtime of Silverlight 4 is not available, but developers will find a full set of forms controls with more than 60 customizable, styleable components.

New controls include RichTextbox with hyperlinks, images, and editing and MaskedTextbox for complex field validation. Enhanced controls include DataGrid with sortable/resizeable columns and copy/paste rows. Data-binding support is enhanced to increase flexibility and productivity through data grouping/editing and string formatting within bindings, and a managed extensibility framework supports building large composite applications.

Exclusive tooling support for Silverlight, new in Visual Studio 2010, includes a full editable design surface, drag-and-drop data-binding, automatically bound controls, data-source selection, integration with Expression Blend styling resources, Silverlight project support, and full IntelliSense.