Professional Silverlight® 4

Chapter 9. Out-of-Browser Experiences

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Configuring and installing an out-of-browser application

• Detecting network connectivity

• Creating a trusted application

• Implementing COM automation

• Customizing windows

An out-of-browser application, or OOB for simplicity, is a Silverlight-based application that can be installed from the host browser from which it is running onto a user's local computer. Once installed locally, it can be launched from a local, application-specific icon located on the desktop or Start menu. From a user's perspective, the installed application is launched just like any other application: there is an application-specific icon, and double-clicking that icon opens up the application for execution.

CREATING AN OUT-OF-BROWSER APPLICATION

An OOB application is really no different than an application that is hosted within a browser. You use Visual Studio to build out a user interface, you write code that responds to events, and you use features like isolated storage and printing to deliver expected Line of Business or rich Internet applications (RIA) features. From a security perspective, an OOB is subject to the same security sandbox restrictions as ordinary in-browser applications. To increase the features that Silverlight has available, such as COM automation support and local filesystem access, you can remove some sandbox restrictions by configuring your application to require elevated trust. Elevated trust is a new feature to Silverlight 4, and its ...