Getting started with the Silverlight 2 beta

I’m up to my elbows in the Silverlight 2 beta, the release of which Paul Krill reported on here. I don’t have much to say about it yet, but I thought I’d share the best way to get started developing with this version, since I wandered into and had to find my way out of several blind alleys myself.

Assuming that you already have Visual Studio 2008 installed, then start by downloading the Microsoft Silverlight Tools Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2008. If you have any previous versions of the Silverlight tools or SDK installed, go to Add/Remove programs and remove them.

Then run the silverlight_chainer.exe you just downloaded. It’ll either tell you that you have something else to remove, tell you that you’re missing a prerequisite, or tell you what it’s going to do. If you need to make adjustments and run it again, do so. Once it runs, expect it to grind away on its own through a coffee or tea break.

The beta doesn’t register its help collection for use with Visual Studio. You can find the instructions by opening the Silverlight SDK 2.0 Welcome page and then opening the Readme file from there. The short version, however is to open Visual Studio 2008, pick Help|Index, make sure the index view is unfiltered, and look for Collection Manager. When you find it, double-click on the Help item below Collection Manager, and wait a minute or two while it grinds again. When it finally comes up, scroll down to the bottom of the page and check the box beside “Microsoft Silverlight 2 SDK Documentation” and click Update VSCC.

Then you’ll have to OK some frustrating dialogs and let them close Visual Studio and Document Explorer. After they’ve closed, reopen them. When you bring up Help|Contents, it’ll grind through yet another coffee or tea break, but eventually it’ll open with Microsoft Silverlight 2 SDK near the bottom of the contents.

You can also find the Silverlight documentation online on MSDN and additional tutorials, samples, and videos at Silverlight.net.