Silverlight application vs class library projects

Question

I'm getting started with Silverlight. When creating a new solution I have the option of creating a Silverlight Application or Silverlight Class Library. The Application option sets everything up for me but class library is quite sparse.

I'm trying to work out which one do I start with? Particularly I'm uncertain about when I would use SharePoint Class Library and what benefits/restrictions it has over Silverlight Application.

I'd like to write a control that I can put either a plain ASP.NET or Silverlight UI on top of, with both talking to the same back end.

Answer 1

The Silverlight Application template will create a shell UI with necessary project configuration to launch a Silverlight application. You have the option of creating an asp.net or plain html-based Silverlight application. The Class Library template, like the non-silverlight counterpart, is UI-less component that the Silverlight application can consume. You will not be able to reference regular class libraries, or sharepoint class libraries from a Silverlight applications as framework requirements are different ... Silverlight relies on stripped-down framework that is not compatible with full .NET release at this time.

So, in order to develop a Silverlight application, you need to start with Silverlight Application template, which then can reference any number of Silverlight Class Libraries, depending on your project layout or architecture.

If you want to write components that you can either snap an ASP.NET UI or Silverlight UI, you will need to create either a Class Library (for ASP.NET) or Silverlight Class Library (for Silverlight). You will not be able to reference Silverlight Class Library from ASP.NET, or reference Class Library from Silverlight. However, you can share the code between the different class libraries by linking source code files between them.

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