Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 dll compatibility

Question

Is a library built for Silverlight compatible with a Windows Phone 7 application?

Answer 1

It depends, Windows Phone 7 runs on Silverlight 3 with some added features.

For a more in depth list of the differences between, Silverlight "proper" and Silverlight for the phone, check this page Differences Between Silverlight on Windows Phone and Silverlight on Windows.

Also have a look at this page for Class Library Support for Windows Phone, it outlines pretty well what's supported and what's not.

For some basic info about this sort of stuff, you can also have a look at this quick start tutorial

Answer 2

If you are asking whether the compiled library is compatible, the answer is no. You cannot build a .xap file or a .dll for Silverlight web and deploy it to the phone.

On the other hand, if you are asking whether you can rebuild it for the phone, the answer is very close to yes, especially if the program is pretty simple.

I demonstrate that idea here, but it is important to point out that they are not the same platforms; and once you get past a pretty simple application the differences become a bit more noticeable.

Thanks -jesse

Answer 3

Hi James,

Provided you don't call API's in the dll that aren't supported by the platform, you can do this.