WPF browser application (XBAP) and Silverlight both use XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language, pronounced zammel ) is a declarative XML-based language created by Microsoft). The XBAP application offer a way to implement rich browser-based application. On the other hand, Silverlight also holds the same promise. Thats why a lots of questions came into my mind and i try to find out the answer of those questions. I want to share it with everyone.
Silverlight 1.0 or 2.o was a subset of WPF where a lots of controls were missing and was very limited for scripting ( We couldn't use C# ). You can't use 3D in silverlight 2. But the last release of Silverlight 3 wondering me because a lots of new controls and 3D come into action. So you can do almost anything that can be done by WPF. If you want to learn more about Silverlight 3 application click here!
The questions that came to my mind are :
Developer today are becoming more and more conscious about the issues such as difference between xbap and silverlight and which technology we will use. This topic has given birth of vast controversy. I will try to explain these from my perspective.
XAML browser applications (XBAPs) combines the power of both Web applications and rich-client applications. XBAP can be published to a Web server like Web applications. Like rich-client applications, XBAPs can take advantage of the capabilities of WPF. Developing XBAP is also similar to rich-client development. XBAP application run inside the Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox in a separate sandbox to prevent applications from accessing resources on the local system. A restriction on XBAPs is that they need .NET framework 3.0 or higher to be installed on the client machine to run.
Silverlight is a runtime for browser-based Rich Internet Applications. Which is a subset of the animation, vector graphics, and video playback capabilities of Windows Presentation Foundation. So if you want your application to be available on the internet and not dependent on the .NET framework, Silverlight should be your choice. Silverlight is a cross platform, cross browser plug-in that allows you to run UIs defined in XAML inside the browser.
So WPF browser application (XBAP) is a good solution if you're developing an internal corporate application( Intranet application) where you can dictate that everyone install the .Net Framework 3.0 or higher. For general purpose web sites open to the public, you can use Silverlight application otherwise it would be too high requirement for the users.