Silverlight Interview Questions

A list of frequently asked Silverlight interview questions and answers are given below.

1) What is Microsoft Silverlight?

Microsoft Silverlight is an open-source development tool that is used for creating and deploying interactive user experiences, internet applications and media experiences for web and mobile application.

2) Is Silverlight compatible with multiple browsers and operating system?

Yes. Silverlight is compatible with multiple browsers, devices and operating systems. It is a free plug-in, powered by .Net framework.

3) Which language is used to design the layout in Silverlight?

XAML language is used to design the layout of Silverlight. XAML stands for Extensible Application Markup Language. It is a declarative XML-based language created by Microsoft.

4) What is the different development tools used in Silverlight?

The tool used with the Silverlight application is the Microsoft Visual Studio. The applications are written in .NET language. So, all the associated tools with the .NET language will also work with the Silverlight as well. Microsoft Expression Blend is the tool that is used to develop and design the Silverlight user interface applications. Visual studio is the platform that is used to debug the Silverlight errors and use error free applications. Silverlight usually come in the zip format and it contains the .XAP format that consists of one or more .NET managed assemblies that are stored in .DLL files. It also consists of AppManifest.XAML that contains the entry point including the important classes and assemblies.

5) What is RIA?

RIA is an acronym stands for Rich Internet Applications. These are web application with rich features. These features include built in AJAX support, layouts, animations, audio, and video components.

Silverlight is an example of RIA.

6) What are the components of Silverlight?

Following are four main components of Silverlight:

• Silverlight Plug-in
• Silverlight Host, the Web Page
• Silverlight Application File (.XAP)
• The Interface language, XAML

7) What do you mean by Silverlight.js file?

Silverlight.js is a helper file which is used to enable websites to create advance Silverlight installation and installation experiences.

8) What are the different important files that are used in Silverlight?

There are several files that are required to be used in silverlight to make it function properly and to include the properties of applications together:

AppManifest.XAML: It consist the list of all the entry points including the class and assembly. This file can be taken and hosted in any HTML file using an object tag.

The code will be given as:

Silverlight.js and CreateSilverlight.js: contains the initialization of the Silverlight plug-in that will be used in HTML pages.

9) Is ADO.Net objects supported in Microsoft Silverlight project?

No. Silverlight projects don't support normal ADO.Net objects like DataTable, DataSet, DataColumn, Database connection provider like SqlConnection, OledbConnection objects etc.

10) Explain the architecture of Silverlight?

The architecture of Silverlight is made of three components:

1. Core presentation framework: This framework includes the components like data binding, vector graphics, text, animation, images for presenting various features.
2. .NET framework for Silverlight: It includes the libraries and components like XLINQ, XML serialization, Syndication, base class libraries, networking and common language runtime.
3. Updater and Installer: It is a control for installation and provides automatic updates.

11) What are the features of Silverlight plug-ins?

Silverlight plug-ins comes with the following features:

• Presentation Engine
• XAML Parser
• .NET Parser
• .NET Framework
• Media Features
• Browser Interaction
• Downloader

12) What is .xap file in Silverlight?

.xap file is a compressed file for the Silver Application. It contains AppManifest.xaml, compile output assembly of the Silverlight project (.dll) and any other resources by the Silverlight application. Visual studio creates two files while creating project; App.xaml and Page.xaml.

13) How would you use a .xap file?

The .xap file is used to contain and transfer the assemblies and resources of a managed code application. This managed code application should be run within the Silverlight 2 browser plug-in.

14) Which tools are required to build Silverlight applications?

Following are the two important tools required to build Silverlight applications:

1. Microsoft Expression Studio: This tool is used by web designers to create rich visual elements for Silverlight applications with enhanced visual contents and graphics.
2. Microsoft Visual Studio: This tool is used by programmers whose application is based on logic or requires programming. It permits programmer to build Silverlight applications in any .NET language like C#, Visual Basic.NET, etc.)

15) Which .NET applications are supported in Silverlight?

These two .NET applications are supported in Silverlight:

1. Embedded Common Language Runtime (CLR)
2. .NET Framework Libraries

16) How can you host a Silverlight application?

You can host a Silverlight application on most types of web server like Apache and IIS (Internet Information Server). If you want to host Silverlight application from your web server, you need to allow the following MIME type.

17) What is the difference between WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) and Microsoft Silverlight?

All the features of Silverlight are incorporated in WPF. So you can say that Silverlight is the subset of WPF.

Silverlight is just like Adobe flash and is designed for developing rich browser based internet applications while WPF is used for developing enhanced graphics applications for desktop platform.

18) How would you perform event handling in Silverlight?

We can perform event handling in Silverlight 1.0 by using JavaScript while Silverlight 2.0 uses C# (managed code) for event handling.

19) What is the name of Linux version of Silverlight?

The Linux version of Linux is known as Moonlight.

20) What do you know by Silverlight runtime?

Silverlight runtime is basically a component which is responsible for downloading the .xap file from the server and facilitates users to see the silverlight content's output in the webpage.

21) How can you change the startup page of Silverlight application?

First open the App.xaml.cs file

In the Application_Startup event handler, set the RootVisual property to the instance of the particular Silverlight class.

For example:

If you have a file name known as MainPage.xaml, a class called MainPage will be there in MainPage.xaml.cs.

22) What is isolated storage in Silverlight?

Isolated storage is a virtual file storage system in Silverlight which is used to store data in a hidden folder on your system. It stores the data in a two separate sections:

• Section1: It contains the administrative information like disk quota.
• Section2: It contains the actual data.

Each Silverlight application is allocated its own portion of the storage with the current quota set to be 1 MB per application.

23) How can you see a Silverlight application in full-screen mode?

The Silverlight application can be shown in full screen mode by using the following command:

Application.Current.Host.Content.IsFullScreen = true;

24) Which types of video files can be supported in Silverlight?

Many types of video files can be supported in Silverlight. It can support MP3, Window Media Audio Format (wma, wmv 7-9) and VC-1 formats.

25) What is Deep Zoom in Silverlight?

Deep Zoom is one of the functions of Silverlight which is used to zoom in and zoom out of the application.

26) Is it possible to pass parameters to Silverlight controls from ASP.NET pages?

Yes. It is possible to pass parameters from your aspx pages and HTML pages to the Silverlight controls by setting InitParameters.

The XAML page user control has a property known as InitParameters. From your ASPX pages, you can set a value in the form of key value pairs. Since this property accepts key-value pairs, you can pass any set of string values.

27) How can you check the internet connection status in Silverlight?

You can check the internet connection status by using the following code:

28) What is the usage of ClientBin folder?

The ClientBin folder is used in ASP.NET application to use the Silverlight functionalities. The ClientBin folder contains the .xap file that contains the reference of the Silverlight libraries which is later used in ASP.NET applications.