Integrate Composite Application Library with Silverlight.FX
Earlier, we simply compared the differences of a number of open-source Silverlight frameworks. By comparison, we have found that the design goal of the each framework is different. Silverlight.FX mainly aims to improve UI controls and includes many ready-made animation effects while Composite Application Library focuses on how to make multiple modules work collaboratively. Since both of them are so complementary, maybe we could consider using Silverlight.FX and CAL at the same time when developing a Silverlight application.
In order to prove that these two frameworks can co-exist well, we modified an existing Silverlight application and the results live up to our expectations. The application we chose is StockTrader Reference Implementation, you can find it under the installation directory of Composite Application Library. Please click here to download the modified application.
About this experiment, there are some ideas and experiences worthy of being shared:
- In order to reduce the size of downloading file, we gave up Unity and turn to a lightweight IoC container built in Silverlight.FX.
- But the functionalities of Silverlight.FX container are few and it cannot meet the requirements of this application. Therefore, we slightly modified the source code, and you can find the revised files in the download.
- CAL has a very good Extensibility and the replacement of IoC container has no influence on it
- We believe that Silverlight.FX has a more systematic design, so both Application and Main Window are derived from corresponding classes in Silverlight.FX.
- Silverlight View is not modified for the moment. In other words, we have not used the animation effects of Silverlight.FX.
