14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is gearing up to release Silverlight 5 to web later this year, and is offering developers a range of resources designed to help them build projects for the next iteration of the technology. The latest addition to the list already containing an SDK as well as additional tools is Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5.
Available free of charge via the Microsoft Download Center, Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5 is a solution that devs can leverage when building Silverlight 5 and Silverlight 5 SketchFlow projects.
Undoubtedly, developers leveraging Silverlight are already aware of the role that Expression Blend plays, and the next version of this dev resource only confirms its importance in the context of Silverlight 4’s successor.
According to Microsoft, Expression Blend Preview can install right alongside Expression Blend 4, as they serve different purposes, the first being focused on Silverlight 4, while the latest deals with its predecessors.
“Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5 provides support for creating Silverlight 5 projects, including Silverlight 5 SketchFlow projects. Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5 installs side-by-side with Expression Blend 4,” the software giant explained.
“Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5 supports only Silverlight 5 projects. For Silverlight 3 and 4 projects or WPF 3.5 and 4, please use Expression Blend 4.”
Microsoft made available for download the first Release Candidate (RC) development milestone of Silverlight 5 at the start of September 2011.
Silverlight 5 RC Build 5.0.60818.0 is accompanied by additional resources including Silverlight 5 RC SDK, Silverlight 5 RC Tools for Visual Studio 2010 SP1 and WCF RIA Services V1.0 SP2 RC.
The Redmond company made it clear that Silverlight 5 RC doesn’t come with a go-live license, which means that developers will need to run their projects in testing environments only.
This RC is expected to be the last testing Build of Silverlight 5 before the release to web (RTW) milestone.
Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5 is available for download here.
Expression Blend 4 Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.
Silverlight 5 Release Candidate (RC) Build 5.0.60818.0 is available for download here.
Silverlight 5 RC SDK is available for download here.
Silverlight 5 RC Tools for Visual Studio 2010 SP1 is available for download here.
WCF RIA Services V1.0 SP2 RC is available for download here.