Before you start using Silverform SDK, please check the list of the software you may need to have installed.
Installation requirements
Silverform SDK is currently shipped as Windows Installer (.msi) package and requires a Windows machine to install.
Runtime requirements
Video card with Pixel Shader 2.0 support is required.
Silverform Unity frontend requires Unity Pro 3.2 or higher.
Design tools
The recommended way of defining user interface markup with Silverform is using XAML files. Any text or XML editor can be used to create and edit these files; however, using specialized visual editors drastically improves convenience and productivity. The following editors are recommended:
- Microsoft Expression Blend is an excellent markup creation tool for UI designers;
- Microsoft Visual Studio includes WPF designer tool, and additionally offers great project and solution configuration possibilities;
- SharpDevelop is a free IDE that supports C# projects and has visual XAML editor;
- Kaxaml is a free, very lightweight visual XAML editor.
Build time requirements
Simple markup based on loose XAML pages does not require additional build tools. HelloWorld sample shipped with Silverform SDK is an example of such project.
Building complex markup defined in separate project requires the following components:
- Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (web installer or full package);
- Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (web installer or full package);
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 or Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express or Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4 (web installer or ISO image).
Additional tools are required for building projects based on Silverlight:
- Microsoft Silverlight 4 SDK or Microsoft Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio 2010 (includes the SDK, recommended if Visual Studio is installed).
The following tools are required for building projects created with Microsoft Expression Blend, if the latter is not installed:
- Microsoft Expression Blend SDK for .NET 4 for projects based on WPF;
- Microsoft Expression Blend SDK for Silverlight 4 for projects based on Silverlight.
Requirements for building Silverform SDK samples
Table below describes what toolsets need to be installed in order to build the samples shipped with Silverform SDK.
| Sample | Toolset | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| .NET Framework | Silverlight SDK | Expression Blend SDK for Silverlight | |
| HelloWorld | — | — | — |
| HelloWorld2 | Required | — | — |
| Silverform.SamplePack | Required | — | — |
| BeeHive | Required | Required | Required |
| ColorSwatchSL | Required | Required | Required |
| Time | Required | Required | Required |
The toolsets are defined as follows:
- .NET Framework
- Includes .NET Framework 3.5, 4 and Visual Studio or Windows SDK.
- Silverlight SDK
- Includes Silverlight 4 SDK or Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio.
- Expression Blend SDK for Silverlight
- Includes Microsoft Expression Blend SDK for Silverlight 4.
Please refer to the previous section for download links.