Silverlight gives you the framework to create most anything you can dream up, and it begs the question as to whether we should be using the "common"/"standard" visualizations anyway! Should we just use a Button, as we know it from ASP.Net or should we create something a little more unique? That debate aside, I have created a framework for adding custom controls to a Silverlight surface.

My big priorities when creating the framework were to abstract as much of the JavaScript/Xaml etc. as possible from the calling app. I think it turned out pretty well!

My first control is the combo box, and you can download it here – This will give a complete VS 2005 project that will run the sample app.

Here's what you need to use the controls in your own app:

• Place the following files in the ROOT directory of your project (I am working on a way to customize this)
  • VertigoSLUtils.js
  • VertigoSLCombo.js
  • Vertigo.SLCombo.zip

     

• Reference the VertigoSLCombo.js in you HTML page
  • <script type="text/javascript" src="VertigoSLCombo.js"></script>

     

• In your Silverlight Scene JS, create an instance of the Combo Control Helper
  • _vertigoComboHelper = new Vertigo.SLCombo(plugIn, createVertigoControls);

  Where:

  • plugIn is the Silverlight Plugin
  • createVertigoControls is the function/delegate that is invoked when the control is ready to use(it build itself asyncronously)

     

• In your Silverlight Scene JS, implement the createVertigoControls function to create instances of the controls and add to your canvas:

function createVertigoControls()

{

var newCombo = _vertigoComboHelper.createControl("combo1", 75, "white", "1", new Array("5","4","3","2","1"), "Arial", "12", null, "blue");

newCombo["Canvas.Left"] = 50;

newCombo["Canvas.Top"] = 300;

myCanvas.children.add(newCombo);

}

And that's pretty much it! Have fun and please let me know thoughts / ideas etc …