Introducing OpenSilver - the plugin-free reimplementation of Silverlight that runs on current browsers via WebAssembly
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 9:16 am
Dear CSHTML5 forum members,
We are glad to announce an early access to the first Technology Preview of OpenSilver, the WebAssembly-based alternative to CSHTML5!
Although the Technology Preview will only be officially announced on March 9, 2020, here is a private download link just for the CSHTML5 community to try it out before anyone else:
https://opensilver.net/links/private-early-access.aspx
(you will be prompted to sign in using a Microsoft account)
OpenSilver is based on the same code as CSHTML5, except that it generates WebAssembly files instead of JavaScript. The two products (CSHTML5 and OpenSilver) are going to co-exist, because both have their advantages and drawbacks. OpenSilver is positioned as "a modern, plugin-free, open-source reimplementation of Silverlight that runs on current browsers via WebAssembly". It uses Mono for WebAssembly and Microsoft Blazor.
When you create a new OpenSilver project, you can choose between the Silverlight and the UWP dialects of XAML.
The limitations of this release are:
Looking forward to reading your feedback!
Thank you.
The CSHTML5 Team
We are glad to announce an early access to the first Technology Preview of OpenSilver, the WebAssembly-based alternative to CSHTML5!
Although the Technology Preview will only be officially announced on March 9, 2020, here is a private download link just for the CSHTML5 community to try it out before anyone else:
https://opensilver.net/links/private-early-access.aspx
(you will be prompted to sign in using a Microsoft account)
OpenSilver is based on the same code as CSHTML5, except that it generates WebAssembly files instead of JavaScript. The two products (CSHTML5 and OpenSilver) are going to co-exist, because both have their advantages and drawbacks. OpenSilver is positioned as "a modern, plugin-free, open-source reimplementation of Silverlight that runs on current browsers via WebAssembly". It uses Mono for WebAssembly and Microsoft Blazor.
When you create a new OpenSilver project, you can choose between the Silverlight and the UWP dialects of XAML.
The limitations of this release are:
- It requires VS 2019 v16.4 or newer, with the "ASP.NET" workload installed
- Performance is bad at the moment, but it will greatly improve (by at least 30 times) when the Mono for WebAssembly team releases AOT compilation
- WCF works fine in the browser but not in the Simulator. Note: to make it work in the browser, please uncheck "Reuse types in referenced assemblies" when adding the service reference, and update the NuGet packages from v4.4 to v4.7
- Images and other embedded resources are not yet functional
- The ComboBox is broken
- ResX files are not yet supported
- Auto-complete and intellisense are not yet available when editing XAML code
- The XAML inspector in the Simulator is not yet functional
Looking forward to reading your feedback!
Thank you.
The CSHTML5 Team