Silverlight 5 adds over 40 new features over last Silverlight version.
For more information on the Silverlight 5 announcements check http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/future.
Multiple Window Support
Multiple window support enables a trusted application to dynamically create additional top level
windows.
Ancestor RelativeSource Binding
Ancestor RelativeSource Binding enables a DataTemplate to bind to a property on the control that
contains it, equivalent to FindAncestor and AncestorType, AncestorLevel bindings in WPF.
Implicit DataTemplates
This feature enables the following capabilities:
- ContentPresenter DataTemplates can be selected based upon the content type.
- Implicit definition of DataTemplates
- Dynamically update the ContentPresenter DataTemplate when its content changes
- Enable proper scoping of DataTemplates
ClickCount
Enables Multi‐click input on left and right mouse button.
private void OnMouseDownClickCount(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
// Checks the number of clicks.
if (e.ClickCount == 1)
{
// Single Click occurred.
}
if (e.ClickCount == 2)
{
// Double Click occurred.
}
if (e.ClickCount >= 3)
{
// Triple Click occurred.
}
}
Binding on Style Setter
Binding in style setters allows bindings to be used within styles to reference other properties.
<Style x:Key=”TextBlockStyle2” TargetType=”TextBlock”>
<Setter Property=”FontFamily”
Value=”/SL5;Component/Fonts/Fonts/.zip#Segoe UI/>
<Setter Property=”FontSize” Value=”0,3,0,0”/>
<Setter Property=”Foreground” Value=
”{Binding Source={StaticResource SysColors},Path=ControltextBrush}”/>
</Style>
Realtime Sound (low‐latency Audio)
Enables pre‐loading of an audio source for precision timing of playback. Multiple playback instances are supported through creation of SoundEffectInstance objects.
Variable Speed Playback (“Trick Play”)
This API enables development of fundamental player experiences such as fast‐forward and rewind and
variable speed playback at common speeds (1.2x, 1.4x) – a very common scenario for enterprise training content. The MediaElement.Rate property supports the values ‐8.0, ‐4.0, 0.5, 1, 4.0, 8.0. Note : AudioPitch correction is not present in the Beta but will be added for the final release
Additional Silverlight 5 Features included
- Hardware video decode for H.264 playback.
- Multi‐core background JIT support for improved startup performance.
- ComboBox type ahead with text searching.
- Full keyboard support in full‐screen for trusted in‐browser applications, enables richer kiosk and
media viewing applications in‐browser.
- Default filename in SaveFileDialog – Specify a default filename when you launch the
SaveFileDialog.
- Unrestricted filesystem access – trusted applications can Read write to files in any directory on
the filesystem.
- Improved Graphics stack – The graphics stack has been re‐architected to bring over
improvements from WP7, such as Independent Animations.
- Performance optimizations
- XAML Parser performance optimizations.
- Network Latency optimizations.
- Text layout performance improvements.
- Hardware acceleration is enabled in windowless mode with Internet Explorer 9.