Silverlight which is a browser-based plugin app architecture is rapidly losing market share. The loss of innovation, lack of communities and removal of plug-in APIs from browser manufacturers has resulted in the stagnation of Silverlight technology and developers have started migrating to newer technologies that support mobile and tablet devices.
Why Silverlight Migration is Important?
- Microsoft has announced the end of Silverlight in 2021.
- Major browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and edge have stopped supporting it long back.
- Since Silverlight is reaching its end-of-life, so will your app if you don’t migrate.
- The longer you postpone Silverlight migration, the greater will be the cost to migrate and there will be more code to migrate.
- Your competitors who have already migrated are already benefitting from an innovative technology
- You will run the risk of losing customers if your apps don’t support mobile and tablet devices
Silverlight Migration Options
Migrate Silverlight to Angular
The migration of Silverlight to AngularJS has many advantages. Since AngularJS is an open-source web platform, it supports a host of features that helps you to provide rich user experience when compared to Silverlight. AngularJS helps you to build apps that work across devices such as tablets and mobile phones whereas most of the Silverlight apps are just windows applications.
There are several ways in which you can benefit from migrating from Silverlight to AngularJS. For more information, check out our blog on Microsoft Silverlight to Angular Migration Silverlight to angular migration
Migrate Silverlight to HTML5
HTML5 has most of the key capabilities similar to Silverlight that are required to build web apps albeit without the need for plugins. From cross-browser compatibility to cross-platform support, many other benefits justify converting Silverlight to HTML5.
Migrate Silverlight to WPF
The technologies of Silverlight and WPF are so interlinked that one can find a high degree of code compatibility between the two allowing for the easier migration of Silverlight to WPF. The fact that one can develop an application for both the platforms using a common code-base makes it easier to migrate Silverlight apps to WPF.
Silverlight to HTML5
A company called Userware has released a tool called C#/XAML for HTML5 as a Visual Studio extension which makes the Silverlight to HTML Migration Process easier. C#/XAML for HTML5 also called CSHTML5 allows developers to use C# and XAML to build apps that run in a browser.
Silverlight migration edition of CSHTML5 has been released which helps companies and individuals to migrate their Silverlight apps to the web. It comes with a lot of special features which makes it easier and faster to migrate Silverlight apps to HTML. Silverlight-style project templates are available specifically for the migration of Silverlight to HTML.
Benefits of migrating from Silverlight to HTML5
You can enjoy a host of benefits from Silverlight to HTML5 migration which are as follows:
- HTML5 is supported across a wide range of browsers and platforms
- Supports rich media elements such as video and audio without any need for third-party players
- With a geolocation API, HTML5 allows you to detect user location and cater to content relevant to them.
- Being a mobile-ready tool, it helps you to build apps and websites for various mobile devices.
- It is essentially a client-side database and hence you need not worry about the user deleting the cookies.
- Local storage is possible with HTML5 which makes it easy to develop web apps without the need for third-party plugins.
- HTML5 has a slew of APIs that helps you to build responsive and dynamic web applications with interactive features for better user experience.
- The offline application cache allows for the local storage of the web application content and code thereby making it possible to use the apps offline without an internet connection.
- It supports thread-like operation which enables the web apps to run background scripts
Silverlight Migration Strategies
There are two Microsoft Silverlight migration strategies that you can follow: Big Bang and Hybrid migration;
Big Bang
This strategy involves matching the feature-for-feature of your Silverlight application to an HTML5 equivalent. After matching all the features, turn off browser-based plugin application and launch the HTML5 application. It’s a pretty straightforward approach and doesn’t require any integration between HTML5 and the plug-in code
Hybrid
This is an alternative to the big bang approach and involves migrating the application piece-by-piece resulting in the creation of a hybrid application where some of the code will be in HTML5 and some still in Silverlight.
Bottom Line
It is high time to bid goodbye to Silverlight – one of the best web development technologies that we have been working with for a long time. But, Silverlight has become a thing of the past and it is time to move onto newer and more efficient technologies. Businesses need to keep up with the changing trends and migrating to the latest technologies will help to boost the performance and efficiency of your systems.