Silverlight -> HTML/JS - experiences?

Silverlight -> HTML/JS - experiences?

Old forum URL: forums.lhotka.net/forums/t/12046.aspx


skagen00 posted on Saturday, June 29, 2013

Have a very robust commercial Silverlight LOB app that uses CSLA 4.5.  It's a really slick app and provides a lot of rich behavior.

So much investment has gone into the business layer and testing layers to where "I'm here to collect my dividend for choosing CSLA". (To leverage all this hard work in a new UI)

While Silverlight is supported through 2021 it's time to start thinking about the subject matter to have talking points on it - especially when competitors hit on the subject matter.  I once thought that a translation over to WinRT (Xaml/C#) would end up becoming the "desktop" version of the app (and native app for WinRT devices), with the understanding that some level of HTMl/JS app would be needed to provide some limited behavior for other mobile devices (which basically boils down to IPads).

Over time however, it seems increasingly clear that this would be a riskier choice (WinRT w/ Xaml/C#)  than even having chosen Silverlight (which I do not regret and didn't seem like a risk at the time!).  Instead, I'm considering that going with HTML/JS for the whole app is the way it needs to go over time (barring any new client-side technology revelations).

I have been intrigued by the concept of single-page applications as I feel like it's probably most likely the easiest way to be able to support the level of richness we want and it feels like this approach would make it easier for other developers on the team who mostly have Silverlight skills.

Has anyone made the leap of converting a large Silverlight application to an HTML/JS one? Would you care to share your experience & what sorts of technologies you chose? Has it been a tough road, and has the richness of your application suffered due to balancing development cost with desired functionality?  Were any junior developers able to adjust to the new technologies reasonably?

Thanks!

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