Creating a New Silverlight Project

The following topic details how to create a new Silverlight project in Microsoft Visual Studio and in Microsoft Expression Blend.

In Visual Studio

Complete the following steps to create a new Silverlight project in Microsoft Visual Studio:

Select File | New | Project to open the New Project dialog box in Visual Studio.
In the Project types pane, expand either the Visual Basic or Visual C# node and select Silverlight.
Choose Silverlight Application in the Templates pane.
Name the project, specify a location for the project, and click OK.
Next, Visual Studio will prompt you for the type of hosting you want to use for the new project.
In the NewSilverlight Application dialog box, select OK to accept the default name and options and to create the project.

In Expression Blend

Complete the following steps to create a new Silverlight project in Microsoft Expression Blend:

Select File | New Project to open the New Project dialog box in Blend 4.
In the Project types pane, click the Silverlight node.
In the right pane, choose Silverlight Application + Website in the Templates pane to create a project with an associated Web site.
Name the project, specify a location for the project, choose a language (Visual C# or Visual Basic), and click OK. Your new project will be created.

The Project

The solution you just created will contain two projects, YourProject and YourProject.Web:

YourProject: This is the Silverlight application proper. It will produce a XAP file that gets downloaded to the client and runs inside the Silverlight plug-in.
YourProject.Web: This is the host application. It runs on the server and provides support for the Silverlight application.