Introduction
What attracted many developers to Silverlight starting back in 2007, was that it allowed us to write maintainable web applications quickly and easily. This was largely due to MVVM, a pattern that separates logic from presentation. The ViewModel portion of the app, written in C# or VB, contains all of the logic, which makes it easy to test and maintain. The View portion of the app is written in XAML, using a rich library of supporting classes and controls.
When Microsoft decided to stop investing in Silverlight, many developers were faced with a tough decision. How could they migrate to modern web platforms and not throw away all the benefits of MVVM and the knowledge they gained by using Silverlight?
At ComponentOne, a division of GrapeCity, we faced this challenge ourselves. We studied the alternatives and concluded that HTML5 and application frameworks such as AngularJS seemed like the best option going forward. AngularJS provides the key ingredients: a solid framework for single-page applications, a templating mechanism, and basic support for MVVM. All it was missing were the controls and a few essential classes required to create traditional MVVM apps.
Well, we know how to write controls. So we decided to add what was missing.
The result is Wijmo 5, our latest control library for HTML5 and JavaScript development. Wijmo 5 is a true HTML5 solution, based on JavaScript and CSS. It includes all of the controls commonly used in LOB (line of business) applications, as well as JavaScript implementations of the ICollectionView interface and a concrete CollectionView class.
Together with AngularJS, Wijmo 5 provides a great platform for porting existing Silverlight applications and also for creating brand new web applications faster than you ever thought possible.
Read more: Codeproject