CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#windowswindows-phone-8.1win-universal-appwindows-10
golldy
golldy

Reputation: 1299

Silverlight to WINRT or Silverlight to Universal

I have a Windows Phone 8.1 Silverlight application which is in the store now. Since i see that Microsoft is moving all the attention towards WINRT and Universal Apps, i suspect that there will be limited or no support for Silverlight Apps in Windows 10.

There might be a tablet project that i might roll out for the same project in the future. So i am in the dilemma to convert the Silveright projects in my solution to WINRT or convert them into Universal Apps.Also, i hear that converting to Universal projects are pretty hard as well.And I understand that the bulk of the work will be in porting the UI to Hub Style UI.

Any ideas? Comments on the best approach to take here.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 669

Answers (2)

yasen
yasen

Reputation: 3580

A WinRT app is a Windows only app (not for Phone). Other than that, WinRT and Universal apps are quite similar. They have the same namespaces, classes, controls... almost everything. You can use many WinRT libraries in Universal apps without any problem. And so, porting to them is generally the same, too.

Windows Store and Windows Phone apps generally need different UI anyway, so you would have to work on that, no matter what you do.

One difference is that a WinRT app would work on Windows 8.0 and up, and a Universal app would require Windows 8.1 (or WP 8.1 for phones). Actually, a Windows 8.1 app IS a Universal app. Just like a Windows Phone 8.1 app (not the Silverlight variation) is a Universal app.

I'd recommend porting to a Universal app as you would get used to working with these apps, and they work on both platforms (Windows and Phone). For any future project, that's the way to go.

In the company I work for, we switched to Universal apps a few months ago. Figuring out what UI we would use on both platforms and how to do it properly, as well as porting our existing libraries did take some time (not too much), but now making a new app and supporting both platforms is very easy. So, for me, that's the way to go.

Upvotes: 1

Oliver Ulm
Oliver Ulm

Reputation: 531

It is quite unlikely that Microsoft will stop supporting Silverlight Apps in the Windows 10 version for phones. Even WP8.1 still supports XNA Games from the WP7.0 era.

Depending on the APIs you are using in your libraries the majority of changes when converting from Silverlight to WinRT will be on the UI side, e.g. if your Silverlight App already uses the LocalStorage-APIs instead of the IsolatedStorage-APIs that won't even have to be changed.

My advice would be the following:

  • evaluate wether all functionality you need is supported in Universal Apps (some functionality is currently only available in Silverlight Apps)
  • evaluate wether the actual APIs you are using are supported in Universal Apps or need to be replaced (IsolatedStorage => LocalStorage, etc.)

Armed with that knowledge I'd guess you will be able to better plan on when to port your App to the new APIs. If a tablet version is likely in the future and all required APIs are supported in the Universal App Model porting sooner will likely require less effort than porting later.

Upvotes: 1

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