Silverlight or ASP.NET or both?

At the moment I am starting to learn Silverlight. I have expriences in ASP.NET and like the concepts of "Masterpages. Does Silverlight provides a similar concept ? I have read a little bit about the Silverlight开发者_开发技巧 Navigation Framework. Is this a good replacement for "Masterpages" ? Makes it sense to combine ASP.NET and HTML (with Javascript) with Silverlight or is it more recommandable to design and write pure Silverlight applications ? Mybe in the ner future I will start to develop an intranet (business) application which will have many and complex user interaction (it should behave like a windows client applicion). I think Silverlight is the better choice than ASP.NET !? Makes it sense also to start to use/learn the WCF RIA Services immediatly ? Are there good (VS) templates to start with Silverlight or which are a good basis / starting point for a new Silverlight application ? Unfortunately I am missing "Starter kits" on http://www.silverlight.net like the starter kits on www.asp.net ! Thanks in advance for your hints.

Silverlight and ASP.Net are light years apart technology wise, Silverlight is closer to Winforms programming than it is to ASP.net, event though it can be hosted inside an ASP.Net page.

To achieve "masterpage" type functionality, you can have a base control or page that you can inherit everything else from. Or you can have a page which acts as a shell and you can swap views in and out depending on the user's actions.

If you are writing an app from scratch, you can do the whole thing in silverlight. You can navigate from one silverlight control (hosted in an aspx page) to another aspx page (with silverlight controls in it), but there is a performance overhead when transitioning between aspx pages (they are web pages and need to be served). You should look to eliminate separate aspx pages if possible, and create it as one big silverlight application - if your application's functionality is all rolled into one application (not spread amongst aspx pages) then you can make the most of Silverlight's Out Of Browser feature.

However you should only consider silverlight if you are build web apps or interactive/streaming stuff. If your pages are going to be largely static (i.e. presenting product catalogs, or a site where the user just drills through from one page to another) then using silverlight would be overkill, you would be better off sticking with ASP.Net or ASP.Net MVC.

Masterpages does Silverlight provide a similar concept ?

Not directly but it does provide a variety of ways to acheive the goals of Masterpages. The navigation framework is mostly the sort of thing you would need to achieve the typical reason to use Masterpages.

However its also possible to achieve "masterpage" functionality more generally by creating a UserControl that has ContentControl instances at points where in ASP.NET masterpages you would have used a asp:contentplaceholder. These content controls would be bound to custom properties added to the UserControl. This completed UserControl can then be used as the "LayoutRoot" of another UserControl or Page. Note this does not require inheritence from the "master".

Does a combined ASP.NET and Silverlight app make sense?

Well thats a tricky one the answer really is, "It depends". There are way to many factors to give this a true answer. Factors:-

• Is this a public app or an internal app?
• How important are including rich UI features?
• First time Silverlight dev will cost you, is your project able to absorbe that?
• What client platforms do you need to support?
• How might ASP.NET-MVC + appropriate use of JQuery size up against your requirements?
• Probably others I haven't thought of yet

Is Silverlight is the better choice than ASP.NET when there are many and complex user interactions?

The phrase "complex user interactions" could mean a couple of things? Do mean complex to deliver with HTML and Javascript but simple for the user? Or is this a sophisticated app aimed at an expert user?

In either case its likely that Silverlight will start to come into its own here.

Does make it sense also to start to use/learn the WCF RIA Services immediately?

Yet again the answer depends of the type of application you have in mind. If its line of business app where data is searched, edited and reported on then (assuming you have decided to develop in Silverlight at all) definitely you should be looking at WCF RIA Services as well as the parts of PRISM that think are appropriate.

Other types of apps may not benefit from WCF RIA Services.

Are there good (VS) templates to start with Silverlight or which are a good basis / starting point for a new Silverlight application ?

There are no start kits at present. However I think you will find what you need amoung the various demos and tutorials on the silverlight learning site.

I've particular found the videos useful. If you decide to go Silverlight its well worth clearing a day or two to got through the relevent ones.

These are a lot of questions at once.

Yes, the Navigation Framework functionality is pretty much equivalent to the Master Pages concept. Even to the point that it is tracked in the URL when users navigate, so they can use the back and forward button of their browsers.

If you want to do a stand-alone Silverlight application or a hybrid pretty much depends on your requirements and on the type of application you want to develop. If it's a Line of Business application, you might be doing fine with Silverlight alone.

For a public, content/text-intensive website probably HTML with some silverlight gadgetry here and there might still be preferable.