Community Server module for embedding Silverlight 1.1 to posts

Einar Ingebrigtsen — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 06:25:00 GMT

I figured I just jump into it; creating a Community Server 2007 module for rendering Silverlight content.

It all started up yesterday as a simple thing, but I figured that I didn't feel comfortable with the way the plugin system worked in Community Server, so I created a small abstraction from it to make it feel more right for me. :) It's all based upon attributes instead of hooking up events. The reason I started doing the abstraction was that I have a couple of modules I need in the pipeline and wanted to simplify stuff I will be needing for all modules, such as filtering for ApplicationType.

The module code turns out as follows (I've attached the entire project with source and binaries)

  [Module("SilverlightModule")]
  public class SilverlightModule : BaseModule
  {
    private static readonly string SilverlightScript = "Silverlight";
    private static readonly string SilverlightApplicationScript = 
                        "SilverlightApplication";

    [Method(MethodType.PreRender)]
    [MethodType(MethodType.PreRender)]
    [ApplicationType(ApplicationType.Weblog)]
    [ApplicationType(ApplicationType.ContentManagement)]
    public string Render(string protocol,string xamlUri)
    {
      string completeUri = protocol + ":" + xamlUri;

      Page page = MethodContext.Current.Page;

      if (!page.ClientScript.
          IsClientScriptBlockRegistered(SilverlightScript))
      {
        page.ClientScript.
          RegisterClientScriptBlock(  typeof(SilverlightModule), 
                        SilverlightScript, 
                        Resources.Silverlight, true);
      }

      if (!page.ClientScript.
          IsClientScriptBlockRegistered(SilverlightApplicationScript))
      {
        page.ClientScript.
          RegisterClientScriptBlock(  typeof(SilverlightModule), 
                        SilverlightApplicationScript, 
                        Resources.SilverlightApplication, 
                        true);
      }

      Guid applicationGuid = Guid.NewGuid();

      string hostName = "SilverlightControlHost_"+applicationGuid.ToString();

      completeUri = completeUri.Trim();

      return 
      "<div id=\"" + hostName + "\" style=\"background-color:Black\" >" +
      "<script type=\"text/javascript\" style=\"background-color:Black\">" +
      "createSilverlight(\""+completeUri+"\",\""+applicationGuid.ToString()+"\");" +
      "</script>" +
      "</div>";
    }
  }

Installation instructions :

Copy the binary (DoLittle.CS.Modules.dll) into the bin directory of your Community Server installation. Add the following line to your communityserver.config file :

Then you have the SilverlightModule up and running.

To use it you simple write [SilverlightModule: protocol:uri] in your editor.

protocol : http, https
uri : The uri for the XAML to use

Sample : [SilverlightModule: http://www.dolittle.com/Silverlight/3D/Page.xaml]

Remember to use the unlink button for the Uri. Community Server editor and most other editors will automatically translate the Uri and add a href around it.

MediaPlayer Content plugin for Windows Live Writer

Einar Ingebrigtsen — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:32:00 GMT

I've just sort of finished a simple plugin for adding a MediaPlayer object to blogs from the Windows Live Writer.
In order to use the plugin you must enable the object tag, so they won't get scrubbed during rendering.

For Community Server this is achieved by going into the communityserver.config file (residing in the Web directory of your Community Server installation) and going to the <markup> section; here you can add the object tag as a trusted tag type. Remember that you're doing that on your own risk!!!!

Anyways.. Download the file to play around with it. I've also attached the source for it.

Important :
To install it you have to copy it to the Plugins directory of Windows Live Writer, typically c:\Program Files\Windows Live Writer\Plugins.

Blog'A'Little : Addin, Plugin

Community Server module for embedding Silverlight 1.1 to posts

MediaPlayer Content plugin for Windows Live Writer