In windows phone 8.1 what is the differance between Windows phone project and silverlight project?

Question

I begin to use windows phone 8.1 SDK but there are some strange things i don't understand, one of this complicated things why there are different frameworks Silverlight and the default xaml, also what is the difference between them and when i use this or this ?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered May 08 '14 at 14:41

3

One huge difference is of course that the Store Apps supports Universal Apps, where you can easily share almost all all of the code across WP8.1 and Windows 8.1 (including XAML).

But it is Worth noting that there are several features which some apps might require which is only available for WP8.1 Silverlight apps, such as:

VoIP support
Act as Lock screen background provider
Act as a Lens app
Let app extend search results using search extras
Provide ringtones

And a few other listed here along with a feature mapping from WP8 to WP8.1 Silverlight and Store Apps: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/dn642486(v=vs.105).aspx

If you are starting a new app and will not need any of these features a Store app is probably the better choice though.

answered May 08 '14 at 14:41

Johan Falk

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thank you but where can the universal App support all this features and also i think there are a difference between silverlight and universal apps and xaml apps – May 08 '14 at 14:49
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There are just 2 types, WP8.1 Silverlight Apps and WP8.1 Store Apps (a.k.a. XAML apps). The differences are those listed and and on the linked MSDN page. Universal Apps is the name of Store Apps which is also developed for Windows 8.1, using the shared code feature for Store Apps. When choosing to create a Universal App in Visual Studio, it just creates a Project with both a Windows 8.1 and a WP8.1 Store Apps Project which shares some of the code. If you start with only a WP8.1 or Windows 8.1 App Project you can easily make it into a Universal App by just adding the other Project type. – Johan Falk May 08 '14 at 14:53

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 08 '14 at 19:50

If I understand your question correctly, let me put some sentences from MSDN...

    why there are different frameworks Silverlight and the default xaml, 
also what is the difference between them and when i use this or this ?

In Visual Studio 2013 Microsoft has come up with an approach where you can build Apps for Phone as well as for Desktop and tabs simultaneously. A unique concept of Universal Apps.

    Build an app for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 at the same time, 
and share code, user controls, styles, strings and other assets between them

So if you are going to develop an Apps targeting both the platform, then Universal apps concept is good.

But if you are targeting only the new features of Windows Phone 8.1 then you should start with Silverlight "Blank App (Windows Phone Silverlight)"

As in MSDN its clearly mentioned.

    The names of some templates have (Windows Phone Silverlight) appended 
to the end. Consider using these templates if you've previously developed 
for Windows Phone 8 and just want to access some of the new features available 
to Windows Phone apps without having to significantly modify your existing 
code. You can use these templates to create apps only for Windows Phone 8.1

In windows phone 8.1 what is the differance between Windows phone project and silverlight project?

3 Answers3

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