Expression Blend 4 and VS 2008 SP1

Question

Good Day everyone!!

One question.. or two..

Is it possible to use Expression Blend 4 and Visual Studio 2008???

if it is... how??

I did this:

Install VS2008 Install Expression 4 Install VS2008 SP1 Install Silverlight 3 Tools Remove Silverlight 4 registry key Install Silverlight 3 Developer (Silverlight_Developer.exe, to enable Silverlight debugging in VS2008)

Then... when I try to open a Expression Blend 4 Solution in VS2008 it says that the version used is more recent... So I open the sln file and change version 11.0 to 10.0

Now VS2008 opens the sln from Blend 4, and since I created the solution using Version 3, I supossed there wouldn't be any problem, but VS2008 doesn't render any escene...

If I press F5 the project compiles and launches in Explorer... but I can't do anything with VS2008... just edit in code but not in design...

or am I mistaking everything???? I come from Flash.. and I'm used to create something in Flash, then use it as an object in HTML...

This time I created a menu in Blend 4... but how do I use it in a ASPX??? how do I assign actions to my buttons???

sorry for so many questions :( I've been reading some tutorials but all of them are for design in Blend 4... not to use those solutions in VS2008

Thanks!!!!

Answer 1

1. Create a Blend 4 project (havent tried with vs2008), If you have one skip.

2. Open *.sln file and change:

   Format Version 11.00 -> Format Version 10.00

   # Visual Studio 2010 -> # Visual Studio 2008
   

3. Open *.csproj file and change:

   <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath32)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
   

   to

   <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
   

Now you can open your Blend 4 project inside vs 2008. To open in blend again just reverse step 3.

Answer 2

Expression Blend 4 uses the Visual Studio 2010 file formats.
http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Blend_ReleaseNotes.aspx

Start here for Expression Blend tutorials:
http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/cc136522.aspx

And this (it's 8 parts):
http://timheuer.com/blog/articles/getting-started-with-silverlight-development.aspx

Answer 3

It is possible, but it will not be pretty, and it is not a supported mode of usage per the program manager of blend:

http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/blend/thread/173d26c6-325a-4654-a6f1-08b89173d86d

If you want to do it, I am guessing the best path would be to maintain two solutions, one for blend in the 2010 format and one for 2008, letting blend re-convert on any significant changes (this would be a manual process).

A better question is, would you want to? I believe that Blend 4 is designed to expose the new features in Silverlight and WPF that you only get access to in Visual Studio 2010. I suspect it will make changes to your XAML that will not be supported in your 2008 solution/projects.

My $.02 is that it is better to use a version of Blend that supports working with Visual Studio 2008, or upgrade to Visual Studio 2010.