For all those that work in, or are interested in the technical side of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and related technologies, here’s a guest post from David Cabaniuk. David is an expert on in-depth configuration and customisation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and specialises in development of add-on applications and ‘IP’ for the product. He is also well-known and respected amongst the UK Microsoft Dynamics CRM development community, and is the driving force behind the popular independent Microsoft Dynamics CRM website, www.CRMcodex.com.
Silverlight 5 vs HTML 5 in the CRM Namespace – By David Cabaniuk
It has been so painful to write the title above, but I have been asked the question above several times. The reason people are asking the question is simple. They have seen Silverlight introduced to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, they are aware of the upcoming of Silverlight 5 and HTML 5, which on the face of things look similar and so are asking the question “what’s best: Silverlight 5 or HTML 5?”
Why is the question painful? Well it’s the wrong question!
The question we should be asking exists in the context of a development project. The question is “for my given project, can I achieve my requirements, while keeping the solution simple and maintainable through Silverlight 5 or HTML 5?”
This is obviously a question a developer is more likely to ask rather than a consultant, salesmen, marketing or manager will ask. They are more likely to brisk over the details and simply say, “Silverlight 5 does animations, HTML does animations, which one do we use?” AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
I’m not going to get in to the technical details – there are plenty of blogged technical comparisons out there that demonstrate the differences. I’m going to keep it simple and give you my opinion.
So how do I answer the question? They are two completely different technologies! Put aside the funky groovy animations that you have seen demonstrations of! Silverlight is an entire platform that sits on the Microsoft stack and offers increased efficiency and functionality by utilising the resources of your machine. HTML 5 is a mark-up language which is dependant on browsers implementation of the new standard. The standard has been updated to reduce the amount of plug-ins you need to install to handle things such as video.
So with CRM in mind, if your application requires a lot of functionality that interfaces to your PC devices or interfaces to external systems (web services, dlls) then Silverlight is your port of call. If you are looking for client rich UI that is based on simple input, video and audio then HTML 5 is the better option.
Here's another question. What do I think we will see in the future deployed into Microsoft Dynamics CRM? The answer is both, hopefully deployed in the right scenarios. Personally I can’t see Microsoft dropping Silverlight as it’s currently integrated in to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, one of their flagship products. It is also heavily used on the windows phone platform which is being marketed by Microsoft and Nokia. In phone development you have the choice of XNA for game development or Silverlight for application development. Microsoft's problem is maintaining Silverlight for other devices and browsers outside of the Microsoft stack.
HTML 5 isn’t going anywhere either. The standard just needs to be fully agreed and implemented by the browsers. Once implemented and developed across multiple browsers and devices, it may become easy through HTML 5 In the future I can see Silverlight moving on much quicker than HTML 5, offering new rounds of features more rapidly than HTML 5.
A new feature in HTML 5 will have to be approved and browsers will have to implement the new changes. For Silverlight all Microsoft need to do is update their Silverlight runtime and deploy the update through a Windows Update.
I may have glossed over a lot of in-depth details between the two but my view point is simple. They are both here to stay and as developers we should embrace them both. We should be looking at our requirements independently and deciding which the simplest solution to deploy is.
For now, until the standard has been agreed for HTML 5 and implemented I personally will be using Silverlight. However, I’m looking forward to implementing my first HTML 5 solution within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
This post was first published on the CRMCodex blog in January 2012. Please note these are the opinions of the author and not necessarily of TSG Ltd.
"They are both here to stay and as developers we should embrace them both."
Sorry that conclusion costs 2 cents. Not much companies can deliver 2 technologies at a time. Even the fact is they just want to use one of them. There is no time, no money, and no need to adapt both. It's a joke.
Currently Moonlight (mono-project.com/Moonlight) is not maintained by Microsoft. Simple, Microsoft don't see attractive from open source world. There is no plan to bring their technologies to Linux.
The world does not only have *.exe.
Sorry for my English.
Posted by: Sa Dec | 16 July 2012 at 05:16 PM