Can Desktop Silverlight 5 Play MP4 video of Windows Phone Successfully?

In this Sprint, we have the new feature - uploading video files in the Silverlight Application (SL5) and then we can play the video directly. 

In order to test this feature, I need to get some video files in advance.

I found out a tool that can download a video from YouTube directly and save it as .mp4 file, but after upload, I couldn't play the video successfully in SL5.

I used iPhone 5 to record a video (.mov) and I played the video successfully in SL5.

I found out a tool to convert .mov to .mp4. After upload, I played the video successfully in SL5.

My colleague used Windows Phone to record a video (.mp4). After upload, I couldn't play the video successfully in SL5.

 If I changed .mov/.mp4 above to .mp3, after upload, I played the video successfully in SL5.

Per my understanding, Silverlight 5 should support .mp4 format. From my testing experience, I can’t play .mp4 video from Windows Phone successfully. 

From this article of MSDN, I still can’t find the answer if Desktop Silverlight 5 can play mp4 video of Windows Phone successfully.

If users upload .mp4 video from Windows Phone 7 in our Silverlight 5 on Windows 7 and it doesn't work , I will remind them: the file can be renamed as mp3 and upload it again.  It will work.

Silverlight does not support GIF images

Recently our tester tested one scenario in Silverlight 5: after uploading JPG, PNG, BMP or GIF file, the GIF/ BMP image didn’t appear in Silverlight 5 Application. Therefore, she logged the bug.

I told her that Silverlight does not natively support GIF image.  Our developer would like to fix the bug for displaying BMP image in Silverlight 5.

Simple Solution- force browsers to reload Silverlight .xap in user's machine for the specific Production Release

I wrote the post on July 17, 2012 entitled Silverlight .xap needs to be updated in the users’ laptops after pushing a new build. But recently we noticed that .xap file is not updated in user’s machines after we push new change to Production.

The quick workaround for them is to clear the caches in their local machines and hitting the site again will download the latest .xap and .zip files. However, it is not user-friendly.

That being said, we need to force browsers to reload Silverlight .xap in user's machine after we push to Production. Silverlight .xap versioning seems a good idea. 

Actually, I have one simple solution: using different .xap name for the specific Production release. For example, if we have the 12/17 release, we can use XXX1217.xap as the naming convention.

When I use TFS to merge the code from DEV Branch to TEST branch, I can modify the following settings for our Jan 10 release, 2013.

Default.aspx:

Before- param name="source" value="ClientBin/Sprint2.xap"

After - param name="source" value="ClientBin/SprintJan10.xap"

Unload Project and Edit Project file.

Before – XapFilename>Sprint2.xap

After -   XapFilename>SprintJan10.xap

In ClientBin folder, I delete Sprint2.xap first.  After building the solution successfully, I can see sprintJan10.xap in ClientBin Folder. After pushing a new TFS build, the build is successful. When I hit Silverlight Application and check the following folder, SprintJan10.xap is really there.

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\

Next time if users have the issue, it is really for me to know if they have the specific Silverlight .xap file for our specific release.

Microsoft Visual Studio UI Test Plugin for Silverlight 5 is not working.

Microsoft Recently released Microsoft Visual Studio UI Test Plugin for Silverlight to support Silverlight 5. I was very happy to download it to try our current Silverlight 5 Project.

When I used coded UI test to record Silverlight 5 Application, it recorded our login page, but when I clicked some basic features, “the recorded actions have been discarded" appeared all the time.

I would agree with the following saying because it still has a lot of bugs.

It is not an official Microsoft release. We will monitor the Q and A section on this VS Galley site for feedback and queries.

I don’t understand : if this tool is not working well and still has lots of bugs, why release this tool as a joke? I am not going to test this broken tool. 

I gave up this tool and would like to use Telerik Test studio to work on my Silverlight 5 Automation.

How to turn on Temporary Internet Files Folder in Windows 7?

Yesterday I wrote the post about Silverlight .xap needs to be updated in the users’ laptops after pushing a new build. Someone asked me where “Temporary Internet Files” folder is. Good question. It is invisible by default, but you can use the command line to open the folder directly.

Here are the steps:

Click Start.

In Search Program and files, enter Folder and Folder Options appears

Click Folder Options. In View tab, uncheck “Hide Protected Operating Systems (Recommended)”. Click Apply.

“Temporary Internet Files “Folder will appear.

Coded UI tests have the huge limitation for Silverlight Application and cross browser testing

For Silverlight 5 Application, Coded UI test is not supported in Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio 11 and Visual Studio 2012 RC.

For Silverlight 4 Application in Firefox, Coded UI test is only supported in Firefox 3.5 and 3.6.  For higher version of Firefox, it is not supported.

For Silverlight Application in Chrome, Coded UI test is not supported.

For Silverlight Application in Safari, Silverlight is never supported on Windows platform. It is only supported on Mac OS. However, Coded UI test is not supported for Safari.

 As a SDET, I would like to say this is not good news for Coded UI test because it has the huge limitation for Silverlight Application and cross browser testing.

Telerik Test Studio can handle Silverlight 5 Application in different browser easily.

Coded UI tests don’t support Silverlight 5 at this moment

I have used Telerik Test Studio to do Silverlight UI Automation more than 2 years. It is a very powerful tool. In my last Microsoft Project, I tried to use Coded UI tests for Silverlight 4 applications, and I couldn’t record and run tests very well. However, Telerik Test Studio worked very well. My current project is related to Silverlight 5, and Telerik Test Studio is still a powerful tool.

Today I would like to try Coded UI tests to test Silverlight 5, but the non-supported dialog box appears as follows:

After doing some research, Coded UI tests in Visual Studio 2010 and Visual 11 don’t support Silverlight 5. I give up Coded UI tests and still use my favorite testing tool -Telerik Test Studio.

Just one thought: If I can’t use Coded UI Tests for Silverlight 5, I don’t think Microsoft Test Manager can play an important role in the testing tool.

Unhandled Error in Silverlight Application - ESRI.ArcGIS.Client.Layer.OnInitializationFailed

Our Silverlight Project is based on ArcGIS Map Services and the site is for internal use only in the company.

I can use my local machine to access the sites outside the company successfully such as google.com , but for Windows Server 2008 R2 machines,  I can only browse the internal sites including our Silverlight Application.

When I launch our Silverlight Application, the site is good and has no JavaScript error. But when I run my Silverlight UI automation on Windows Server 2008 R2 machine, the site has the following JavaScript error and it is related to ArcGIS error.

Message: Unhandled Error in Silverlight Application A security exception occurred while trying to connect to the REST endpoint. Make sure you have a cross domain policy file available at the root for your server that allows for requests from this application.   at ESRI.ArcGIS.Client.Layer.OnInitializationFailed(EventArgs e)
   at ESRI.ArcGIS.Client.ArcGISTiledMapServiceLayer.<>c__DisplayClass1a.b__18()

After investigation, our map service needs to have the Internet connection first. When I get the values of proxy server configuration from my QA manager and configure it correctly in IE, the JavaScript error is gone after launching Silverlight Application again.