Embedding IronPython in Silverlight - Importing
Jimmy Schementi is the Microsoft program manager for the integration of dynamic languages (IronPython and IronRuby) and the Silverlight browser plugin. As well as dynamic languages, Silverlight applications can be written in .NET languages like C# and VB.NET - and these languages can embed IronPython.
Although embedding IronPython in a C# Silverlight application is initially straightforward (although a bit more verbose than embedding using the normal .NET framework / Mono as the ScriptRuntime needs to be configured), it gets painful fast. This is especially true when the Python code you execute needs to import anything, which has basically been broken on Silverlight for quite some time.
In his latest blog entry Jimmy looks at how embedding from Silverlight has got simpler recently, and also at fixing the import problems.
Although embedding IronPython in a C# Silverlight application is initially straightforward (although a bit more verbose than embedding using the normal .NET framework / Mono as the ScriptRuntime needs to be configured), it gets painful fast. This is especially true when the Python code you execute needs to import anything, which has basically been broken on Silverlight for quite some time.
In his latest blog entry Jimmy looks at how embedding from Silverlight has got simpler recently, and also at fixing the import problems.
I’ve heard plenty of times on the IronPython Mailing List that embedding IronPython in Silverlight is easy at first, but then you fall off a cliff when trying to import, be it from a .NET namespace, the Python built-ins, or even other Python files. Let me clear some things up, and fix some code in the process.
Slight detour – Embedding in Silverlight 101
First off, Michael Foord has an article on his website about Embedding IronPython in Silverlight, which still works. However, that’s a ton of complicated code, all having to do with creating a ScriptRuntime instance correctly configured for Silverlight. To make this much less verbose, DynamicEngine.CreateRuntime (in the Microsoft.Scripting.Silverlight namespace) will create a ScriptRuntime all prepped for use in Silverlight; this significantly reduces the boilerplate hosting code:
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