The title says it all, but before, let's look back at the history of the upload paradigm in Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live.

When we first launched the Silverlight Streaming service as an Alpha for MIX '07, it was required to package the Silverlight application in a ZIP file, along with a manifest.xml. There was no deviation from that requirement, be it from the administration web site or the API (REST at the time).

Then, for the Beta launch at MIX '08, we enriched the API to use WebDAV thus adding a wealth of verbs to the 4 already supported in the RESTful API. We stayed very close to the standard WebDAV specification. More importantly, we opened up the file-by-file management support via the API. This introduced one major paradigm shift, which is that you could no longer use PUT in order to create a folder. The required API call to perform that operation is now MKCOL, and you only use PUT to upload files within a file set. If you still want to use the original concept of uploading a ZIP archive containing your application files and a manifest.xml, you can as we still support it, and you have to use POST.

Recap:

(*) It is important to note that ZIP is also a supported file type for a Silverlight app, so you can POST a ZIP file in an existing file set.

Shortly after MIX '08, we released support for Silverlight 2 applications, which required XAP support of course. However, we still needed you to package the Silverlight XAP file(s) with the manifest.xml in a ZIP file in order to upload it via the admin web site. (BTW, try to say say "ZIP the XAP" 100 times very fast!!)

Last night, we enabled the support for naked XAP upload, meaning you can now directly browse from the Silverlight Streaming admin web site to your Silverlight 2 XAP file and upload it in its original format without packaging it in a ZIP file. It will be accepted directly, without being parsed as an archive (which it is) by Internet Explorer.

Example:

• Go to http://silverlight.live.com and sign in
• Go to "Manage Applications"
• Click on "Upload an application"
• Type a name, e.g. XAP-Upload, then click on "Create"

• Browse to a Silverlight 2 application XAP file, select it, then click on "Upload"

• Upon landing on the "Application Properties" page, click on [Create] in the "Configure this application" section, this creates a default manifest.xml based on the XAP you just uploaded and once you validate the message prompt, it opens the manifest editor.

• You will notice that the Silverlight version and source element have been pre-filled. If this is correct, click on "Update", and you're done!

Finally, you can click on "Launch Application Test Page" which is now available in the "Application Properties" and see what you Silverlight 2 application looks like when running from Silverlight Streaming, before exposing it to the world on your web site or your blog.