WCF RIA Services - Part IV, Presentation Models

Presentation model aggregates data from multiple entities in the data access layer. It is useful when you do not want to directly expose the entities in your data access layer to the client.

You should read these links:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee707347(VS.91).aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/deepm/archive/2009/11/20/wcf-ria-services-presentation-model-explained.aspx

I’ve implemented sample described here.

WCF RIA Services - Part III, Inheritance

WCF RIA Services enables you to work with entities that are part of an inheritance hierarchy. This feature is supported only with Visual Studio 2010 and Silverlight 4.

Useful links:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee707366(VS.91).aspx
• http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/RiaServices/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=3584
• http://systemmetaphor.blogspot.com/2010/01/wcf-ria-services-using-inheritance.html
• http://systemmetaphor.blogspot.com/2010/02/wcf-ria-services-advanced-topics-fully.html

My simple example (with entities from here):

WCF RIA Services - Part II, Compositional Hierarchies

Compositional hierarchy is very useful for people who need real parent/child hierarchies.

You can read about this new feature here:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee707346(VS.91).aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/digital_ruminations/archive/2009/11/18/composition-support-in-ria-services.aspx
• http://www.riaservicesblog.net/Blog/post/A-guide-to-the-new-features-of-WCF-RIA-Services.aspx

WCF RIA Services - Part I, changes in features known from previous releases & design tools

I wrote a very long post about .NET Ria Services with 20 samples four months ago. In this series of posts I’ll describe WCF RIA Services presented at PDC. In this post, I’ll present 9 updated samples and VS 2010 design tools.

Business Application Demo

Silverlight Business Applications: Design tools 

Data Sources Window: Query selection

Data Sources Window: Control selection

Dragging the Product node to the designer (query with parameters)

Dragging the Product node onto the DataPager

Data Sources Window: Details mode selection

Dragging the Product node to the designer (Details mode)

Data Sources Window: Custom control selection

Dragging the User node to the designer (Details mode, custom control)

 

 Server validation &  resolving concurrency conflicts

 

Windows Authentication

 

A Https Enabled DomainService

 

DomainContext: cross-domain scenario

 

Loading Data from Related Entities

Silverlight Business Applications: Design tools 

Dragging the Products node (the child node of the Category node) to the designer

Multiple DomainContexts

WCF RIA Services Class Libraries

ASP.NET Dynamic Data integration

Other useful samples I have found

• POCO
• Authentication
  • Custom authentication service
  • Offline Authentication
  • AuthenticationService in RIAServicesClassLibrary
• Repository pattern
• Custom Metadata Provider
• Custom Domain Service Type
• Hosting in Azure

Useful links

• http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/CL07
• http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/CL21
• http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/CL19
• http://silverlight.net/learn/videos/all/ria-services-support-visual-studio-2010/
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee707344(VS.91).aspx
• http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/RiaServices
• http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/
• http://jeffhandley.com/
• http://www.nikhilk.net/
• http://timheuer.com/
• http://weblogs.asp.net/fredriknormen/
• http://www.riaservicesblog.net/Blog/
• http://blogs.msdn.com/digital_ruminations/
• http://blogs.msdn.com/vsdata/

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: Viewbox

Viewbox has been around in WPF since version 1 and it’s also part of the Silverlight Toolkit. It’s also in runtime of Silverlight 4 Beta.

Useful links

• http://silverlight.net/learn/videos/all/using-the-viewbox-control/
• http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Silverlight4/PicBrowser/PicBrowser/
• http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Silverlight4/Overview/Overview/
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.viewbox(VS.96).aspx
• http://mtaulty.com/CommunityServer/blogs/mike_taultys_blog/archive/2009/11/18/silverlight-4-rough-notes-viewbox.aspx

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: C# 4 & Sharing Assemblies with .NET Apps

Have you tried to use new C# 4 features in Silverlight 4 Beta ? Read this post.

I’ve made Silverlight sample (CSharp4) to demonstrate new C# 4 features and new BCL types

1. Dynamic Binding
2. Named and Optional Arguments 
3. Tuples

Silverlight 4 has also changes in Collection Sets and parsing and formatting time intervals.

Covariance and contravariance don’t work in Silverlight 4 Beta (I have tested it – you can’t compile code with variance).

I’ve built second Silverlight example (ModifyHTMLbyNET) to show HTML /JavaScript integration with  dynamic type.

Both samples you can download below.

Dynamic type is very useful for native integration (COM), too.

You can read about sharing Silverlight assemblies with .NET here and here.

Useful links

• http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/FT11
• http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/FT31
• http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/TL16/
• http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/TL54/
• http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC49/
• http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/csharpfuture
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd772166(VS.96).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd264736(VS.100).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd264741(VS.100).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.dynamic.dynamicobject(VS.100).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.dynamic.expandoobject(VS.100).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd233052(VS.100).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd264739(VS.100).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799517(VS.100).aspx
• http://mtaulty.com/CommunityServer/blogs/mike_taultys_blog/archive/2009/11/18/silverlight-4-rough-notes-html-interop-amp-dynamic-language-features.aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcsharp/ee957397.aspx
• http://karlshifflett.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/silverlight-3-4-library-sharing-with-net-4-0-library-or-wpf/
• http://blogs.msdn.com/clrteam/archive/2009/12/01/sharing-silverlight-assemblies-with-net-apps.aspx

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: WCF Data Services

ADO.NET Data Services has changed its name to WCF Data Services. Today I’ll write about consuming these data services from Silverlight 4 Beta client.

I have created Silverlight 4 application consuming .NET 4.0 WCF Data Service in x-domain scenario (which is supported in updated data services). Silverlight 4 client library includes most of the new features previewed in the ADO.NET Data Services CTP2.  Using the Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Add Service Reference feature with the Silverlight 4.0 Beta requires a few extra steps from the normal process.

The Open Data Protocol Visualizer for Visual Studio CTP1  (see screenshot above)  provides a read-only visualization of the types, properties, associations, and other objects in the Entity Data Model (EDM) returned from an Open Data Protocol’s metadata endpoint. You can download and install it using Extension Manager.

Useful links

• http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/CL06
• http://blogs.msdn.com/silverlightws/archive/2009/12/18/pdc-presentation-and-demo.aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc838234(VS.96).aspx
• http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/AstoriaDocSamples
• http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/
• http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2009/08/31/ado-net-data-services-v1-5-ctp2-now-available-for-download.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2009/09/01/customizable-feed-support-in-ctp2.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2009/09/01/ado-net-data-services-v1-5-ctp2-projections-overview-server.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2009/09/01/introduction-to-data-binding-in-ctp2.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2009/09/03/using-the-ado-net-data-services-silverlight-client-in-x-domain-and-out-of-browser-scenarios-i.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2009/09/10/more-on-using-data-services-silverlight-3-in-xdomain-out-of-browser-scenarios.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2009/10/19/share-your-data-across-data-sources-sharepoint-sql-server-azure-reporting-services-etc-applications-net-silverlight-excel-etc-using-data-services.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2009/11/17/breaking-down-data-silos-the-open-data-protocol-odata.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2009/11/17/introducing-the-microsoft-open-data-protocol-visualizer.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2009/11/25/data-services-release-plan-update.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2009/12/01/using-the-silverlight-4-0-wcf-data-services-client-library.aspx
• http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/FT12
• http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/FT55