MVVM-Friendly DomainDataSource: DomainCollectionView

Yes, that’s right… we now have a component that is a big step toward addressing the request for an MVVM-Friendly DomainDataSource.  As of this posting, that feature was the #2 requested item on the RIA Services wish list, and we’ve been pondering its design for a long time.  Kyle McClellan has delivered on this and he is posting details to his blog.  This feature is completely separate from the DomainDataSource, and it’s built from the ground up with ViewModel usage in mind.

Here are some specific links from Kyle’s blog:

• Collection Binding Options in WCF RIA Services SP1
• Introducing An MVVM-Friendly DomainDataSource: The DomainCollectionView

Here are the links you need to get up and running:

Install WCF RIA Services SP1 for Silverlight 4

• Install WCF RIA Services SP1 for Silverlight 4 and Visual Studio 2010
• Install the WCF RIA Services December 2010 Toolkit for WCF RIA Services SP1

Mike Taulty Silverlight and WCF RIA Services Series

• Silverlight and WCF RIA Services (1 – Overview)

• Silverlight and WCF RIA Services (2 – Services)

• Silverlight and WCF RIA Services (3 – Client)

• Silverlight and WCF RIA Services (4 – RIA Services Libraries)

• Silverlight and WCF RIA Services (5–Authentication)

• Silverlight and WCF RIA Services (6–Validation)

•  

WCF RIA Services Essentials at codeplex

The RIA Services Essentials project contains sample applications/extensions demonstrating using and extending WCF RIA Services v1.

• Book Club – It was written to demonstrate some aspects of writing a semi-real-worldish application (note that it is still very much a demo app), but more importantly, demonstrating how you can use RIA Services effectively by going beyond the basics.

Here is a list of what the application demonstrates:

• Entity framework data model with one-to-many and many-to-many relationships as well as use of stored procedures
• Local data model augmented/mixed with a web service-based data model (in this case Amazon).
• CRUD and more (queries, insert, update, delete, as well as named update methods, and invoke methods)
• Use of convention and configuration for identifying CRUD operations
• Validation (field level, entity level, operation level, change-set scoped, server-only validation, async validation)
• Custom authentication (i.e. using your DAL/user table, rather than asp.net membership)
• Authorization (including custom authorization rules)
• Using authentication service and your User object in server code
• Usage of DomainServiceFactory
• Exposing reference data
• Presentation model for defining custom (non-DAL) types for use between client and server
• Shared code between client and server for validation rules
• Query limits, and caching
• Using RIA Services with MVVM on the client
• Adding computed properties on Entities on the client along with propagation of change notifications
• "More" style paging (as seen for example on twitter.com)
• Display of pending changes, validation errors
• Reference data used to fill lookup dropdown lists.

Using MEF, MVVM and WCF RIA Services in Silverlight 4

A sample Silverlight business application using MEF, MVVM Light, and WCF RIA Services.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

• Download source files – 637.78 KB
• Download setup package – 1.57 MB

RIA Services – Enterprise Patterns with WCF RIA Services

 

A common question in the RIA Services forums is how RIA Services fit into best practices architecture. I was always impressed with the basic forms-over-data capabilities of RIA Services, but I definitely saw the opportunity to better architect my application so the framework concerns didn’t leak into the logic of my application.

Fore more -> RIA Services – Enterprise Patterns with WCF RIA Services

Silverlight and WCF RIA Services – Mike Taulty

1. Part 1 – Overview

2. Part 2 – Services

Using WCF RIA Services to include multi table master-detail data

 

When you see demonstrations of technologies most of the time the data samples show single table solutions.  When was the last time you’ve developed a single-table system?   Thought so.

In RIA Services demonstrations, most of them have been single-table samples as well.  So how do you go about retrieving relational data (master/details type) with RIA Services?  Here’s an option. Modify the Visual Studio generated MetaData class to add an [include] attribute on top of your chosen EntityCollection<T> and then add a method to our Domain Service class to get the additonal data. e.g.

[Include]
public EntityCollection<Album> Albums;

public IQueryable<Artist> GetArtistsWithAlbums()
{
   return this.ObjectContext.Artists.Include("Albums");
}

Via RIA Services and relational data

Architecting Silverlight 4 with RIA Services, MEF and MVVM – Shawn Wildermuth

•  Part 1
•  Part 2
•  Part 3
•  Part 4

A better way to do Silverlight 3 Sorting & Paging using DomainDataSource & DataPager

 

Silverlight 3 includes PagedCollectionView class, which provides UI-level grouping, sorting and paging functionality for any data source that implements the IEnumerable interface. This works as long as all the data that you need to sort, page are already fetched to the client which could be a slow process and can potentially consumed lots of memory on the client-side. A better solution is to provide Server-side sorting & paging. 

One way to achieve this is to use .net RIA services’ DomainDataSource and DataPager controls which provides automatic server sorting and paging support. For more details check this out: 

Creating applications with .NET RIA Services Part 4 – Adding a DomainDataSource

However, if you are not using .net RIA services, than you will need to implement ICollectionView to handle sorting and IPagedCollectionView to handle paging yourself –> Silverlight 3 Custom Sorting with Paging Support – Manish Dalal’s blog

A 26-part series of Business Apps Example for Silverlight 3 & .NET RIA Services July Update

By Brad Abrams, this demo requires:

1. VS2008 SP1 (Which includes Sql Express 2008)
2. Silverlight 3 RTM
3. .NET RIA Services July ’09 Preview

download the full demo files and check out the running application.

Also check out the author’s Mix09 talk “building business applications with Silverlight 3”.

Part 1: Navigation Basics

Part 2: Rich Data Query

Part 3: Authentication

Part 4: SEO, Export to Excel and Out of Browser

Part 5: Astoria, Add Service Reference and WinForms

Part 6: Data Transfer Objects (DTOs)

Part 7: ADO.NET Data Services Based Data Store

Part 8: WCF Based Data Source

Part 9: POCO and Authentication Provider

Part 10: LinqToSql

Part 11: The Client-Only World

Part 12: DataSet

Part 13: The New Class Library Project

Part 14: Visual Basic (VB) and WPF Support

Part 15: ASP.NET MVC

Part 16: Exposing a WCF Service

Part 17: Evolving an Application

Part 18: Custom Linq Provider

Part 19: ASP.NET Dynamic Data

Part 20: NHibernate

Part 21: Hierarchical Data

Part 22: Separate Solution Files

Part 23: Azure

Part 24: Stored Procedures

Part 25: ViewModel

Part 26: Authentication and Personalization

Via Brad Abrams : Index for Business Apps Example for Silverlight 3 RTM and .NET RIA Services July Update