Service-Driven Apps With Silverlight 2 And WCf

摘要

It is true that Silverlight 2 makes it easy to build rich internet applications (RIAs) with tremendous graphical prowess. However, it is also true that Silverlight 2 makes it easy to build highly functional line-of-business (LOB) applications. Silverlight 2 supports a subset of the powerful XAML-based data binding that Windows~R Presentation Foundation (WPF) enables. The XAML binding markup extensions in Silverlight 2 simplify the process of binding entities to Silverlight controls. Because they run completely on the client computer, Silverlight applications are isolated from the entities that are managed on the server. Therefore service-based communication through technologies such as RSS, Representational State Transfer (REST), and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) must be available. Fortunately, Silver-light 2 supports interaction with these and other communication pathways, enabling Silverlight applications to interact seamlessly with back-end LOB applications. I'll demonstrate how to build a Silverlight 2 UI that communicates through WCF to interact with business entities and a database. The business logic, entity model, and data-mapping code can be consumed by any presentation tier. I'll create WCF services to be consumed by a Silverlight 2 app and I'll set up the server hosting the WCF services to allow cross-domain invocation. Note that you can download the examples from the MSDN~R Magazine Web site.