Step By Step Guide to WCF RIA enabled SL4 application with Entity Framework

In my last post we discussed about the concepts of WCF Ria services , this post is  continuation of my earlier post.Here we will create a Silverlight 4 based application with WCF RIA services and Entity Framework.Before going through the article make sure you have downloaded the latest SDKs from Microsoft as mention in my last post.

Well we will develop a simple database centric user management system where the admistrator is going to view and edit user detail.For this app we will use remote sqlserver with following tables.

Ingredients for Perfect Web App Recipe , Silverlight 4.0 + WCF RIA Service+ Entity Framework

When Silverlight launched in 2006 , world saw it merely as a flash replacement but with Silverlight 4 things have changed a lot .Now Silverlight far ahead from its adobe competitor at least in terms of technology implementation and rich development environment .RIA enabled Business Apps with Silverlight is not just  a illogical stich of  technology concept but it is a well thought architectural paradigm shift ,In this post i am going to introduce RIA services in .Net framework 4.0 using Silverlight .

What is Silverlight

Needs no introduction , still if you are new then refer this wiki article What is Silverlight.

What is Entity Framework

Well a brief introduction has been published in my earlier posts , Refer ADO.Net Entity Framework

What Is WCF RIA Service

RIA applications give user rich desktop type like UX with client side browser plugin such as Silverlight.It differs from traditional web applications which mostly relies on stateless HTTP Requests to do operations where as RIA employs a State full client and async operation with servers on client demand.

A new Browser from Netscape founders–ROCKMELT

Well, if I twitch with news that a new browser is coming to the market, you may say enough is enough you are  bored with this modern warfare.

However, hold on …..

This is something different ..

Some out of box thinking..

something from the makers of first widely used browser Netscape..

Just watch the introductory video bellow. Amazing will be the only word that is going to draw.

http://www.youtube.com/v/bAPKPhoTqFY?hl=en&hd=1

This is what i called Re-Imagined.

I am waiting my invitation , do you ? Visit RockMelt

Make parent window blured for better focus on UI , in WPF

This post is about UI experience for your application in WPF .In products we come across situations where a user often mishits for a modal form over a parent form.Either they realize once they click on form or upon the warning message.Here a visible inactive/shadowed background window can make user task easy ,that describes some other dialog need attention first.This concept is not new and we can find it in so many websites while showing images etc..(For Example check the Images in my blog and observe the back ground).

Here in this post we will replicate the scenario in win form application using inbuilt effect of WPF , BlurEffect .As shown in image bellow.

Well to achieve the functionality the following piece of code required.

SQL Server Compact 4.0 CTP2 (V4.0.8435.01) released

Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0 Community Technology Preview for Windows Desktop released and available for download.

Link to Download –:SQLCE CTP 2 ( V 4.0.8435.01)

Changes and Enhancements

• SQL Server Compact 4.0 CTP is also installed as part of WebMatrix. Microsoft WebMatrix is an integrated suite of tools designed to make it easy for people of all skill levels to build dynamic and secure ASP.Net Web applications.
• Can run within the ASP.NET environment to provide the database functionality needed by the starter websites.
• Supports running in medium trust environments in the web server.
• Ability to write paging queries using the OFFSET and FETCH T-SQL Syntaxes
• Better Support for private deployment by having a single private folder (“%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v4.0\Private”) containing both the AMD64 and X86 binaries
• Support for SqlCeConnection.GetSchema method to provide the metadata information of the database and its child objects.
• Better encryption facility with the use of the latest Encryption Algorithms (AES-256 and SHA2)
• Tested and certified to handle the starter website load effectively and efficiently without any hangs, crashes, exceptions etc.

Integrate/Install SQLServer Compact (SQLCE) with a ZIP file

As we know SqlCE database is a collection of dlls and can be distributed along with your applications with out any additional  installation.Now integrating sqlserver Compact  was never easy before Nuget ( formerly NuPack ) .It is open source ,completely free and comes as a VS add in.This post we will have a look into NuGet features and will integrate SQLCE to our project with out any installation.

• Download and install Nuget from codeplex.

Convert MS Access/SQLExpress Database to SQLCE

Converting the existing access database to SQLCE is a pain as the SQLCE does not support create table sql queries.So to make our work easier there is a tool which makes it seamlessly easy.

Yes DataPortWizard (Check Here) tool from PrimeWork provides a easier wizard based solution for migration. It Quickly and easily transfer databases from the desktop to the Mobile Device and back. Data Port Wizard will make full copies of Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server databases into SQL Server Compact Edition 4.0 (CTP1), 3.5 and 3.0, and SQL CE 2.0 databases – and back.

ADO.Net Entity Framework

Well most of our application driven by a relational database and business layer associated with it.The amount of time spent to establish a communication between these two is quite a lot.So here Microsoft introduces a framework for easy data abstraction called Entity Framework (AEF).AEF does wonder with support of LINQ to Entity and here in this post we will have a detailed demonstration.

What Is Entity Framework

It is an abstraction conceptual schema over the logical database schema (Relational database) .It allows us to eradicate the O-R mismatch between RDBMS and the application logic which is common in  data driven applications .(O-R impedance mismatch ,(Details can be found here).

Dock Fill a control in parent control

In Win form , we used to have a Dock.Fill option for controls to stretch it with in parent control.But in WPF it is quite different.So this quick post will demonstrate ,how to fill a control inside a parent control.Suppose we want to dock fill a Button inside a layout.Lets create a button inside the layout.

Layout and Controls in WPF

Half of the battle can be won through UI and Control placement in software paradigm .All of us know the a good UI leaves extraordinary impact on user so this post is all about control placing and control layout in WPF.In this post we will cover following topics.

1. Layout
2. Classic Controls

Layout

Layout in WPF are versatile than win form controls.In Win form most of the frequently used layouts used the coordinate based control placement while in WPF it is slot based depending on the screen space.the most common used layouts in wpf are as follows :

Canvas	Used Coordinate based Control Layout (Same as panel in normal Win Form)
Stack Layout	Control are placed horizontally / Vertically one above the other
Wrap Layout	Controls are  placed sequentially horizontally / vertically
Grid Layout	Creates column,Row based grid and each cell allows controls to be placed
Dock Panel	Docks the control on specified area

A collected sample of all can be seen bellow

 

More details can be found http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms745058.aspx.

Classic Controls

The control set in WPF is rich with wide support for data binding .A full comparison of WPF and winform control can be found from here.

Additional Link for Controls

http://www.simple-talk.com/content/file.ashx?file=3354

http://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/.net-framework/from-winform-to-wpf-a-quick-reference-guide/