Book Image

Mastering LOB Development for Silverlight 5: A Case Study in Action

Book Image

Mastering LOB Development for Silverlight 5: A Case Study in Action

Overview of this book

Microsoft Silverlight is fully established as a powerful tool for creating and delivering Rich Internet Applications and media experiences on the Web. This book will help you dive straight into utilizing Silverlight 5, which now more than ever is a top choice in the Enterprise for building Business Applications. "Mastering LOB Development for Silverlight 5: A Case Study in Action" focuses on the development of a complete Silverlight 5 LOB application, helping you to take advantage of the powerful features available along with expert advice. Fully focused on LOB development, this expert guide takes you from the beginning of designing and implementing a Silverlight 5 LOB application, all the way through to completion. Accompanied by a gradually built upon case study, you will learn about data access via RIA and Web services, architecture with MEF and MVVM applied to LOB development, testing and error control, and much more.With "Mastering LOB Development for Silverlight 5: A Case Study in Action" in hand, you will be fully equipped to expertly develop your own Silverlight Line of Business application, without dwelling on the basics of Enterprise Silverlight development.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Mastering LOB Development for Silverlight 5: A Case Study in Action
Credits
Foreword
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

RIA Services and MVVM


RIA Services is a great technology, but how does it fit into the MVVM pattern? Can we easily encapsulate it in a Model? How can we isolate RIA Services in the model definition in order to allow developers to implement automated unit testing?

Encapsulating RIA Services in a model

When RIA Services came into the market, its pros were highlighted as a RAD (Rapid Application Development) technology. It was praised so much that most members of the community have the wrong perception that it cannot be used with applications building an architecture (that is, based on the MVVM pattern).

On the contrary, RIA Services can be encapsulated in a model by using one of the following approaches:

  • Database first: get advantage of the entities extracted from the database and use them as the transport layer.

  • Use objects POCO and T4 templates to generate the code. This means hard work (http://bit.ly/eFwcJ2).

  • Use CodeFirst and POCO objects (at the time of printing, the RTM version of the RIA...