I started digging through ADO.NET Data Services for work related items and this is my research so far. So far setting up a ADO.NET Data Services Service (redundant?) is super easy. There are several “Getting Started with ADO.NET Data Services” write ups out there; “Introduction to ADO.NET Data Services”, “ADO.NET Data Services with ASP.NET AJAX Support”, and others. One that has given me gruff so far is “Using ADO.NET Data Services” in the MSDN Documentation. It appears that parts of the code are misplaced and commented, in addition it doesn’t work. I’ve tried it on several boxes just as the tutorial states and it just doesn’t provide the feed. The error generally seems to be,

The Astoria Team Blog article “ADO.NET Data Services Concepts”, which is generally pretty good so take a read, also has a link to this MSDN and other information. They also have an entry on the upcoming “Astoria Offline” that is coming soon – this should be interesting.

A Tutorial on ADO.NET Data Access Services

Without a working test I went out on my own and did the following. First I created a Visual Studio Solution and added several project types to it;  An ASP.NET MVC Web Application & respective Unit Test Project, a Database Project, and finally a Silverlight 2 Project that I selected the ASP.NET MVC as the host for the Silverlight 2 Page.  Overall the solution looked something like the image to the left.  Click on the image to see a full size and for clarity.

Inside the ReporterMvc Project I created a new folder called Services.  This is the folder I’ll actually place the ADO.NET Data Services in to keep the overall project orderly.

After I created the projects I setup the database for use.  I created the database previously so I already had a generation script.  So I went ahead and created the database via the Service Explorer Wizard in Visual Studio and then ran the script I have.  The script is listed separately on the code page.

Next I created an ADO.NET Entity Data Model & associated entity objects.  Create these objects inside the Models directory.  During the course of the wizard be sure to select all of the tables and views.

• Entity Model Wizard Step 1
• Entity Model Wizard Step 2
• Entity Model Wizard Step 3

.smugcontainer div {overflow: hidden;line-height: 1.1;margin-top: 10px;font-family: verdana, arial, lucida, sans-serif;font-size: 85%;background-color1: rgb(20, 20, 20);} .smugimg li {float: left;display: block;width: 160px;height: 200px;background-position: 50% 50%;margin-right: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px;} .smugimg li img {width: auto; height: auto; border: solid 1px #aaa; background: #555; padding: 2px; vertical-align: middle;} .smugimg a {display: block;text-align: center;text-decoration: none; color1: rgb(240,240,240);} .smugimg a:hover img {border: 3px solid #6da6d1; padding: 0px;}

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To update or add tables I just right click on the empty white space around the entities and select the “Update Model from Database…” option. Follow the instructions on the dialog that appears, it will be the same as the wizard shown above.  What I ended up with is as shown.

Next I added the ADO.NET Web Service to the project. With both of those added I now had the following in my project;  FeedCollector.edmx in the models directory and ReporterServices.svc in the Services directory.

I opened up the FeedCollector.edmx.cs file to verify that the class was actually named FeedCollectorEntities.  When you open up the designer code file it will look like the code listed below (I’ve just cut the first 41 lines of generated code.  I bolded the class name just for familiarity.  If ever in doubt about what type you’ll pass in the data services, this is how one can easily find it.

   1:  //------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2:  // <auto-generated>
   3:  //     This code was generated by a tool.
   4:  //     Runtime Version:2.0.50727.3053
   5:  //
   6:  //     Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if
   7:  //     the code is regenerated.
   8:  // </auto-generated>
   9:  //------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  10:
  11:  [assembly: global::System.Data.Objects.DataClasses.EdmSchemaAttribute()]
  12:  [assembly: global::System.Data.Objects.DataClasses.EdmRelationshipAttribute("FeedCollectorModel", "FK_RssFeedEntries_RssFeeds", "RssFeeds", global::System.Data.Metadata.Edm.RelationshipMultiplicity.One, typeof(ReporterMvc.Models.RssFeeds), "RssFeedEntries", global::System.Data.Metadata.Edm.RelationshipMultiplicity.Many, typeof(ReporterMvc.Models.RssFeedEntries))]
  13:  [assembly: global::System.Data.Objects.DataClasses.EdmRelationshipAttribute("FeedCollectorModel", "FK_RssFeedEntryCategories_RssFeedEntries", "RssFeedEntries", global::System.Data.Metadata.Edm.RelationshipMultiplicity.One, typeof(ReporterMvc.Models.RssFeedEntries), "RssFeedEntryCategories", global::System.Data.Metadata.Edm.RelationshipMultiplicity.Many, typeof(ReporterMvc.Models.RssFeedEntryCategories))]
  14:  [assembly: global::System.Data.Objects.DataClasses.EdmRelationshipAttribute("FeedCollectorModel", "FK_RssFeedEntryTags_RssFeedEntries", "RssFeedEntries", global::System.Data.Metadata.Edm.RelationshipMultiplicity.One, typeof(ReporterMvc.Models.RssFeedEntries), "RssFeedEntryTags", global::System.Data.Metadata.Edm.RelationshipMultiplicity.Many, typeof(ReporterMvc.Models.RssFeedEntryTags))]
  15:
  16:  // Original file name:
  17:  // Generation date: 11/22/2008 11:27:18 AM
  18:  namespace ReporterMvc.Models
  19:  {
  20:
  21:      /// <summary>
  22:      /// There are no comments for FeedCollectorEntities in the schema.
  23:      /// </summary>
  24:      public partial class FeedCollectorEntities : global::System.Data.Objects.ObjectContext
  25:      {
  26:          /// <summary>
  27:          /// Initializes a new FeedCollectorEntities object using the connection string found in the 'FeedCollectorEntities' section of the application configuration file.
  28:          /// </summary>
  29:          public FeedCollectorEntities() :
  30:                  base("name=FeedCollectorEntities", "FeedCollectorEntities")
  31:          {
  32:              this.OnContextCreated();
  33:          }
  34:          /// <summary>
  35:          /// Initialize a new FeedCollectorEntities object.
  36:          /// </summary>
  37:          public FeedCollectorEntities(string connectionString) :
  38:                  base(connectionString, "FeedCollectorEntities")
  39:          {
  40:              this.OnContextCreated();
  41:          }

.csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, “Courier New”, courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }

After that I opened up the code behind and stuck in a few key elements of code.  This allows the service to be opened up to an requestor of the service.

   1:  using System.Data.Services;
   2:  using ReporterMvc.Models;
   3:
   4:  namespace ReporterMvc.Services
   5:  {
   6:      public class ReporterServices : DataService<FeedCollectorEntities>
   7:      {
   8:          public static void InitializeService(IDataServiceConfiguration config)
   9:          {
  10:              config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("*", EntitySetRights.All);
  11:          }
  12:      }
  13:  }

The next thing I’ve tried is the ways to query via REST. I like the “Introduction to ADO.NET Data Services Part 2” entry that Greg Galipeau has written on his blog. For my test I went against some of my work related data. One of the things that bugs me though is the http://somedomain/stuff.svc/ being used for the REST address. I want it to just be http://somedomain/stuff/.

With just these simple actions I then checked the service to assure I was getting back accurate results.  I right clicked on the file and selected Browse.  The following were the results.

<service xml:base="http://localhost:50681/Services/ReporterServices.svc/">
−
<workspace>
<atom:title>Default</atom:title>
−
<collection href="RssFeedEntries">
<atom:title>RssFeedEntries</atom:title>
</collection>
−
<collection href="RssFeedEntryCategories">
<atom:title>RssFeedEntryCategories</atom:title>
</collection>
−
<collection href="RssFeedEntryTags">
<atom:title>RssFeedEntryTags</atom:title>
</collection>
−
<collection href="RssFeeds">
<atom:title>RssFeeds</atom:title>
</collection>
−
<collection href="RssEntriesCategoriesTags">
<atom:title>RssEntriesCategoriesTags</atom:title>
</collection>
−
<collection href="RssFeedsEntries">
<atom:title>RssFeedsEntries</atom:title>
</collection>
−
<collection href="RssFeedsEntriesTagsCategories">
<atom:title>RssFeedsEntriesTagsCategories</atom:title>
</collection>
</workspace>
</service>

.csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, “Courier New”, courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }

This was perfect, exactly what I expected.  I did a few further tests.  The URI that I started with was http://localhost:6your6port6here/ResporterServices.svc/ which is what gave me the results above.  If you take any of the attributes and pass them into the URI you’ll get the respective results.  For example I tested out the RssFeeds (http://localhost:6your6port6here/Services/ReporterServices.svc/RssFeeds/) and received the appropriate results.  When checking the results in IE make sure to turn off the feed options.  In Opera you get the straight feed, which is handy.

If you have to pick a browser to test this with, I prefer Opera.  The results are uber clean compared to the other browsers and you don’t have to go clicking options or selecting to not feed the atom results.  An example of the results.

In part 2 I’ll show how to wire up a Silverlight 2 Client to these data services.

Eric (@ericgerhardt on twitter or here) found some broken data and reported the problem.

Dear customer: we were going to deliver your data but we found it melted on the limb of a dead tree in an infinite wasteland.

Just classic, all I can say.

So yeah, absolutely pointless title except I’m gettin’ me some of that.

In other news, I’ve reloaded my main workstation.  This workstation is my spiffy 1.5+ year old Dell Inspiron 1720.  It is a fairly decent laptop for a workstation, with 1920×1200 resolution it gives me almost what one has with dual monitor support!

The Tools & Architecture Frameworks Listing

Every few months I end up with a different set of frameworks and applications that I use for development.  Being a developer one has to change frequently and stay updated with the latest and greatest, or risk losing value as a developer and fading into mediocrity.  I don’t dig that prospect so I tend to stay close to bleeding edge, without the blood (aka lotsa bugs).

Architectural Pieces – Major 5

1. entlib – For many of the internal pieces, I’m ramping up on and already using several of the entlib libraries (redundant use of library, eh).
2. Silverlight 2 – For many of my web efforts, I’ll be pushing through some Silverlight Apps for the UI part of my architectural standard.
3. .NET 3.5 SP1 – Of course, for the framework that binds it all together, it’s gonna be .NET 3.5 SP1.
4. The Cloud / Azure – I’ll be working diligently to get some initial cloud & Azure work done to prototype how and where I can place applications into the cloud for various reasons.  I’m actually hoping to avoid local database use in the future with use of SSDS (SQL Server Data Services) or SDS.
5. SQL Server 2008 – 08′ features rock!  Nuff’ said.

Architectural Pieces – Minor 4

1. Spring.NET – The architectural elements put together to make up this framework is awesome.  I dig the pieces and would prospectively use this if there is reason not to use entlib pieces (i.e. performance, existing code base, etc)
2. Adobe Air App – I’m thinking of doing development against Air instead of Silverlight 2 in numerous places, primarily because it deploys EVERY FREAKING WHERE!!!  Adobe Air is truly amazing, and I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten more publicity.  It smokes Java for smoothness, Silverlight for compatibility and gloss, and overall looks pretty easy to develop for.
3. Java Struts – If need be, there could be future efforts I’ve seen coming down the pipe that will require Struts n such.  It could be an interesting ride to jump sides and build out some Java App with Struts.  I’d however, rather not, as there is no real reason to use this.
4. RoR or Ruby on Rails – I’m not explaining this.  If you haven’t heard or checked out the phenom that Ruby on Rails is, you’re doing yourself a disservice, just go check it out.  It IS worth your time if you build more than one application per year.  🙂

Tools / IDEs / Other Things – The 4

1. Subversion – Just because I have it, it is insanely simple, takes almost no time to use and maintain.  Simply, It aint broke, and I’m not fixing it.
2. Tortoise & Visual SVN – Total cost is $49 bucks.  It is worth every penny.  Integrates Tortoise into Visual Studio in a more flawless integration than Team Foundation Services source integration from Microsoft itself!
3. ReSharper – Again, if you don’t use it, you probably should.  It’s one of the greatest tools on the market.  Personal is $199, company license is like $349 or something.  It’s worth it, it is more than worth it.  If you aren’t using it you’re probably spending too much money on overall development and NOT writing code the way it should be.  I can’t rave about the awesomeness of this product enough.
4. Visual Studio.NET 2008 – Ya gotta have VS is you really want to get hard core with the .NET.  VS.NET Express is available for free.  VS.NET Professional is about $900 or more, but if you check out Microsoft’s Biz deals you can get it for free. Also if you are a student you can get it for practically nothing, or for free.  So no real excuse not to use this.  If you work for a company that has in excess of $1 million per year, they better buy you a copy.  If they don’t, and they’re making you use notepad or something to write code in for .NET, you should quit, because rest assured that company will strangle itself from being so cheap and you’ll be out of work anyway.

So that’s my list, any questions feel free to contact me or drop a comment.

Gotta say the release party rocked.  It was a good time.  Our gracious hosts, North, provided their work environment for the event.  Their environment looks amazing and I can honestly say, they’ve got to have a truly awesome work vibe going on.  Several of the North Crew were there.  So seriously, if in need of some beautiful work, check out North.

At the event there was a huge spread of great food, wine, and beer! Everyone, as we nerds do, sat around and talked geek chat.

Speaking at the event was Tim Heuer for the main presentation. After that we had a break out session with Tim, Jason Mauer, Erik Mork, and Ben [? Name might have slipped my mind. 🙁 ]. The presentations covered Silverlight 2 Data Grids, custom creation of controls in Expression, zoom features, and video media. Silverlight 2 is definitely improving on something that is great already. In addition to that actual C# executable code is possible on the client now along with a whole slew of other features.

I discussed with Tim for a few minutes the ins and outs of Linux compatibility too. I had not looked nearly as much as I should have (I kind of just gave up, I’ll admit it) when I was working with Ubuntu before. So the slice of it is one has to check out Moonlight if they want Silverlight to work on Linux. Of course, it is totally possible. Currently however, Silverlight is really only supporting Apple & Windows Machines & the primary browsers on each. This amounts to Safari, FireFox, and amazingly Internet Explorer 7 & 8. I think it is supported on IE6, but seriously, I don’t know why the hell they continue to support that monstrosity of a browser.

Toward the end of the evening I also won a Silverlight 2 Animation book during the drawing. The book is written by a local Portlander (or Lake Oswegoan – not sure we’d really admit they were Portlanders 😮 j/k) named Jeff Paries.

The application I’m working on has Java Back end and .NET Back end code projects. This leaves a lot of little hacks here and there for communication between these two code bases. By mere functional fact, it leaves the entire application connectivity between these two code bases in a weird state of coupling, or lack thereof.

The Java side, anytime something changes, is not particularly propagated to the .NET project side. Thus any changes between either or, leave the unchanged side in a lurch for forward development. There is an easy way to resolve almost all of the issues with this mixed environment of development.

Service Oriented Architecture

A service oriented architecture, not a partial or supposed one, but an honest to goodness business case serving stand alone services oriented architecture that can be used by front end client, applications, or even other services would resolve this odd dependency issue.

Communication

Instead of two varying code bases trying to communicate with differing and often confusing session architecture or passing back and forth query string parameters, with SOA state can be managed in a completely different manner. With the services available to the application the state could even prospectively be managed specific to the services instead of the client. This way WCF or the other slew of service frameworks out there could utilize their built in state management capabilities to enable the clients to perform their workflow or what have you flawlessly between Java, .NET, PHP, or whatever might be on the client side.

Security

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, services, at least web services, aren’t oriented at all toward security. But with frameworks like WCF the increased ability to lock down, provide authentication, and even authorization is drastically simplified. Not as many “hacks” are needed to secure web services these days. With that an SOA project could easily be setup for strong security, with extensive services and appropriately loosely coupled silos.

Workflow

This is where I need to strengthen my skill sets. I’ve actively been working with WCF lately and know there is a good bit of integration with workflow that is possible. The problem is, I don’t know what or how it works from an integration perspective. This will definitely be on my list of “figure it out”. However, even without the dedicated workflow framework, setting up and utilizing the WCF for control of state, the inherent abilities with session control, etcetera, drastically alter the conflicts in autonomous code bases working together in an application environment.