Silverlight and the Entity Framework
As shown in the previous section, it is easy to consume domain
entity models generated or created from an ORM such as LINQ to SQL. The
ADO.NET Entity Framework is a far more powerful tool that LINQ to SQL,
and it can easily create a domain entity model that is mapped to a
database. The Entity Framework can easily create a domain entity model
that is mapped to a database. The entities can be serialized, including
full object graph serialization, using WCF and the DataContractSerializer
. This section will
demonstrate how to use the Entity Framework as it pertains directly to
communications with WCF and Silverlight.
The EFClient
sample application
included in this chapterâs code contains a Silverlight client
application that communicates with a WCF web service that returns and
accepts Entity Framework entities. The setup of this example solution is
similar to the previous ones in this chapter; the only difference is
that an Entity Framework model must be created.
Creating the Entity Framework Model
The WCF web services are served from the Cassini web server
hosting the NWEFService
web application. Figure 6-8 shows the
creation of the NWModel.edmx file
in the NWEFService
web application.
When this file is created the designer opens and a wizard dialog
window appears that walks you through the process of creating the
initial state of the Entity Framework model.
Figure 6-8. Creating an Entity Framework model EDMX file
You can generate the model from ...
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