Hi,
I'm current using Raptier as a DAL. It has served me very well up until now, but it is becoming restictive to the kind of RAD work I do, as any changes require a large number of classes to be refactored etc... In addition they don't seem to be releasing any more templates/upgrades etc...
Currently I have...
UI (server side / Ajax enabled WCF)
Business layer (saving and serving
objects (raptier data models))
Data access (Raptiers) | Generic data caching layer
SQL Server
On top of this, I am starting to develop a number of dashboard type applications (within one business) that would benefit from some of the new ajax 4 templating functionality and/or Jquery presentations, in addition to opening up some of the data via API's (rest).
So therefore I am considering swapping out rapiters for Ado.net dataservices.
Ideally I would like one business layer that handles all requests from anywhere, authenticates and validates and then serves/manipualtes the data (obtained from ado,.net Data Services).
However due to the fact that I will require some calls directly from presentation tier (via the business layer) and some from business layer classes server side I can't help but wonder if connecting to ADO.net dataservices via HTTP(REST) will be the best choice based on performance for operations running on the server?(q1)
In addition is it advisable (or even possbile) to have a business layer sitting on top of ado.net dataservices.(q2) I would also like to use ms velocity to enhance performance via a central caching store (service), has anyone got experience using ado.net dataservices with a caching provider?(q3)
I am a little confused about architecture, with all these new technologies and trying to do things as best practice as possible, but whilst maintaing a realistic development time, so any help you can give me would be greatly received.
Many thanks