I have a Product object with a property that is a collection of type Workflows. In my "GetProducts" method on the domaincontext object I have set a breakpoint at the return statement to see if the workflows collection is filled.
It is.
On the client side I check Context.Products[0].Workflows in another breakpoint and I see 0 results. Is there a way to persist this nested data for consumption on the client side or is RIA Services inhibited from doing this?
I should kick myself. I realized that I needed to add "[Include]" to the property in Product within the DataService.metadata.cs file and now it gets sent to the client.
If you have or can download the RiaServicesOverviewPreview.pdf document section 4.8 details how to do this. The basic summary it.
Make sure your L2S query specifies the .LoadWith<>() parameter. Lazy loading doesn't work with RIA services so you have to use implicit loading.
You need to apply the "IncludeAttribute" to the associated member. For example add the [Include] attribute on your Workflows field in the Product metadata class.
Ensure that your Workflow (child) type is exposed as a client type so it gets genned to the client side.
You can get the document here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=76bb3a07-3846-4564-b0c3-27972bcaabce&displaylang=en