Problem sharing domain model between WCF and Silverlight Project

Question

Hey there,

I am writing a Large Scale Silverlight Application. I am currently writing the data retrieval elements.

I have now encoutered and issue.

I have a common Project that hold objects, this project is referenced by both the UI and the WCF service. The UI requires INotifyPropertyChanged for binding purposes.

Now the WCF must use the same objects, but I am getting a compiler error saying

"The type 'System.ComponentModel.INotifyPropertyChanged' is defined in an assembly that is not referenced."

EDIT: The error is in the WCF service.

I want one object class, how do I solve this problem?

Thanks -Oliver

Answer 1

did you add a reference in the compiling project to System.ComponentModel

Answer 2

If you plan to use the same source code for your Entities (domain) for both a clr and silverlight project you will need to use 2 projects because the Silverlight assemblies are not the same as CLR assemblies.

Add a Silverlight Class Library project to your solution, the name is not important but I usually just use XXXX_SL.

Now, you will 'Add Existing Item' all of the source files from the clr project, but notice the dropdown on the open or select button? click that and 'add as link' or whatever it says there.

You are now using the same source for both projects and your solution will compile.

There may be some minor tweaks along the way but that will set you on the right path..

Here is some reference material

Answer 3

I found a method here that allows one to create the CLR classes on the service side and then one can use the generated objects from the Service Reference as the classes are generated with the INotifyPropertyChanged and ObservableCollection.

This solves the immediate problem of the client/server boundary but does fit into my solution because in order to use the generated objects you need the service reference. But I have a ProxyClass that does the talking to WCF so there I cannot see a way of passing these object types back to the ViewModel.

I see some people have written mapper classes, but this is far from ideal as I would have to write 3 classes for each POCO object (client class, server DTO class, mapper).

Any more suggestions?