Silverlight and n-Tier Development - -How is it done?

Question

I've asked several questions on Silverlight the last day or two (I have no experience with it), and I've had some high-level questions answered. I have another high-level question. How is N-Tier development done with Silverlight? What I am considering is a browser based UI and then a c# back-end containing all the business logic and database code. How would a Silverlight client application communicate with such a back-end sitting on another server? Would it be done via Web service calls, WCF or something else? What is standard practice?

Thanks!

Answer 1

For the projects I've worked on. Typical practice is Silverlight providing a client and then communicating back to the back-end via WCF services.

The business logic is then spread/duplicated across the client and the backend.

Answer 2

You'll want to be looking at the WCF RIA Services for this. In combination with Entity Framework this will approach the sort of thing you need.

The Entity Framework creates model that you can extend and include some business logic.

The Domain Services then allow you to expose access to the model and any other range of operations you need via WCF.

The tooling that RIA Services adds to the Visual Studio will dynamically create in the Silverlight application the client side of this Domain service. There is even a provision for you create C# source that is shared by both by both Silverlight and the server code.

Answer 3

If its Silverlight 3 RIA is a better choice to work with. AnthonyWJones has pointed it right, There is a provision to have a shared Source between Client and Server usually Entities code should be shared in both Client and Server to get full advantage of RIA validation and other stuff.