Is it weird or strange to make multiple WCF Calls to build a ViewModel before presenting it?

Question

Am I doing something wrong if I need code like this in a Controller? Should I be doing something differently?

public ActionResult Details(int id)
{
    var svc = new ServiceClient();
    var model = new MyViewModel();
    model.ObjectA = svc.GetObjectA(id);
    model.ObjectB = svc.GetObjectB(id);
    model.ObjectC = svc.GetObjectC(id);
    return View(model);
}

The reason I ask, is because I've got Linq-To-Sql on the back end and a WCF Service which exposes functionality through a set of DTOs which are NOT the Linq-To-Sql generated classes and thus do not have the parent/child properties; but in the detail view, I would like to see some of the parent/child data.

Answer 1

You might consider replacing your multiple methods with a single factory method that will generate a pre-populated object and return it. WCF calls have significant overhead, and you should be minimizing them if at all possible.

Answer 2

Hi Nate,

Am I doing something wrong if I need code like this in a Controller? Should I be doing something differently?

You approach looks good. congrats.

but in the detail view, I would like to see some of the parent/child data.

you can expose an specialized method in your WCF service to bring you a set of ObjectA based in a set of ObjectB (or vice-versa)