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alipoland View Drop Down
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Posts: 19 		Post Options Post Options   Quote alipoland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: EF to SL migration
    Posted: 13-May-2009 at 2:41am

Dear wonderful IdeaBlade staff,

I need to build a new product with Silverlight deployment advantages but due to lack of native printing and I am thinking of starting with the WinClient edition until Silverlight matures at version 5 :) with a year or so seeing the six-monthly development rate of SL1, SL2, SL3 :) and then migrate the code to Silverlight.
 
Would you please share any advice with the community on how to ensure easy migration? Perhaps refrain from using some features in the WinClient edition, and/or use WinForm's DevExpress controls for the UI and later migrate to their equivalent Silverlight controls to minimize UI code migration?
 
Thank you in advance.
 
Ali
 
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alipoland View Drop Down
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Posts: 19 		Post Options Post Options   Quote alipoland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-May-2009 at 2:50am
Just a follow up.
 
Or build multiple solutions each with 10 entities max and use messaging for intercommunication ?
 
Or simply use a C# plugin-architecture like Razor (aka Carbon Framework) for mutiple projects solution ?
 
Or even CAB / SCSF ?
 
I really need calrification on the above soon please.
 
ThanQ
 
Ali
 
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ting View Drop Down
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Posts: 427 		Post Options Post Options   Quote ting Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-May-2009 at 1:03pm

If you are planning for a Silverlight migration, I would consider building the WinClient application in WPF.  If you limit yourself the the subset of WPF supported in Silverlight, you can have both a desktop WPF and Silverlight application share the same code base (but still have some addditional functionality enabled in the desktop WPF app via branching or conditional compilation).  If you decide to go with WinForms, make sure you have a clean separation of the UI from the model using your favorite pattern (MVVM, MVC, MVP), although this would be a good idea for any implementation.

Ward's Model Explorer shows MVVM with WPF & Silverlight and he has just converted it to use PRISM 2.0 (being demoed at TechEd this friday).  We will make this sample available to the public sometime after the conference.
 
On the data access side, you can share the same business logic for WPF and Silverlight if you only use asynchronous queries back to the database.  (Synchronous queries from cache are just fine, and in fact recommended.)  A cache-then-compute pattern works well here.  i.e. fill the cache first using asynchronous queries and then perform your synchronous logic on the cache.
 
The 10 entity type limit in the Express version applies per application.  The Entity Manager should be enforcing this even if you have multiple projects/models.
 
 
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Posts: 86 		Post Options Post Options   Quote BenHayat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-May-2009 at 1:19pm
Is the lack of "Native" printing the main reason for walking away? This is a major request from MS and third party and I'm sure it will take place not too long from now. You can also use Telerik's reporting engine to produce HTML report and then show the report in SL page via an HTML place holder. That's what I'm planning to do.

SL has a lot of benefits that WinForm doesn't offer and you can use it today with DevForce to build an app.
Good luck!
Best Regards!
..Ben

WPF & Silverlight Insider
http://www.MicroIntelligence.Com
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alipoland View Drop Down
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Posts: 19 		Post Options Post Options   Quote alipoland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-May-2009 at 7:49pm
Many thanks ting and ben,
 
In my previous job I actually developed a smart-client framework with dynamic WPF generation and (C++ srver-side, C# client-side) and didn't enjoy the expreience at all.
 
I am trying to get the benefits of SL reachability (Responsiveness Internet Access, No-Installation needed, No-AutoUpdate needed) and the richness of WinForms controls. I am hoping DevExpress would supply the same API to their SL Grid and the XtraGrid, not sure if that is possible.
 
I don't mind wating for the printing and use workd arounds as Ben suggested and others else where.
 
I just want to make sure not to fall into a trap.
 
Thanks all.
 
Ali
<prime numbers are God's signature>
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BenHayat View Drop Down
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Posts: 86 		Post Options Post Options   Quote BenHayat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-May-2009 at 8:00pm
Hi Ali;

My first question to you, whose signature are the odd numbers? :-)

I've been there and have done and won't look back trying to keep up with installing WinForms on remote client and the nightmare with different version. Go with SL and let MS handle the installation for you. As far as components goes, I was DevEx users since they started with Delphi, but for Silverlight, Telerik and ComponentOne have the most mature and complete set. The Telerik products are very solid and look great. Mix that with DevForce, you have a good combo to do your development.

If you have other questions, you can PM me!
Best Regards!
..Ben

WPF & Silverlight Insider
http://www.MicroIntelligence.Com
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alipoland View Drop Down
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Posts: 19 		Post Options Post Options   Quote alipoland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-May-2009 at 1:03am

Salam Ben,

 

There is nothing special about odd numbers, we human highlighted the odd/even tags divisibility by 2.

Now, prime numbers on the other hand are the basic building blocks for all other numbers :)

 

If IdeaBlade doesn't mind I can shed some light my claim of <prime numbers are God's signature> and thier relationship to the year 2012 :)

 

You see, we have a book that contains 114 chapters, 1 called the key and the other 113 chapters are the message that need to be decoded using the key.

 

The key has 7 lines, 29 words, 139 letters. All are prime numbers :)

What's more their digit sums, 7 = 7,   2+9 = 11,   1+3+9 = 13 are also primes :)

And the sum of these sums  7+11+13 = 31 is prime too :)

And more amazingly concatenating the 7, 29, 139 numbers left-to-right (729139) or right-to-left (139297) also yields primes. If you (or indeed others) would like to know how this all relates to the year 2012 then I contactable via pureprimes@yahoo.com

 

Back to DevForce, I too started using DevExpress since Delphi 4 and C++Builder 1.0. I tired ComponentOne before but still stack to DevForce and was a bit disappointed with their lagging behind in the WPF/Silverlight arena. But I trust them and will wait. Telerik seems very promising since their were the first to offer WPF-like functionality for .NET 2.0 (WinForms).

 

I am totally newbie in DevForce and would appreciate all the help I can get with direction and technology. I am about to start a new project and have full freedom to chose any technology I see fit and came to the conclusion that I should start with DevForce WinClient for version 1.0 (six months) to keep the risk down and shareholders happy and then go for my real aim, DevForce Silverlight :)

 

I spent sometime evaluation and talking to other Application Framework vendors (StrataFrame, Mere Mortals) and although their technology faster than DevForce they are not as mature as DevForce products. Specifically they don't even have ORM in place and just automate DateAccess and UIBinding at table/class level. No relationships nor object graphs. StartaFrame was the closest to what I need for .NET2 especially their Role-based Security product but at the end I preferred to build that myself and stay with current technology trend.

 

BTW how do I Private Message you? Cannot see any PM link anywhere? Or should I use your email at you website Contact page?

 

Thanks for you Ben and all the great people at IdealBlade and look forward to more interaction on this wonderful forum.

 

Ali Adams

God > infinity
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BenHayat View Drop Down
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Posts: 86 		Post Options Post Options   Quote BenHayat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-May-2009 at 8:04am
Hi Ali;

I'm new to DF myself. In fact I'm stepping into it as of this new RC2. My main reason for DF, is their years of experience and knowing this market so well. I used StrataFrame for a client and then I dummped it. Trend will tell anything you want to hear, how aweful WPF or EF or LINQ or SL is, just to justify why he is still sitting in .Net 2.0 WinForm and not moving forward. But, that's another story.
If you have investors breating on your neck and want gurantee for anything you do, then stay with WinForm and you can use DF Client to build your app and then move to SL.

As far as PM, next to each message, you'll see our names. To the right of the name, there is a down arrow, if you press it, it will give you a list of options. One is to send PM. Or you can use my email address as well.
Take care!
Best Regards!
..Ben

WPF & Silverlight Insider
http://www.MicroIntelligence.Com
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alipoland View Drop Down
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Posts: 19 		Post Options Post Options   Quote alipoland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-May-2009 at 8:34am
Ben,
 
Thank you so much for the comforting advice re StrataFrame.
 
I will start with WinForms/ClickOnce and then move to SL when the pressure is off :)
 
Will PM you for more advice on Telerik versus DevExpress if you don't mind.
 
ThanQ and ake care. 
 
Ali
 
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WildHog View Drop Down
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Posts: 9 		Post Options Post Options   Quote WildHog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-May-2009 at 9:46pm
Ali,
 
Should you choose WinForms at this point you might consider using Brian Noyes extensions to Prism in order to "cleanly" seperate your UI employing MVC.....  According to Brian Noyes, "These extensions allow you to use the modular loading patterns and capabilities of Prism as well as the pub/sub events in a Windows Forms application, or any other kind of application (even console apps, WCF services, etc.)."
 
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Posts: 19 		Post Options Post Options   Quote alipoland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-May-2009 at 11:07pm

Dear WildHog,

 

Thank you very much for the timely response. I will definitely look at it and use it without hesitation for all my new projects. It is well worth the learning time. You've saved my day :)

 

And of course many thanks to Brian Noyes for making his extensions available to all WinForms developers.

 

Ali

<prime numbers are God's signature>
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