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DevForce 2010 & Sharepoint 2010
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btitular View Drop Down
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Posts: 20 		Post Options Post Options   Quote btitular Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: DevForce 2010 & Sharepoint 2010
    Posted: 25-Aug-2010 at 2:15pm

I have a SL4 app using DevForce 2010. We've been experimenting with Sharepoint 2010 and was wondering if I could package my SL4 app as a web part for a Sharepoint solution. My understanding is that it would have to be a farm solution and not a sandbox solution due to the file access requirements. Has anyone tried this?
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Posts: 338 		Post Options Post Options   Quote WardBell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Aug-2010 at 2:51am
I have not tried it.
 
I am THRILLED that YOU are trying it.
 
I don't understand why you need file access. That's not intrinisic to DevForce. Personally, I would fight like a cornered rat to be in the sandbox and not on the farm where you are at the mercy of distant administrators.
 
Please do keep us informed!
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Posts: 20 		Post Options Post Options   Quote btitular Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Aug-2010 at 4:36pm
I mis-spoke - I'll be making database calls via DevForce.
 
I decided to give myself one day to see what I could accomplish.
 
There's no web project to host the SL application - you create an empty sharepoint project that will be used to deploy the SL app to the Sharepoint server. A module item (in my case Module1) is created so that it can tell Sharepoint how/where to upload the application.
 
I copied the server side IdealBlade*.dll files to the bin folder.
 
At my breakpoint on the ExecuteAsync callback gave me a error:
 
"There is no endpoint listening on http://btitular4-w7/Module1/EntityService.svc/sl that could accept calls from this application. If running in Visual Studio, make sure CopyLocal=true is set for all IdeaBlade assembly references in the web project to ensure that these assemblies are copied to the bin folder. To check if the service is running, open your internet browser and navigate to 'http://btitular4-w7/Module1/EntityService.svc'. If the service page shows errors, these should help diagnose the problem with the service. If the service is running, then also make sure that the endpoint bindings match between client and server, and that the server's ClientApplicationType is either 'Silverlight' or 'Both'.  Check the server's debug log file for more information."
 
I'm not sure how the url is being generated. The Module1 folder doesn't even exist in my web site.
 
I reviewed the following thread:
 
I'll try a few of kimj's responses to see where that leads me.
 
I think on the problems is that the xap files are not "exposed" as in a traditional web site. I believe they're stored in the SQL databases that Sharepoint manages.
 
I also came across some interesting posts related to Sharepoint 2010 and the .net 4 Framework  - Sharepoint 2010 doesn't current support the .net 4 framework.
 
 
 
 
 
Entity Framework 4.0 requires the .net 4 framework - doesn't it?
 
So for today - it looks like I'll be creating the SL4 apps hosted in a "traditional" web site. I'll keep an eye out to see if/when Sharepoint 2010 supports the .net 4 framework.
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Posts: 427 		Post Options Post Options   Quote ting Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Aug-2010 at 4:51pm

Yes .NET 4 is required.  Bummer that they haven't supported it yet.
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IdeaBlade
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Posts: 427 		Post Options Post Options   Quote ting Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Nov-2010 at 5:27pm
Update - It looks like you can get this to work by running the DevForce server from a virtual directory that is in a different application pool (for .NET 4).
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Posts: 20 		Post Options Post Options   Quote btitular Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Nov-2010 at 5:36pm
Ting,
 
I've been meaning to update this thread. Hardware issues have derailed my development efforts the last two weeks!
 
I spoke with Paul Stubbs from Microsoft (Tech Evangelist for Sharepoint) at the PDC10 in Seattle a few weeks ago. He informed me that the key to get to an SL4 app to work with Sharepoint 2010 is to have them run on separate servers - exactly what you you pointed out.
 
Sharepoint 2010 needs to run on the .NET 3.5 framework which is on ServerA. DevForce is hosted on ServerB running .NET 4.0. I have a proof of concept project that I'm going to try after the Thanksgiving weekend.
 
Thanks for the update! I'll let you know how it turns out.
 
BOb
 
 
 
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Posts: 338 		Post Options Post Options   Quote WardBell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Nov-2010 at 5:57pm
Exactly!
 
You can deploy the DevForce server (BOS) portion of your application to a virtual directory (or a server) that runs with .NET 4. Obviously this is not the same as your SharePoint environment (app pool). But SharePoint shouldn't have trouble running a web part that talks to a non-SharePoint URI. The Silverlight application can reach out to any network resource it can reach and SharePoint should neither know nor care.
 
You could still serve the Silverlight XAP out of your SharePoint farm; it's just a file. You would have to consider CrossDomain Policy file issue. Probably easier during development to keep the XAP and the BOS on the same server/directory and same domain address. I don't think SharePoint will mind filling its web part with a resource (the Silverlight application xap) that comes from outside SharePoint itself.
 
Were you intending to access both SharePoint tables and SQL database data by way of the BOS? Not sure how a server running on .NET 4 could reach back to the SharePoint world running in .NET 3.5. 
 
You might get some ideas from Steve Fox's November MSDN Magazine article, "Connecting SharePoint to WIndos Azure with Sivlerlight Web Parts". He doesn't use EF in his example. But if he's connecting these farflung dots, you ought to be able to connect yours :-)
 
Would be nice to do without these complications, we must hope they move to .NET 4 soon.
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Posts: 338 		Post Options Post Options   Quote WardBell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Nov-2010 at 1:03am
@btitular - I didn't see your post when I wrote mine. Two ships passing in the night I guess. It seems we are all on the same page.
 
Looking forward to your post Thanksgiving report. Very exciting!
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