Question

Can I use WCF RIA Services to query or manipulate XML data file (not relational database) in silverlight application?

Answer 1

RIA assumes CRUD (create, read, update, delete) operations on the client side, but this can map to anything on the server-side (files, SQL, Xml, anything).

With RIA on the server-side you just create methods that match the required CRUD operation and the calls to those methods are automatic.

e.g. if you have a type called “Person”, then your server-side methods might be called:

UpdatePerson( Person )
DeletePerson( Person )
IQuerable<Person> GetPersons()
CreatePerson( Person )

Or you can label the methods explicitly with RIA attributes if you do not follow the suggested naming conventions:

[Delete]
MakeHimSleepWithTheFishes( Person )