I have decided to learn Silverlight, but apart from knowing how to write apps, I also need to know how to connect to a remote server to fetch data. I have seen some examples of database connection in .NET, but I am rather confused by which way to go.
My generic question is how do SL applications connect to remote servers? You could post a subjective response if you like, but this question should be objective in that I want to learn about the possible ways of creating a connection to a remote SQL server.
Where do these (WCF, XML, Ajax, Linq to SQL, Entity Framework, data access providers, and so on) come in handy? If one wants to establish robust and secure connections, which one of those (or others) are a must-learn? I’d like to grab a book and learn stuff, but before I do that, I need to know what to invest my time in.
Silverlight, being a browser technology, doesn’t do direct SQL Server connections. Most SL apps speak HTTP to a server (REST, SOAP, POX)- other options are available, but much more limited than with the “big” .NET Framework.
Probably the easiest way to go for a beginner is .NET RIA Services. It allows simple exposure of various kinds of models built off databases (LINQ to SQL, Entity Framework, etc). LINQ to SQL is the simplest on the model side if you’re talking to SQL Server, though EF is fine too (a bigger, more complex hammer). RIA Services will allow you to expose table objects from your model over a web service, and the Silverlight client can consume data through LINQ queries that are remoted back to the server (very efficient- the query criteria lives on the client, while the data filtering happens on the server, and it’s all compile-time type-checked against the model, so it’s much harder to screw datatypes and queries up or expose yourself to SQL injection attacks). RIA Services will also let you apply various security options and data validation on both ends, and the full power of WCF is available to you if you go lower level and do something RIA can’t.