Question

we’re currently re-writing a system which at the moment uses asp.net c# webforms, and web services.

The re-write is taking place as the current system is bloated, and rather than re-write using webforms, we’re looking at converting to MVC for the UI and WCF as the service. ( I realise this has been about for a while, however, it is new tech for us)

After days of investigation on the web and information overload, I just wanted to check with the experienced MVC/WCF programmers out there that we are going down the correct path for the articheture of the new system, and any advice / recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

• REST WCF will provide the data layer (Entity Framework) and business layer
• MVC will provide the UI layer

The WCF application will be hosted within IIS and return JSON for any queries.

JQuery will be the selected framework for Ajax.

The MVC application will make JQuery Ajax calls to WCF (hence why wcf returns JSON) for partial page loads.

So, my question is, are we on the right track? or are there ay additional recommendations to consider?

Thanks for any input

Answer 1

i know the company that i work for uses something like this approach,

we would use the WCF layer for all business and Data layer activities i.e. Validation, other Business rules, Insertion, Updating, Deletion etc.

but we use the controllers in the UI layer to access those WCF Sevices. We also use the API controllers for any JSON Data to come back dynamically to the page, but again it goes through the controller to the service.

this gives you a level of security as you would not need to expose your WCF services to the broader internet (only have the WCF as an internal service) but still allow other applications to connect via the api-controllers.