How to access a RIA Services WCF WebApp from another WebApp?

Question

I have a silverlight application which accesses its data through RIA Services, from a WCF app in the server. The current structure looks like this:

• DataWebServer - A Web application project, which holds the .aspx page that will call the Silverlight components, the .edmx model file and a MyService class, inheriting from LinqToEntitiesDomainService<FortWayneDB>.

• Silverlight App - Contains .xaml e .cs files that will generate the .xap binary files, hosted by the WebServer. It access "DatawebServer" project through RIA Services.

It's all working fine, but now I need to create a new application, and since we will going to need it to run on platforms like tablets and smartphones, we decided to build it in HTML5, instead of Silverlight.

How can I make this new WebApp to access the data entities on "DataWebServer" project?

I think of 3 different solutions, but I'd prefer the third one, which exactly my question.

• I could place the new WebApp in a folder in the same webprojeect "DataWebServer", but that wouldn't be very organized, I'd rather separate this app from the "DataWebServer".

• The second alternative, which I will follow in case I can't succeed with the third, is to create WebMethods in "DataWebServer" to be accessed from my new WebApp.

• the third, which I don't know how to do, is to make my new Web App to access the Entities through RIA Services, in the same way the Silverlight Client does. I've searched the Internet, but all articles I've found show how to access RIA Services from the same project. Does anyone know how I can do that?

Answer 1

The first method is the most sensible.

From your details, I assume the DataWebServer is "publicly" accessible; at least as much as your WebApp would be. There is little value in having WebApp data requests go to a different server, DataWebServer, as this introduces an unnecessary delay while one web server calls another. Instead of re-using the HTTP services from DataWebServer, add the WebApp functionality to the DataWebServer and re-use the LinqToEntities context.

If you desperately want the third option, you should consider creating your WebApp in a way that the JavaScript in the app calls the DataWebServer for data from the client's browser. Importantly, this approach avoids WebApp web server calling to DataWebServer for data.