WCF RIA Services Beta

Also during the second PDC keynote came the announcement of the previously announced RIA Services being given the name WCF RIA Services. WCF RIA Services simplify building multi-tier applications where the client tier is using Silverlight. WCF RIA Services are able to use all of the features of WCF while reducing the amount of work spent on service configuration, contract specification, data validation, and deployment.

A beta release of WCF RIA Services is available for both Silverlight 3 and Silverlight 4.

There were several sessions at PDC covering WCF RIA Services. Here they are with video available.

Building Amazing Business Applications with Microsoft Silverlight and Microsoft .NET RIA Services by Brad Abrams

Learn how to build n-tier Rich Internet Applications (RIA) on Silverlight by tapping the power of .NET RIA Services. Walk you through an example of building an application from scratch using the pattern run-time components and tools provided by .NET RIA Services. See how it helps you write application logic to expose data and operations in a carefully controlled fashion using tools integrated into Visual Studio with support for validation, authentication, authorization and handling units of work.

Brad also has some extra content related to his talk available for download.

Mastering Microsoft .NET RIA Services by Dinesh Kulkarni

This advanced-level .NET RIA Services session provides an "under-the-covers" view of how the technology works. Come learn about common architectural patterns, key design principles, and tools to work with a variety of data access layers, application logic patterns and client-usage scenarios. Examine query and unit of work patterns, custom methods, validation, authentication and authorization metadata, authoring custom validations, and using asynchronous operations effectively on the client. Hear tips and tricks to help you get the most out of .NET RIA Services in advanced scenarios. This session assumes existing experience with .NET RIA Services.

Developing REST Applications with the .NET Framework by Henrik Nielsen

Come hear an overview of the REST principles and why REST is becoming popular beyond traditional Web applications. Learn how to write applications that produce and consume RESTful services using the .NET Framework 4 and the improvements we have planned for future versions of the .NET Framework.