.NET RIA Services July 2009 CTP Available

07-10-2009 2:34 PM |

What is .NET RIA Services?

Microsoft .NET RIA Services simplifies the traditional n-tier application pattern by bringing together the ASP.NET and Silverlight platforms. The RIA Services provides a pattern to write application logic that runs on the mid-tier and controls access to data for queries, changes and custom operations. It also provides end-to-end support for common tasks such as data validation, authentication and roles by integrating with Silverlight components on the client and ASP.NET on the mid-tier.

Where can I download the July 2009 Preview from?

The installer can be found here or at http://silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight3/default.aspx.  You will need the following pre-requisites to install .NET RIA Services:

1.  Visual Studio 2008 SP1 or Visual Web Developer Express 2008 SP1 
2. Silverlight 3.0 (Runtime,SDK and Tools) 

Installation Instructions:

1. Uninstall the March/May 2009 preview
2. Install the July 2009 Preview

The go-live restriction from the EULA has been dropped in response to repeated requests. But please remember that this is a preview, use it at your own risk and expect breaking changes

What’s new in the preview?

Here is a list of what is available in the July 2009 Preview:- 

1. A new and improved model for handling operations on the client – you can more easily specify callback/event for an operation, track its status and cancel it.
2. Improved class library support
3. Extensibility points in generated code
4. Cleaner user model and better extensibility support for Application services
5. Better DomainDatasource capability for handling paging and updates.
6. Significantly simplified shared code support
7. First wave of ADO.NET Data Services alignment ( add a DomainService to DataService for writing app logic / expose DomainService as DataService).
8. Bug fixes and initial performance improvement on the server 

All the samples can be found at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/RIAServices. Most have already been updated for the new CTP.

Where can I get more information?

Right here, on the .NET RIA Services forums. You can also read our overview document and can be found here.

How do I provide feedback and report bugs?

We want your feedback and want to know about the issues you find. Please post feedback and bugs in the forums. Let us know what you think.