Another getting started with Silverlight 2, talking to a SQL Server DB via a ASP.Net web service middle tier, example

Jason Zander's WebLog - Silverlight 2 Map / DataGrid Demo (Part 1)

"I did the keynote speech for VS Live in San Francisco on 3/31 and included a demo of how to use the new Silverlight 2 features including the DataGrid.  I wanted to write up the steps required to reproduce my demo for anyone that wants to build it themselves.  The demo shows how to use VS 2008 with the Silverlight 2 plug-in, Expression 2.5 preview, LINQ to SQL, LINQ to XML, as well as the new controls.  This post got longer than I expected, so I'm going to post another that shows how to use the Silverlight Airlines demo map to give  a new twist for looking up data.

In this write up, I tried to consolidate a lot of different sources of good data (like ScottGu's blog, the "How Do I" series for Silverlight 2, and several other great examples of LINQ to SQL).  If you are an advanced user, you may find I have included too many steps.  But I thought for a lot of folks it would be easier if you could really follow along and wind up with a working application.

...

The application is built in the following steps:

Step 1:  Create the project with an ASP.NET backend and a Silverlight 2 front end

Step 2:  Build a web service that can query the database and return an XML document with my data

Step 3:  Create the Silverlight 2 client application that will invoke the web service and show data in a grid

..."

I still think ADO.Net Data Services will end up being one of the key data services for Silverlight applications. But in the mean time (I've not heard a release date for it, nor its foundation, the Entity Framework), "normal" web services will work just fine...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
A database access from Silverlight 2 tutorial, which includes Web Services and VB XML fun