Connect any user interface to my application

Question

Currently, I have very successfully archived my applications as follows:

• Data Model (Entity Framework 4.1)

• Validation using Enterprise Application 5.0 Application Application Block.

• An object context managed by a reusable class library.

So, the user interface is pretty easy to use code, but I know that is not yet complete.

If I wanted to set up my projects so that I could implement Web Forms, MVC, WPF Desktop or Silverlight — even Windows Phone 7, what additional steps might be required?

Here's some code intentionally simplified to illustrate my current state of the game (I skipped Code Contracts and class libraries):

(Currently EF4 Model First and ASP.NET Web Forms)

Partial class for an automatically generated object

namespace MyNamespace.Database { using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Validation; using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Validation.Validators; [HasSelfValidation] public partial class MyEntity : IMyEntity { [SelfValidation] public void Validate(ValidationResults validationResults) { // Custom validation can go here, just add a new ValidationResult // to validationResults if the rule fails. if (validationResults != null) { validationResults.AddAllResults( ValidationFactory .CreateValidator<IMyEntity>() .Validate(this)); } } } } 

Validation

 namespace MyNamespace.Database { using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations; using System.Diagnostics.Contracts; using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Validation; using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Validation.Validators; [ContractClass(typeof(MyEntityContract))] public interface IMyEntity { int Id { get; set; } [Required] [NotNullValidator] [StringLengthValidator(0, RangeBoundaryType.Ignore, 50, RangeBoundaryType.Inclusive, MessageTemplate = "MyEntity Name must be 50 characters or less.")] string Name { get; set; } void Validate(ValidationResults validationResults); } } 

Facade of data access

 namespace MyNamespace.Facade { using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using Common.ObjectContextManagement; using Database; public sealed class MyEntityFacade : FacadeBase<MyEntities, MyEntity> { public IEnumerable<MyEntity> GetAll() { return this.ObjectContext.MyEntitys .Distinct() .ToList(); } } } 

Web application web interface

 using (new UnitOfWorkScope(false)) { this.MyEntityList.DataSource = new MyEntityFacade().GetAll(); this.MyEntityList.DataBind(); } // Or... using (var scope = new UnitOfWorkScope(false)) { var myEntityFacade = new MyEntityFacade(); var myEntity = new MyEntity(); PopulateEntity(myEntity); // Validation errors are automatically presented // to the user from the Validate method if (Validate(myEntity)) { try { myEntityFacade.Add(myEntity); scope.SaveAllChanges(); } catch (Exception exception) { Logging.Write("Error", LoggingLevel.Error, exception.Message); } } } 

How close am I?

Answer 1

The easiest way to expose your middle / backend so that different clients can connect is to wrap it all in one or more web services. In your example, you might consider exposing MyEntityFacade as a WCF service, or you can create a whole new level that runs between your client and the facade.

If you stick with POCO and SOAP objects, you can probably consider the connectivity from java, javascript, python, etc. in addition to your listed customers.