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Will .NET RIA Services be the Silver Bullet!

I have spend some time on the Silverligth.net forum and in the .NET RIA Services thread.. and just created a replay on a post about RIA Architecture and design.. I have some concerns regarding to how developers are using .NET RIA Services etc.. maybe it’s not a big deal.. but I will try to share my concerns and made a copy of my replay and created it as a blog post. I look forward to your comments. To get basic understanding about about my view of a RIA Architecture and also .NET RIA Servers, I prefer you read my two other blog post before you read this blog post.

RIA Architecture with Silverlight in mind

A different view of the .Net RIA Services

Developers are so desire to use a perfect and great domain model to work with. It will help us a lot..(I will claim that a domain model is not a silver bullet, it's a way we prefer to work these days, and I prefer it too). We are used to work that way, we like to work that way.. so why not do it and why not in a distributed system? There are some technologies that tried to make sure we could work with object in a distributed system, like DCOM, CORBA and RMI etc. Now we have .NET RIA Services..

When I have read threads in Silverlight.Net forum, I notice that developers tries to create complex models and want a server side model to also be used on the client side. Nothing strange, it’s how we will work, right? So what is the main problem? Well, developers creates complex models, and do it in one place (on the server side), and the .NET RIA Services can "copy" by using code-gen this model to the client-side. Developers can still work with the entities as it was locally, because it is what we want to do, it make it a lot easier for use to build our apps.. we are used to it! But one of the problems with systems like DCOM, RMI, CORBA and sort of .NET RIA Services is that they tend to try and hide the fact that we are actually talking across a network. Everyone that uses these technologies knows that we are talking across a network, but it’s so easy to forget about it, because of the possibility to use object in a way we want to. The way they hide it, is that we don’t need to care about knowing about it. It’s the plumbing that is removed from us. So we can create our model, and suddenly we have it on the client side and can work with it as it was “locally”. We have one place where we create our shared domain model and we can forget about the network (not saying that everyone does, but regarding to some post in this forum, I think they are).

By adding inheritance, lazy-loading (which we want to use, to solve some problems) etc, will only make sure we try more and more to work in a way we are used to, even with a distributed system, and we will get blinded and don’t see the network. We don’t want to see it, because it will affect how we wants to work, and it make sure we can’t do what we wants to do.. so we just remove it from our mind, we hide it, we don’t see it, we pretend it wasn’t there. I love the sounds of it, it would be perfect if we don’t need to think about it. Because if it was never there, we can work in the way we want to work, right?

As long as developers know and have the network in mind and create a model based on it, I will be satisfied, but it will probably not happen. The same mistakes have done before, and we are only repeating our self. Designing a system that uses both network capabilities and object oriented design techniques to their fullest advantage is still possible and desirable, and engineers will try to solve this. Some day they may succeed, maybe the final version of .NET RIA Services will be the ONE! But as long as there isn’t a Silver bullet yet! I will try to remind people about the network and the distribution.

EDIT: Only to not get comments regarding the hidden stuff:

I know that .NET RIA Services team is not trying to “hide” the distributin, but the way people wants to use it, to solve a common problem, and what they are requested and tries to do, concerns me.. and what most developers wants (if it will be available), will make sure the distribution will become “hidden”.

2 Comments

  • I agree, and I think the 'best' approach is to continue to communicate between tiers with DTO objects rather than directly with domain objects.

    In between these use a mapper layer

    DomainToDTO
    DTOToDomain

    Other term I've heard used is 'client object' - strictly for use on the UI.

  • As Brad, I just want to thank you to share your thoughts with us because I really think this is the way software developers (as me) will be able to improve their knowledge and make the right choice.

    Each time a new technology go to the market, I use to read point of view of others to take my own decision about how I will use it (if I will).

    And to take the right decision, the "official" way to present the product is never the right way to use it in an real application.
    And RIA services is the perfect example of this. The first time I read something about it, I was really happy: great, I will be able to share validation between client and server. But 5 mn after, I saw that the example always share it's domain model. Something strange in fact is that the same guys who create these samples would not implement use it in the same way if they would have to create oir application.

    Hopefully, you educate us and do their work.

    Best regards

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