22 July 2012 by Manuel Grundner3 comments

Real MTier with DevExpress (Part 1)

Technologie overview

First of all one thing:

I like DevExpress and their controls, but i'm dissatisfied with the speed of the development on the mobile sector with large scaling XAF applications and the way they are managing their APIs. The options for developers are very restrictive in a manor of extensibility (thanks to VB.NET customers, i think. We develop C#. WE know what we shall or not shall do!). Why the fuck is every second method we like to use is fucking Browsable(false) or internal or is only reachable with real reflection pain? "For internal use only"? Are you fucking kidding me? DevExpress, please think of us developers when designing your APIs, not business analysts and script kiddies :(

Phew, that has done well. :)

Our main product is published to a wide range of clients, from small size scaling up to the enterprise sector.

One thing i really miss in our Portfolio are native apps for all kind of customers mobile devices. One real need for native apps is offline availability of the clients data (enterprise customers need to access their data anytime, regardless of connectionstate). So a Web solution will NOT meet our customers needs. Gladly we found Mono For Android and the MonoTouch framework from the Xamarin guys.

Technologie decision

But what data transport protocol should we use to support all upcomming platforms? WCF? SOAP? OData?

I think pure WCF is a overkill for most of our needs, and there is no tooling on all of our planned supported platforms (IOS for example).

SOAP has the problem that the effort to implement and extend a service for all our needs will take too long, and is a horror in maintainability across our customer needs. There is so much work on the meta-model before we get anything out/back from/to our database model.

DevExpress and OData

Then, all of a sudden, DevExpress announced support for OData in combination with XPO. Hurray! Getting the hands on the first versions and the result was sobering. :(

We have a huge XPO-Model (800+ PeristentClasses) with a legacy Database (migrating from our delphi application) and a legacy XPO-Model (many many many rookie mistakes was made in the beginning of migration).

Our Namespace model looks like something like this:

OurProduct.Model.Products
- Product.cs
- ProductCategory.cs
OurProduct.Model.Customer
- Customer.cs
- ContactInformation.cs

The problem here is there is no way to tell the XPO-Context-Driver to export complex types across different namespaces. That means we have to fetch up our data clientside with multiple queries to the OData-Service which is annoying and not very performant.

The second thing: The documentation was terrible. I don't know if there was a ability to filter out some of our classes from the ResourceSets.

So we decided to wait until DevExpress brings us new features with the next releases.

Starting with DXperience-12.1 they did a great job of cleaning the direct dependency of XAF on XPO. Nice stuff. And tadaaa there was the direct integration of OData into XPO!

And yes in this version the filtering of the ResourceSets is integrated! Also the Namespace is included in the Classname (sure not pretty, but hey it works!). Now we can start using this stuff and do some really cool things.

The Code

The code is pretty strate forward:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data.Services;
using System.Data.Services.Common;
using DevExpress.Xpo.DB;
using DevExpress.Xpo;
using System.ServiceModel;
using DevExpress.Persistent.BaseImpl;

namespace MultitierSolution.OData
{
    [ServiceBehavior(InstanceContextMode = InstanceContextMode.Single)]
    public class MultitierSolutionODataService : XpoDataService
    {

        public MultitierSolutionODataService() : base(new MultitierSolutionContext("XpoContext", "MultitierSolutionModel", CreateDataLayer())) { }

        static IDataLayer CreateDataLayer()
        {
            string conn = MySqlConnectionProvider.GetConnectionString("servername", "user", "password", "database");
            DevExpress.Xpo.Metadata.XPDictionary dict = new DevExpress.Xpo.Metadata.ReflectionDictionary();
            // Initialize the XPO dictionary. 
            dict.GetDataStoreSchema(typeof(Event).Assembly);
            IDataStore store = XpoDefault.GetConnectionProvider(conn, DevExpress.Xpo.DB.AutoCreateOption.SchemaAlreadyExists);
            return new ThreadSafeDataLayer(dict, store);
        }
        public static void InitializeService(DataServiceConfiguration config)
        {
            config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("*", EntitySetRights.AllRead);
            config.DataServiceBehavior.MaxProtocolVersion = DataServiceProtocolVersion.V2;
            config.DataServiceBehavior.AcceptProjectionRequests = true;
        }
    }

    public class MultitierSolutionContext : XpoContext
    {
        public MultitierSolutionContext(string containerName, string namespaceName, IDataLayer dataLayer)
            : base(containerName, namespaceName, dataLayer) { }

        public override bool HideMetaDataResourceProperty(Type classType, string propertyName)
        {
            if (classType == typeof(Event) && propertyName == "resourceIds")
                return true;
            return false;
        }

        public override bool HideMetaDataResourceSet(Type classType)
        {
            if (classType == typeof(Event))
                return false;

            return true;
        }
    }
}

Project overview of ODataService

Now whe have what we want. Only events are publised to the OData-Serivce:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" standalone="yes"?>    
<service xml:base="http://localhost/MultitierSolution.OData/ODataDemoService.svc/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">
    <workspace>
    <atom:title>Default</atom:title>
    <collection href="DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event">
        <atom:title>DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event</atom:title>
    </collection>
    </workspace>
</service>

And the result:

<feed xml:base="http://localhost/MultitierSolution.OData/ODataDemoService.svc/" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/metadata" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
    <title type="text">DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event</title>
    <id>http://localhost/MultitierSolution.OData/ODataDemoService.svc/DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event</id>
    <updated>2012-07-21T22:58:09Z</updated>
    <link rel="self" title="DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event" href="DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event" />
    <entry>
    <id>http://localhost/MultitierSolution.OData/ODataDemoService.svc/DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event(guid'61bf9c11-a05e-46fd-9a82-4eb91dabb1a2')</id>
    <title type="text"></title>
    <updated>2012-07-21T22:58:09Z</updated>
    <author>
        <name />
    </author>
    <link rel="edit" title="DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event" href="DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event(guid'61bf9c11-a05e-46fd-9a82-4eb91dabb1a2')" />
    <link rel="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/related/recurrencePattern" type="application/atom+xml;type=entry" title="recurrencePattern" href="DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event(guid'61bf9c11-a05e-46fd-9a82-4eb91dabb1a2')/recurrencePattern" />
    <category term="MultitierSolutionModel.DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event" scheme="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/scheme" />
    <content type="application/xml">
        <m:properties>
        <d:oid m:type="Edm.Guid">61bf9c11-a05e-46fd-9a82-4eb91dabb1a2</d:oid>
        <d:Subject>test3</d:Subject>
        <d:Description></d:Description>
        <d:StartOn m:type="Edm.DateTime">2012-07-21T14:00:00</d:StartOn>
        <d:EndOn m:type="Edm.DateTime">2012-07-21T15:30:00</d:EndOn>
        <d:AllDay m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:AllDay>
        <d:Location></d:Location>
        <d:Label m:type="Edm.Int32">0</d:Label>
        <d:Status m:type="Edm.Int32">2</d:Status>
        <d:Type m:type="Edm.Int32">0</d:Type>
        <d:RecurrenceInfoXml m:null="true" />
        </m:properties>
    </content>
    </entry>
    <entry>
    <id>http://localhost/MultitierSolution.OData/ODataDemoService.svc/DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event(guid'af62e758-f181-4702-8712-76111fb4705f')</id>
    <title type="text"></title>
    <updated>2012-07-21T22:58:09Z</updated>
    <author>
        <name />
    </author>
    <link rel="edit" title="DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event" href="DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event(guid'af62e758-f181-4702-8712-76111fb4705f')" />
    <link rel="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/related/recurrencePattern" type="application/atom+xml;type=entry" title="recurrencePattern" href="DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event(guid'af62e758-f181-4702-8712-76111fb4705f')/recurrencePattern" />
    <category term="MultitierSolutionModel.DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event" scheme="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/scheme" />
    <content type="application/xml">
        <m:properties>
        <d:oid m:type="Edm.Guid">af62e758-f181-4702-8712-76111fb4705f</d:oid>
        <d:Subject>some stuff</d:Subject>
        <d:Description></d:Description>
        <d:StartOn m:type="Edm.DateTime">2012-07-21T07:30:00</d:StartOn>
        <d:EndOn m:type="Edm.DateTime">2012-07-21T12:30:00</d:EndOn>
        <d:AllDay m:type="Edm.Boolean">false</d:AllDay>
        <d:Location></d:Location>
        <d:Label m:type="Edm.Int32">3</d:Label>
        <d:Status m:type="Edm.Int32">2</d:Status>
        <d:Type m:type="Edm.Int32">0</d:Type>
        <d:RecurrenceInfoXml m:null="true" />
        </m:properties>
    </content>
    </entry>
    <entry>
    <id>http://localhost/MultitierSolution.OData/ODataDemoService.svc/DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event(guid'e7d053b8-1970-4c0d-b6a3-c6c3dd3ca83a')</id>
    <title type="text"></title>
    <updated>2012-07-21T22:58:09Z</updated>
    <author>
        <name />
    </author>
    <link rel="edit" title="DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event" href="DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event(guid'e7d053b8-1970-4c0d-b6a3-c6c3dd3ca83a')" />
    <link rel="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/related/recurrencePattern" type="application/atom+xml;type=entry" title="recurrencePattern" href="DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event(guid'e7d053b8-1970-4c0d-b6a3-c6c3dd3ca83a')/recurrencePattern" />
    <category term="MultitierSolutionModel.DevExpress_Persistent_BaseImpl_Event" scheme="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/scheme" />
    <content type="application/xml">
        <m:properties>
        <d:oid m:type="Edm.Guid">e7d053b8-1970-4c0d-b6a3-c6c3dd3ca83a</d:oid>
        <d:Subject>test</d:Subject>
        <d:Description></d:Description>
        <d:StartOn m:type="Edm.DateTime">2012-07-21T01:00:00</d:StartOn>
        <d:EndOn m:type="Edm.DateTime">2012-07-21T01:30:00</d:EndOn>
        <d:AllDay m:type="Edm.Boolean">true</d:AllDay>
        <d:Location></d:Location>
        <d:Label m:type="Edm.Int32">0</d:Label>
        <d:Status m:type="Edm.Int32">2</d:Status>
        <d:Type m:type="Edm.Int32">0</d:Type>
        <d:RecurrenceInfoXml m:null="true" />
        </m:properties>
    </content>
    </entry>
</feed>

WinRT Client Consumption

This task is like the use of a regular WCF-Service. Use the Add Service Reference command in Visual Studio:

Add Service Reference for OData in Visual Studio

Rebuild. Booom! What the heck!? It's not compiling anymore. According to a bug in the code generation of VS12 in the xaml designers we cannot fix this error now :(

But you catch the idea, right?

Shame on you Microsoft! :>

Mono For Android Client Consumption

This task is a little bit trickier (for sure, its not MS technologie). But hey, we've got still tools to help us here.

I've found a blog post to create the client proxy on a Mono based platform.

Create a custom tool entry under Visual Studio Tools/External Tools... to make this task a little bit more comfortable.

Tools/External Tools... Property Window

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\DataSvcUtil.exe
/out:Client.cs /version:2.0 /uri:http://localhost/sampleservice/peoplefeed.svc
$(ProjectDir)

Run the command with our Argument

/out:Client.cs /version:2.0 /uri:http://localhost/MultitierSolution.OData/MultitierSolutionODataService.svc

Add the generated Client.cs file to the Mono For android project and add a reference to System.Data.Services.Client.

I don't know why this is no where documented. Neither on the Mono Documentation nor the Mono for Android documentation.

Further steps

In our next post we implement the android client to see some action!

Demo Source

The source can be found at Bitbucket

Comments

Dennis Garavsky 23 Jul 2012 06:27

DevExpress, please think of us developers when designing your APIs, not business analysts and script kiddies :(

You certainly have the point here, and I as a developer can fully understand your "righteous anger". However, there is always the other side of the medal. By introducing EditorBrowsable(Never) and internal-use-only methods, and even keeping certain classes undocumented in our docs we try to save lives of a good number (if not the majority - call them VB.NET guys, if you want;-)) of our clients, so that they do not run into problems in the future by using some hidden APIs or suffering from changes or even removal of some undocumented classes. This "care" may affect guys like you, though. I am uncertain whether the golden mean exists here, but I think we are at least do our best maintaining the "balance", and let's be fair, not having "every second method we like to use is fucking Browsable(false) or internal ";-)

Then, all of a sudden, DevExpress announced support for OData in combination with XPO. Hurray! Getting the hands on the first versions and the result was sobering. :(

Yeah, that is true. It was the first and unofficial/open-source implementation solely created by Azret and then posted on CodePlex. Later we just included his dlls into the installer to avoid versioning pain with often DXperience updates. The official (it also complies with MS OData implementation) OData support was added in XPO in 12.1 and we highly recommend everyone consider migrating to this version.

Finally, I really liked your blog posts, keep them coming! It will be interesting to see how you will implement business logic, and not just expose an OData feed. At the moment I think that the only feasible way to keep several client applications that share a common business model/logic is using the XAF application server that will provide security, validation, audit and other business logic. In one turn, OData service used by mobile, WinRT, whatever clients will connect to this application server instead of the direct access to the datatabase. Let's also do not forget that although OData can be a "common denominator", it is not "ideal", especially as compared to basic feature XAF/XPO provide (I am talking about the lack of support for unsigned integers, enumerations, readonly properties, reference properties in descendants and numerous filtering limitations). Probably, this is not critical for mobile clients, though.
Thank you

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Manuel Grundner 25 Jul 2012 06:29

You certainly have the point here, and I as a developer can fully understand your "righteous anger". However, there is always the other side of the medal. By introducing EditorBrowsable(Never) and internal-use-only methods, and even keeping certain classes undocumented in our docs we try to save lives of a good number (if not the majority - call them VB.NET guys, if you want;-)) of our clients, so that they do not run into problems in the future by using some hidden APIs or suffering from changes or even removal of some undocumented classes. This "care" may affect guys like you, though. I am uncertain whether the golden mean exists here, but I think we are at least do our best maintaining the "balance", and let's be fair, not having "every second method we like to use is fucking Browsable(false) or internal ";-)

Dennis, don't get me wrong at this point. I love XAF. I love the way things (can) flow. But if you try to spring out of this box, you can really get sad (as a developer). It took's me months (in a kind of a working solution) to integrate Unity in our product to get a easy way to reuse and change our business logic. Since we are using XAF since 9.x (i guess) there was no way to migrate to DomainComponents. You could provide extensibility points to ease such tasks, but i see no effort of DexExpress to evolve this. So my anger. Nothing personally :)

Yeah, that is true. It was the first and unofficial/open-source implementation solely created by Azret and then posted on CodePlex. Later we just included his dlls into the installer to avoid versioning pain with often DXperience updates. The official (it also complies with MS OData implementation) OData support was added in XPO in 12.1 and we highly recommend everyone consider migrating to this version.

Yes you are right, maybe i didn't made this clear enough. From a developer perspective its often hard to say if its supported or not supported. I know that the first announce was only a blog serious of Azret. :) (and he did a good job)

Finally, I really liked your blog posts, keep them coming! It will be interesting to see how you will implement business logic, and not just expose an OData feed. At the moment I think that the only feasible way to keep several client applications that share a common business model/logic is using the XAF application server that will provide security, validation, audit and other business logic. In one turn, OData service used by mobile, WinRT, whatever clients will connect to this application server instead of the direct access to the datatabase. Let's also do not forget that although OData can be a "common denominator", it is not "ideal", especially as compared to basic feature XAF/XPO provide (I am talking about the lack of support for unsigned integers, enumerations, readonly properties, reference properties in descendants and numerous filtering limitations). Probably, this is not critical for mobile clients, though.

According to the blog post (as a serious) there will be lot of space to (re-) "implement" some features (like security).

The limitations of OData seam logic, cause of the wide based client set (JS/ PHP / etc. don't even know enumerations).

In the point of "ideal" i must be inconsistent with your opinion. Cause its base layer is simple HTTP it IS in fact ideal. The whole bunch of overhead such as SOAP/WCF is removed. Mobile clients are to a fact of 99% data consumers. The filtering can be tricky, and maybe there is no 100% generic approach to filter them (but through meta-data services maybe :) ).

The thinking of getting the data is an other approach like in a classic DBAL (like XPO). Save time on the client -> Better user-experience.

greetings Manuel.

Ps: I think i get the next article available on Monday :)
Thank you

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Manuel Grundner 25 Jul 2012 06:29

Finally i like to say that your products are great, and we CAN build great applications with DexExpress frameworks. But sometimes it's hard in a developer perspective.. Drag a module into your project? Yes. But do stuff that comes out of the box? Hard.

If you could provide a set of instructions (maybe covered by FxCOP rules) we could realize a real open source based framework solution. The instructions don't have to be a full blown documentation, but a small "how to use devex internals" to use code such as in your system controllers used (reading source is sometimes really hard, to get all of your thoughts correct)

If you like to refer to eXpand i have do disagree. eXpand is great, but the reintegration of modules takes partially weeks... or is simply not reinterateable cause of dependencies. We CAN make a plugin able architecture. we only have to work on it.
Thank you

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Real MTier with DevExpress (Part 1)

Technologie overview

Technologie decision

DevExpress and OData

The Code

WinRT Client Consumption

Mono For Android Client Consumption

Further steps

Demo Source

Learned something new?

Comments

Dennis Garavsky 23 Jul 2012 06:27

Thank you

Manuel Grundner 25 Jul 2012 06:29

Thank you

Manuel Grundner 25 Jul 2012 06:29

Thank you

Thank you