The EntitySpaces Team Blog

DynamicQuery Enhancements

David Parsons — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:06:11 GMT

We have greatly improved the power of our DynamicQuery API, and there is still much more coming before our next official release goes into production. This is just a quick blog post to show some of the upcoming enhancements.

Full Expressions in OrderBy and GroupBy

This query doesn’t really make sense, but we wanted to show you what will be possible in the next release.

EmployeesQuery q = new EmployeesQuery();
q.Select(q.LastName.Substring(2, 4).ToLower());
q.OrderBy(q.LastName.Substring(2, 4).ToLower().Descending);
q.GroupBy(q.LastName.Substring(2, 4).ToLower());

EmployeesCollection coll = new EmployeesCollection();
if (coll.Load(q))
{
string s = q.es.LastQuery;
}

The SQL Generated is as follows (and works)

SELECT SUBSTRING(LOWER([LastName]),2,4) AS 'LastName'
FROM [Employees]
GROUP BY SUBSTRING(LOWER([LastName]),2,4)
ORDER BY SUBSTRING(LOWER([LastName]),2,4) DESC

In the current production release 2009.1.0209.0, you can only use a “Column Name” in the OrderBy and GroupBy statements. In the upcoming release, you will be able use full expressions, just as you can now do in the Select statement.

Raw SQL Injection Everywhere

There may be times when you need to access some SQL feature that is not supported by our DynamicQuery API. But, now having used and fallen in love with DynamicQuery, the last thing you want to do is stop and go write a stored procedure or create a view. We have always supported the raw injection feature in our Select statement, but it will soon be available almost everywhere. The way it works is you pass in raw SQL in the form of a string surrounded by < > angle brackets. That indicates to the EntitySpaces dataproviders that you want the raw SQL passed directly to the database engine “as is”.

Here is an example query. You would never write a query like this in reality. EntitySpaces supports this simple query without having to use < > angle brackets. This is just to show all of the places that can accept the raw SQL injection technique:

EmployeesQuery q = new EmployeesQuery();
q.Select("<FirstName>", q.HireDate);
q.Where("<EmployeeID = 1>");
q.GroupBy("<FirstName>", q.HireDate);
q.OrderBy("<FirstName ASC>");

EmployeesCollection coll = new EmployeesCollection();
if (coll.Load(q))
{
string s = q.es.LastQuery;
}

The SQL Generated is as follows (and works)

SELECT FirstName,[HireDate] AS 'HireDate'
FROM [Employees] WHERE (EmployeeID = 1)
GROUP BY FirstName,[HireDate]
ORDER BY FirstName ASC

Of course, you could easily write the above query without injection, but you get the idea. The escape hatch will be available to you almost everywhere ….

EmployeesQuery q = new EmployeesQuery();
q.Select(q.FirstName);
q.Where(q.EmployeeID == 1);
q.OrderBy(q.FirstName.Ascending);
q.GroupBy(q.FirstName, q.HireDate);

Using the raw SQL injection techniques above will allow you to invoke SQL functions that we don’t support, including database vender specific SQL, and so on. Hopefully, you will almost never have to resort to writing a custom load method to invoke a stored procedure or an entirely hand written SQL statement. Of course, you can use our native API everywhere and just inject the raw SQL on the GroupBy for instance. You can mix and match to get the desired SQL.

There’s much more to come in this release … Just last night we were serializing DynamicQuery’s from a Silverlight application and sending them to a WCF server to fetch the data… very slick. Watch for an upcoming blog post on our Silverlight demo very soon.

From Mobile Devices to large scale enterprise solutions in need of serious transaction support, EntitySpaces can meet your needs. Whether you’re writing an ASP.NET application with Medium Trust requirements, a Mono application, or a Windows.Forms application, the EntitySpaces architecture is there for you. EntitySpaces is provider independent, which means that you can run the same binary code against any of the supported databases. EntitySpaces is available in both C# and VB.NET. EntitySpaces uses no reflection, no XML files, and sports a tiny foot print of less than 200k. Pound for pound, EntitySpaces is one tough, dependable .NET architecture.

EntitySpaces LLC
Persistence Layer and Business Objects for Microsoft .NET
http://www.entityspaces.net

EntitySpaces 2009.1.0629.0 Alpha Release

Mike Griffin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:32:51 GMT

We are pleased to make this new release available to current customers, there is no trial version available at this point. This release provides our DynamicQuery API built into the Client Side Proxy Stubs. The new serializable DynamicQuery’s should be Silverlight compliant as well. This release is for those who are using WebServices, Silverlight, or WCF and would like to explore our new DynamicQuery serialization feature. We will be making the source code available for our source code customers for this Alpha release as well. The release notes along with some breaking changes are at the end of this blog post (READ BEFORE INSTALLING). An upcoming Beta release will consist of much of what was requested in the Q2 Wish List forum. Just a reminder the current production release is version 2009.1.0209.0.

For more information on our new Serializable DynamicQuery’s see these two posts:

Because the two blog posts above are only in C# here is a VB.NET sample (without the proper cleanup code on the streams and such)

Private Sub QuerySerializerForm_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

    Dim o As New Proxies.OrdersQueryProxyStub("o")
    Dim q As New Proxies.EmployeesQueryProxyStub("emp")
    q.SelectAll()
    q.Select(q.LastName.ToLower().Substring(2, 4), o.Freight, (q.FirstName + "," + q.Address).As("Mike"))
    q.LeftJoin(o).On(q.EmployeeID = o.EmployeeID)
    q.Where(q.EmployeeID > 30)
    q.OrderBy(q.LastName.Descending)
    q.es.Top = 50

    Dim xml As String = q.Serializer.ToXml()

    Dim memoryStream As New MemoryStream(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(xml))

    Dim reader As XmlDictionaryReader
    reader = XmlDictionaryReader.CreateTextReader(memoryStream, Encoding.Unicode, New XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas(), Nothing)

    Dim types As New List(Of System.Type)
    types.Add(GetType(EmployeesQuery))
    types.Add(GetType(OrdersQuery))

    Dim emp As New EmployeesQuery()
    Dim dcs As DataContractSerializer
    dcs = emp.Serializer.GetSerializer(types)

    emp = CType(dcs.ReadObject(reader), EmployeesQuery)

    Dim coll1 As New EmployeesCollection()
    coll1.Load(emp)

End Sub

Now, in reality you shouldn’t have to do any of the manual serialization we are doing here, but of course you can if you want to. You will want to use the [KnownTypes] attribute if you are using WCF on the Server Side.

RELEASE NOTES

EntitySpaces 2009.1.0629.0 Alpha Release
June 29th, 2009
==================================================================================

This release will not run side by side with your current ES2009 installation, it will overwrite the installation even if you choose another folder. You should uninstall any prior release before installing the Alpha version.
The new Serializable DynamicQuery functionality requires .NET 3.5 SP1.
The Silverlight version of the EntitySpaces.DynamicQuery.dll is in the “C:\Program Files\EntitySpaces 2009\Runtimes\.NET 3.5\Silverlight” folder
There is a new checkbox on the "Advanced" tab of the "Generated Master" template named "Serializable Queries (requires .NET 3.5 SP1)" that you must check in order to use the new serializable queries.
When you generate your client side proxies via the "Client Side Proxy/Stub" template you will now have a client side DynamicQuery class.
The only data provider in this Alpha - EntitySpaces.SqlClientProvider.dll

NOTE: The breaking changes listed below should generate compile time errors, not runtime errors. Adding a reference to Entityspaces.DynamicQuery.dll to your project, and adding a "using EntitySpaces.DynamicQuery;" line to each file that has a "using EntitySpaces.Interfaces;" line should clear most of the compile errors. ("Imports EntitySpaces.DynamicQuery" for VB users.)

Breaking change - There is a new assembly named EntitySpaces.DynamicQuery.dll which is now a required assembly reference for all applications. This assembly should be Silverlight compliant and is the only EntitySpaces assembly needed to use the DynamicQuery's under Silverlight. The inheritance is different for the full blown server side DynamicQuery's versus the client side queries.

   Server Side DynamicQuery

      EmployeesQuery -> esEmployeesQuery -> esDynamicQuery –> esDynamicQuerySerializable

   Client Side Proxy DynamicQuery

      EmployeesQueryProxyStub -> esDynamicQuerySerializable

NOTE: The esDynamicQuery class lives in EntitySpaces.Interfaces.dll just as always, however, most of the logic behind the DynamicQuery now lives in the new esDynamicQuerySerializable class which lives in EntitySpaces.DynamicQuery.dll.

Breaking change - There is a minor change in the DynamicQuery API with the ".es" property. This is only for the DynamicQuery class, the Entity and Collection classes have no change in this area.

   Before the Alpha you could do this:

     EmployeesQuery query = new EmployeesQuery();
     query.es.Connection.Name = "SomeName";

   Now the connection is accessible this way ...

     EmployeesQuery query = new EmployeesQuery();
     query.es2.Connection.Name = "SomeName";

     ** Notice we use "es2" however all of the other properties are still available under the ".es" property.

   There is also a new helper when using the DynamicQuery features:

     EmployeesQuery query = new EmployeesQuery();
     query.es.Serializer.[helper methods]

   which can be used if necessary to serialize.

Breaking change - Many Enums that used to be in EntitySpaces.Interfaces are now in EntitySpaces.DynamicQuery

    These included:

    esQueryType
    esQuerySubOperatorType
    esOrderByDirection
    esConjunction
    esSystemType

    As well as some other internal enums.

Breaking change - esWhereItem was renamed to esComparison and now lives in EntitySpaces.DynamicQuery.dll. Unless you are manually creating this class which is rare you will not be affected.
Breaking change - esSelectItem was renamed to esExpression and now lives in EntitySpaces.DynamicQuery.dll. Unless you are manually creating this class which is rare you will not be affected.

We hope to have an entirely new Silverlight / WCF Demo available to coincide with and built from the upcoming Alpha release. Of course we will do a blog post on that as well. When you see it in action you will be amazed how easy it is. We still have a few issues to work out but things are moving very rapidly now. Imagine having what appears to be the full EntitySpaces API available to you on a client somewhere and only needing to have a single 52k assembly present, and it is fully Silverlight compliant as well. This is just one thing our upcoming release will provide.

EntitySpaces LLC
Persistence Layer and Business Objects for Microsoft .NET
http://www.entityspaces.net

EntitySpaces DynamicQuery Serialization Part II (WCF and Silverlight)

Mike Griffin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:40:36 GMT

This stuff is hot guys and gals. We are asking Jon Davis to write an entirely new Silverlight demo that will showcase our DynamicQuery feature running under Silverlight inside the browser and hitting a WCF service on the server. We cannot wait, this is so slick … Here’s another sneak peak post.

First the Client Code

Notice here we are using new “QueryProxyStub” classes that are available in through our proxy template (in addition to the existing single object and collection).

Proxies.OrdersQueryProxyStub o = new Proxies.OrdersQueryProxyStub("o");
Proxies.EmployeesQueryProxyStub q = new Proxies.EmployeesQueryProxyStub("emp");
q.Select(q.LastName.ToLower().Substring(2, 4), o.Freight, (q.FirstName + "," + q.Address).As("Mike"));
q.LeftJoin(o).On(q.EmployeeID == o.EmployeeID);
q.Where(q.EmployeeID > 30);
q.es.Top = 50;

// Manually convert it (you won’t need to do this)
string xml = q.Serializer.ToXml();

Their is a new property on the Query called Serializer than can help with certain serialization issues, for the most part however you shouldn’t have to use it. But it’s nice to have around, above we serialize our query to XML via the WCF DataContractSerializer (the entire object graph) via the ToXml() method.

Now the Server Code Deserializing (Simulated)

Notice below that we deserialize the XML from our QueryProxyStub classes into our full blown server side Query classes so that we can execute them. In reality the code that you will write on the server will be much simpler than the code shown below. You will use the KnownTypeAttribute on your WCF Service methods. We will have a full sample showing how this works, don’t let the code below scare you, it’s so easy. This is just test harness code but it works just fine.

using (MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(xml)))
{
    using (XmlDictionaryReader reader =
        XmlDictionaryReader.CreateTextReader(memoryStream, Encoding.Unicode,
        new XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas(), null))
    {
        types = new List<Type>();
        types.Add(typeof(EmployeesQuery));
        types.Add(typeof(OrdersQuery));

        EmployeesQuery emp = new EmployeesQuery();
        DataContractSerializer dcs = emp.Serializer.GetSerializer(types);

        // Deserialize
        emp = dcs.ReadObject(reader) as EmployeesQuery;

        EmployeesCollection coll1 = new EmployeesCollection();
        if (coll1.Load(emp))
        {
            // It worked
        }
    }
}

At this point we could return the newly loaded collection back to the client and it would implicitly be returned as a ProxyCollection.

The Demo

We hope to have an entirely new Silverlight / WCF Demo available to coincide with and built from the upcoming Alpha release. Of course will we do a blog post on that as well. When you see it in action you will be amazed how easy it is. We still have a few issues to work out but things are moving very rapidly now. Imagine having what appears to be the full EntitySpaces API available to you on a client somewhere and only needing to have a single 52k assembly present, and it is fully Silverlight compliant as well. This is just one thing our upcoming release will provide.

EntitySpaces LLC
Persistence Layer and Business Objects for Microsoft .NET
http://www.entityspaces.net

EntitySpaces – WCF DynamicQuery Serialization

David Parsons — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:44:40 GMT

We have decided to use the WCF DataContract approach when serializing our enhanced DynamicQuery’s. In our upcoming alpha release, our DynamicQuery classes now live in a separate assembly that can execute on the client side along with your EntitySpaces proxies without requiring either the EntitySpaces.Core or the EntitySpaces.Interfaces assemblies. The EntitySpaces.DynamicQuery assembly (only 52k in size) is also compatible with Silverlight and can run down inside of the browser. The older .NET 2.0 serialization techniques aren’t supported under Silverlight and having this feature work under Silverlight is important to us. At this moment, the Alpha will require .NET 3.5 SP1 (if you want to use these advanced new features) as it provides the ability to serialize object graphs having circular references. Currently, our DynamicQuery API does have circular references. For instance, SelectColumns have a reference to their parent DynamicQuery object. There is a very good summary of this feature in .NET 3.5 SP1 HERE and you might want to take a look at it. More on this later however.

Take a look at this very simple query. The example code below shows a query that will ultimately do a join and is selecting columns from both the Employees and Products tables. We also call ToLower, Substring, and Sum.

ProductsQuery prod = new ProductsQuery();

EmployeesQuery emp = new EmployeesQuery();
emp.Select(emp.LastName.ToLower().Substring(2, 4), prod.QuantityPerUnit.Sum().As("Qty"), emp.FirstName);

Here is an example of what one of the internal classes in our DynamicQuery API looks like. It’s ugly because we have to use #if #else #endif syntax, but just be glad you guys never have to write such code. We need to make sure the old and the new serialization both work. Notice the DataContract and DataMember attributes. Again, these are on our internal DynamicQuery API classes. Also, don’t let the WCF term scare you, these features can be used in non WCF scenarios as well.

Below is some test code that we use to manually invoke the DataContractSerializer.

List<System.Type> types = new List<System.Type>();
types.Add(typeof(ProductsQuery));

DataContractSerializer dcs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(EmployeesQuery), "Query", "es", types);
var ms = new MemoryStream();
dcs.WriteObject(ms, q);
ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);

StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(ms);
string xml = sr.ReadToEnd();

Now, if you want to see what the resulting XML looks like click on this LINK. Admittedly, the XML is pretty funky because it creates what are essentially pointers to objects that appear in the XML graph multiple times. However, this saves a ton of space and of course prevents an endless loop when trying to serialize circular references.

Our development test harness for this is shown below:

Of course, when serializing and sending queries in XML over the wire, you are probably going to want to be using HTTPS so that sensitive data cannot be seen or tampered with.

What does this all mean?

Well, this means that our DynamicQuery’s can optionally be built into your proxy objects and used from the client side just as you would on the server side, only you will send your query over to the server and it will return either a proxy entity or proxy collection. Using our proxies with built in queries will feel like full blown EntitySpaces on the client side. And this will all run under Silverlight as well. Couple that with the massive improvements coming in our DynamicQuery API and that is some very cool functionality. Even if you aren’t interested in all this client side serialization stuff, you will love the enhancements coming in the DynamicQuery API. And remember, this will all work for web services too.

Before we release to production, we might be able to eliminate the circular references in our DynamicQuery object graph, however, this is not an easy thing to do. We do have a working solution via the enhancements in the .NET 3.5 SP1 release with the circular references in place.

Breaking Changes?

We are renaming quite a few internal classes. Some of them are public. For instance, esWhereItem is now called esComparison and esSelectItem is now called esExpression. Our queries are basically made up of esExpressions which are then combined with operators such as != or == to form esComparisons. The reason we needed to change these names is that they were too specific. We are going to allow you to use complex syntaxes in OrderBy, GroupBy and many other areas within the query syntax itself. Therefore, esWhereItem and esSelectItem just weren’t appropriate names. Most of you never really manually create these objects so it wont impact you at all. However, if you do, you will have to do a find/replace on these if you are manually creating them in code (which is rare).

Where are we at?

We are pushing very hard for our Alpha release to be released by the end of this month. Right now the carburetor is lying on the floor and we’re all absolutely covered in grease. However, we know how to put this back together again and when we do it’s going to be awesome. We are really excited about this release and the Q2 Wish List Forum will play, and is playing, heavily into what we deliver.

EntitySpaces LLC
Persistence Layer and Business Objects for Microsoft .NET
http://www.entityspaces.net

A Major Reworking of the EntitySpaces DynamicQuery

Mike Griffin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:39:53 GMT

We are implementing some major changes under the hood of our DynamicQuery API engine. We are reworking the internals while preserving the API in such a way that you will be able to use the full query syntax in OrderBy’s, GroupBy’s, in the On() statement of a join and so on. We are also making the DynamicQuery Serializable. It’s really too bad there isn’t an attribute that can make private data members serializable by the XML serialization system(s). What a major shorting coming of the .NET Framework (unless we are overlooking something).

So, basically, we are tearing the DynamicQuery apart, and when we put it back together it should be exponentially more powerful and be ready for additional features like the Having Clause and others. Like the ES2009 release, this next release should prove to be a major step forward and provide you with the additional horse power you have been asking for.

EntitySpaces LLC
Persistence Layer and Business Objects for Microsoft .NET
http://www.entityspaces.net

Expect an ES2009 Q3 Alpha on June 29th, 2009

David Parsons — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:36:06 GMT

We wanted to update you on our plans for our next ES2009 Release. On June 29th we plan to make available an Alpha version of what will eventually be our ES2009 Q3 release, it’s too late to call it our Q2 release however things are underway. We had a very productive team meeting tonight. Our Alpha will have these features:

A new assembly called EntitySpaces.DynamicQuery which will contain the base classes and support for our DynamicQuery API. This new assembly does not reference System.Data so it will be able to run under Silverlight inside of the browser itself.
The ES2009 Q3 DynamicQueries will be fully serializable and will not require EntitySpaces.Core or EntitySpaces.Interfaces on the client.
The ES2009 Q3 DynamicQueries can optionally be built into your Proxy/Stub classes by merely checking a checkbox which means you can send your query to the server and get back an entity or collection.

Those are the main features that will be in the Alpha. However, we have already made many fixes suggested in our Q2 Wish List Forum and will be drawing from those suggestions heavily, including major DynamicQuery API enhancements. In the ES2009 Q3 Alpha version only SQL Server will be supported. We want to make sure we have the changes right before we replicate the changes across all of our providers as we have a lot of them to maintain.

We will be doing a weekly blog post that will outline our progress and let you know what enhancements have been made and what bugs have been fixed. Our goal is to greatly expand the reach of EntitySpaces making sure it can go where ever you need to go, including greatly enhancing our DynamicQuery API. Of course, fixing any existing bugs too will be a priority.

EntitySpaces LLC
Persistence Layer and Business Objects for Microsoft .NET
http://www.entityspaces.net

Coming Off a Much Needed Break

Mike Griffin — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:23:59 GMT

The EntitySpaces team has been on a grueling schedule for over 3 years and we are just coming off a much needed break. Our last blog post was on March 1st which is admittedly two months ago, and that’s far too long. We are well rested and ramping up for what is going to be a great release. You will begin to see the heightened activity around here you are used to seeing and that is a good thing. We are really going after full Silverlight support via our DynamicQuery API and more and will have more news on that soon. Our team meetings are on Thursdays and we will be talking about two things on our next meeting, the Q2 release and the roadmap. So watch for another post soon that will provide you with much of the information you have been requesting.

EntitySpaces LLC
Persistence Layer and Business Objects for Microsoft .NET
http://www.entityspaces.net

EntitySpaces 2009 Q2 - Can you Query me Now?

Mike Griffin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:31:36 GMT

Can you Query me now? (Silverlight, WCF, Webservices, and Mobile)

EntitySpaces 2009 Q2 is going to revolutionize your ability to use the EntitySpaces 2009 architecture on the client side of any two-way conversation, whether it be a Silverlight, WCF, or a webservices conversation. In fact, you will be able to work on the client side as if the full EntitySpaces architecture was at your disposal but without actually requiring the EntitySpaces architecture be present on the client. "But how can that be?" you wonder. Continue reading and we will explain.

EntitySpaces has always had good support for mobile applications via our Compact Framework support. We even generate "smarter" proxies than the ones generated by Visual Studio for WCF or webservices scenarios. Our proxies maintain row state such as (inserted, updated, and deleted) such that all that is required is that you send the data back to the server and commit it. But this client side proxy support is about to become much, much more powerful and can be used for non-mobile scenarios such as Silverlight, WCF, and webservices. With our enhanced proxies (especially for mobile applications where space is limited) this can prove to be a very powerful way to use EntitySpaces. We like to think of this as a sort of "Virtual EntitySpaces Mode" as it feels just like EntitySpaces only it really doesn't require the full architecture on the client side. So, let's dive into this and see how it works starting with a review of our current proxy support.

Our Current Client Side Proxy Functionality

The EntitySpaces Client Side proxies offer the ability to easily work with EntitySpaces on the client side of a two way conversation without requiring any of the EntitySpaces assemblies. Our proxies also track the dirty state for you so that when you send data back to the server EntitySpaces automatically knows whether to insert, update, or delete the data. This functionality is already built into the currently shipping ES2009 Q1 release. The template that you use to create the Client Side proxies is highlighted below.

When you execute the "Client Side Proxy/Stub" template there are currently two classes generated for you, the Collection and Entity class. Shown below are the proxy stub classes that were generated by the "Client Side Proxy/Stub" template for the Microsoft Northwind Suppliers table. Notice that the classes do not inherit from any base classes nor do they require any of the EntitySpaces assemblies. Also, in the SuppliersProxyStub (entity) class notice the esRowState property. This is the property that EntitySpaces uses to determine the state of the entity (inserted, updated, or deleted) and the proxy is smart enough to set this property for you based on the actions you take (you do not have to worry about setting it). These two classes are extremely small and lightweight in size.

With these two classes you work with data on the client side of a conversation without EntitySpaces being present, but something is missing, a feature that hooks most EntitySpaces developer once they start using it.

New Functionality Coming in ES2009 Q2

In our ES2009 Q2 release the Client Side template will now generate a new, optional, third class, the "QueryProxyStub" class. Yes, you guessed it, the full EntitySpaces DynamicQuery API now available on the client side of a two-way conversation. Take a look at the SuppliesQueryProxyStub class below. This class is just like the DynamicQuery classes you are accustomed to using already only it inherits from a new class named esDynamicQuerySerializable. If you take a close look at the methods in the esDynamicQuerySerializable class you will notice that there are no methods to load or execute the query itself (more on this later). This query can only be created, defined, and then serialized back to the server (a very cool way to write a Silverlight application). If you have never seen how powerful our DynamicQuery API is check out our Showcase post HERE.

Now, imagine that you're on the client side of a WCF conversation or even running down inside the browser in a Silverlight application and you need to query your Supplier table for data. No problem, here is how you would accomplish that task with the new proxy query class.

SuppliersQueryProxyStub sQuery = new SuppliersQueryProxyStub ();
sQuery.Select(sQuery.SupplierID, sQuery.Region);
sQuery.Where(sQuery.Country == "Spain");

Notice that we do not call sQuery.Load(). This is because the esDynamicQuerySerializable has no way to actually load data, it represents the query only, the ability to load it (or execute it) exists on the server side of the conversation. Also, the full join syntax is available although it is not shown above in the query. The proxy queries are fully serializable which is the key to how it works. At a very high level this is how you would fetch data from the server, imagine a method like this:

public SuppliersCollectionProxyStub FetchSupplers(SuppliersQueryProxyStub query)

You would transmit the proxy stub query to the server, where it will be deserialized, assigned to a full server query object, executed, and then the resulting proxy stub collection would be returned. The code will look very much like this.

public SuppliersCollectionProxyStub FetchSupplers(SuppliersQueryProxyStub query)
{
    SuppliersCollection coll = new SuppliersCollection();
    coll.Query = query as esDynamicQuerySerializable;
    coll.Query.Load();
    // more code below ...
}

Notice how we are able to merely assign our SuppliersQueryProxyStub object to the full blown SuppliersCollection's query object and then execute it. Could it be any easier?

EntitiySpaces.DynamicQuery - A New Assembly

Just where does this esDynamicQuerySerializable class that our SuppliersQueryProxyStub inhertis from live? The answer is a new assembly that will ship with ES2009 Q2 named EntitySpaces.DynamicQuery.dll. This is very tiny (less that 50k) assembly that only references System.Core and System.XML and is fully Silverlight 2.0 compliant. It does not link with EntitySpaces.Core or EntitySpaces.Interfaces. However, even better we are not maintaining two separate DynamicQuery API's. This new assembly and class is used on the server side as well, which means this new assembly is required now for EntitySpaces applications. Look at the diagram below which shows the hierarchy of a normal DynamicQuery class as generated by the ES2009 Q2 Generated Master template. This preserves your current API.

Notice the the original base class esDynamicQuery is still there, however, it now inherits from the esDynamicQuerySerializable class. In order to run under Silverlight our client side DynamicQuery assembly could not reference the System.Data namespace, so we have separated the original esDynamicQuery into the two classes you see above.

What Does it All Mean?

Our new enhanced client side proxies will allow you to have a "Virtual EntitySpaces Architecture" running almost anywhere including mobile devices, Silverlight applications, WCF scenarios, and webservices. It will act and feel just like EntitySpaces Of course, we can already run in all of these environments but with ES2009 Q2 and the addition of the DynamicQuery proxy and the massive DynamicQuery API enhancements that are also coming you will truly be blown away by the productivity and reach of the EntitySpaces Architecture. The only thing that is required on the client to make this all possible is the tiny EntitySpaces.DynamicQuery assembly (less than 50k) which is completely Silverlight compliant. There are other enhancements that will be made to the proxies but we will keep them small and lightweight.

There are also a few technical issues we must solve yet, though most have been worked out. For example, where do the extra properties go when you bring them back via a join? In the full server side classes this is handled gracefully, and we make those properties appear as if there are in your strongly typed entities via sophisticated binding support. How do we do this on the client side? These are a few of the issues we must solve yet.

We find this new support terribly exciting and it presents almost boundless usage scenarios. Especially when you factor in the enhancements we are making to DynamicQuery API itself, but that is the topic for another post. And keep those comments coming in our ES2009 Wish List forum, we are listening and will implement a lot of your requested features.

EntitySpaces LLC
Persistence Layer and Business Objects for Microsoft .NET
http://www.entityspaces.net

EntitySpaces 2009 Announces Support for Sybase SQL Anywhere

Mike Griffin — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:46:20 GMT

EntitySpaces is pleased to announce support for the Sybase SQL Anywhere Database Management System. Our plan is to support iAnywhere for both high end server applications as well as on the Compact Framework for mobile applications which will further strengthen EntitySpaces' mobile abilities (we already support Microsoft SQL CE and VistaDB for mobile applications). If there is demand we will consider supporting the Sybase SQL Anywhere UltraLite version as well.

SQL Anywhere provides data management and exchange technologies designed for database-powered applications that operate in frontline environments without onsite IT support. It offers enterprise-caliber features in a database that is easily embedded and widely deployed in server, desktop, remote office and mobile applications. Sybase iAnywhere has been named number one in the worldwide mobile device management enterprise software market for the seventh consecutive year.

The image above shows EntitySpaces 2009 walking the SQL Anywhere Demo Database metadata. We have already generated a full EntitySpaces set of classes complete with our hierarchical object model against the Sybase demo database and have created an EntitySpaces.SybaseSqlAnywhereProvider.dll DataProvider that can successfully query Sybase using our DynamicQuery API. For instance, we are able to execute queries like this just fine.

EmployeesCollection coll = new EmployeesCollection();
coll.Query.Select(coll.Query.DepartmentID, coll.Query.City);
coll.Query.Where(coll.Query.City.Like("%F%"));
coll.Query.Load();

Of course, our Sybase support will have to fully pass our massive NUnit test suite before being released which won't actually happen until our ES2009 Q2 release. But we have made enough progress now that we can safely announce our support for Sybase. We would also like to thank the folks at Sybase for working with us and making themselves available to us. We are extremely impressed by their support and dedication to customer satisfaction, something rarely seen today from large companies, so a big thumbs up to the folks at Sybase.

EntitySpaces LLC
Persistence Layer and Business Objects for Microsoft .NET
http://www.entityspaces.net

Using External Tools to Generate an EntitySpaces Project

Mike Griffin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:52:12 GMT

Nick Dunham, an EntitySpaces user, created a very nice PDF and sent it to us. We thought it was great and decided to share it on our blog. Here is a snippet from the document ...

EntitySpaces 2009 (ES) works great for setting up and running projects from within Visual Studio (VS). Once I have a project set up, I can execute it by opening “Tools | EntitySpaces”, load my project, and go. As a companion to this, I started using the new command line version of EntitySpaces so I could skip the basic steps (once I configured my project with the tool). The setup instructions below allow me to execute an ES project using the External Tools features of VS ...

Checkout the PDF file HERE or a ZIP file HERE. It's best viewed when zoomed to around 150% to 175% depending on your monitor size.

Nick W. Dunham, University of Florida
Office of Research, Director of Information Services

EntitySpaces LLC
Persistence Layer and Business Objects for Microsoft .NET
http://www.entityspaces.net