Silverlight 4 RIA Breaking Changes

If you’ve written anything in SIlverlight 4 RIA Services, you’ll need to rewrite it.  There has been a lot of refactoring and namespace moves.  They’re documented in the document at code.msdn.microsoft.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=RiaServices&DownloadId=8313.

It’s a ten-page document, and it starts with the namespace and package changes.  For example, System.Windows.Ria is now split into two assemblies--“System.ServiceModel.DomainServices.Client” and “System.ServiceModel.DomainServices.Client.Web”. System.Web.Ria was split into “System.ServiceModel.DomainServices.Server” and “System.ServiceModel.DomainServices.Hosting”.  There are about 21 namespace changes, depending on how you count them.

However, you probably can’t just change out your “using” statements and have your code work. You’ll probably also have to look at some of your config files, and there are some properties and methods that were removed.  Fortunately, the compiler will probably find a lot of the method and property changes for you.

I have a good bit of code to update, but I understand why the changes were made.  Hopefully, it will make the code cleaner, faster, and more maintainable.

I’d keep a copy open on a second screen (if you have one) and use it to guide me through the first project or two I convert.