Can't load related entities on the client using RIA Services

Question

I am having trouble getting related entities to be loaded on the client using RIA Services and EF 4.1 with Silverlight.

I'm currently using the Include() method on my DbDomainService with an Expression parameter and am finding that when stepping through my service the related entities are loaded just fine. However, when the Queryable results are returned to the client NO related entities are loaded - they are null. All of my entities are marked with the [DataMember] attribute so I have assumed that it isn't a serialization issue. Moreover, my DbDomainService query method is marked with the [Query] attribute.

I was wondering if there is anything specific that has to be set up on the client when using RIA Services with EF 4.1 code first? I must be missing something, but I'm not sure what.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

sfx

Answer 1

While you may have used the .Include() in your service call, you also have to add the [Include] attribute in the metadata class that is also created.

The .Include() statement tells EF to generate the SQL necessary to retrieve the data, while the Include attribute tells WCF RIA Services to make sure the Entity Class is also created on the client.

Once the data arrives at the client, it needs to know what type of structure to put it in as well.

HTH