WCF 4.0 Multi-tier Services Development with LINQ to Entities

This book is a step-by-step tutorial to guide you through learning WCF and LINQ to Entities. You will be guided to create five WCF and LINQ solutions from scratch, of which three are multi-tiered real-world WCF service solutions, so you will not only be reading, but also be coding through the book, to gain practical experience of WCF and LINQ to Entities. Various test clients will be associated with each solution and these solutions can be built and run independently of other solutions. Clear step-by-step instructions and relevant screenshots will make sure you won't get lost in the new world of WCF and LINQ to Entities. Configuration files, host applications, test clients, and WCF services for each solution will also be available for download for you to examine, modify, and debug from the outside in. The book focuses on the essentials of using WCF and LINQ to Entities, rather than providing a reference to every single possibility. It leaves the reference material online where it belongs, and concentrates instead on practical examples, code, and advice. This book is for C# and C++ developers who are eager to get started with WCF and LINQ to Entities, and want a book that is practical and rich with examples from the very beginning. Developers and architects evaluating SOA implementation technologies for their company will find this book particularly useful because it gets you started with Microsoft's tools for SOA and shows you how to customize our examples for your prototypes. This book presumes basic knowledge of C# or C++. Previous experience with Visual Studio will be helpful but is not required, as detailed instructions are given throughout the book.

Mike Liu

Mike Liu studied Mathematics and Applied Software Engineering at Nanjing University between 1984 and 1988. After graduating with a bachelor's degree, he worked as a Programmer/Senior Software Engineer/Architect on Unix and DOS using C/C++, Dbase, and Oracle. In 1995 he moved to New Zealand and studied Business Computing at Auckland University of Technology. During the five-year stay in New Zealand, he worked as a Senior Software Engineer on Unix and Windows using C/C++, Java, FoxPro, Informix, Oracle, and SQL Server. He moved to the United States in 2000 and since then has been working as a Web Developer/Senior Software Engineer/Principal Software Engineer of various operating systems using various programming languages and database technologies. He studied Software Engineering at Brandeis University and graduated in 2005 with a master's degree.

Mike became a Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) in 2000, a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) for Visual Studio 6.0 in 2001, and an MCSD for .NET in 2004. He started using C# for production development back in the year 2001 when C# was still in beta stage and he is now integrating a Business Process Management application with a WCF services backend system.

Mike had his first book-MITT: Multi-user Integrated Table-processing Tool Under Unix-published in 1993, and had his second book-Advanced C# Programming- published in 2003. The previous version of this book-WCF Multi-tier Services Development with LINQ-was published in 2008, with LINQ to SQL being used as the ORM in the data access layer of the WCF services.