Greetings:
Is the project layout/architecture suggested in the Silverlight training videos still the recommended approach for SL 4.0/VS 2010? This would be for a client/server application where objects are divided into version that run on the server vs. those that run on the client.
The overall CSLA .NET architecture has been consistent for many, many years, and continues to apply to SL, yes.
At the same time, the original Silverlight video series (SLVid01) makes use of the CslaDataProvider - and I don't recommend using that anymore. That's purely at the presentation layer though, and has little impact on the application architecture as a whole.
The CSLA 4 MVVM video series is much more current. It discusses the use of the MVVM design pattern to organize the presentation layer code, and provides (I think) a much better approach than the now-obsolete data provider scheme.
Either way though, the idea of building the UI on top of business objects, and using the data portal to allow the business layer to span across the client and app server - that remains entirely valid.
Is this blog post a valid starting point?
http://www.lhotka.net/weblog/UsingCSLALightPart4.aspx
I've never created a Silverlight application before (or used async processing) so I need some instruction on how to set up that portion. I think the MVVM videos focus on the use of the BXF framework and I'm comfortable with MVVM - it's getting my first silverlight application to work (data access) that I find frustrating.
That series of posts is mostly still accurate, yes. There are now some simpler techniques/features for some things, but they are optional.
And of course Part 3 uses code-behind for the binding, and I'd recommend you create a viewmodel base class for your MVVM UI framework by creating a subclass of Csla.Xaml.ViewModelBase<T>.
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