How to share the most code between a WPF and an ASP.NET MVC application?

Question

What architecture and patterns can I use to share the most model and logic code between a WPF and an ASP.NET MVC application?

I am trying to achieve a bit more here than

Answer 1

My personal favorite configuration is similar to the one Adam King suggested above but I like to keep the logic DLL as part of the web project. I run a project called CT Terminal that follows this pattern. My Terminal.Domain project contains all the application logic and simply returns a CommandResult object with properties that act as instructions to tell the UI project what to do. The UI is completely dumb and only processes what it's told to by the Domain project.

Now, following Adam King's approach I would then slap that Domain DLL into a WPF app and then code the UI to follow the instructions in my returned CommandResult object. However, I prefer a different approach. I wrote the MVC 3 UI to expose a JSON API. This API can be consumed by any application. The JSON API was simple because it was basically a wrapper around my Terminal.Domain project CommandResult object. The JSON returned would have the same basic properties. In this way I would write the WPF app to consume this API rather than the DLL. Now if I make minor changes to internal application logic I just deploy the Web project to the live server. All clients using the API automatically get this new logic.

Obviously if the changes being made affect the properties being returned from the API then that would require a release of new client code, but at least for internal logic you wouldn't have to do that.

Answer 2

Starting with the obvious. Encapsulate your business logic and domain model in a separate assembly.

In terms of Presentation Layers and shared UI Behaviour, the closest you will get is the MVVM design paradigm, implementation will be C# in WPF/XAML and Javascript for your ASP.NET MVC web frontend.

For the web frontend you can get close to the WPF (MVVM) way of doing things with http://knockoutjs.com/ written by Steve Sanderson of Microsoft. Its MVVM for the browser. Also checkout http://www.asp.net/mvc/mvc4 for more info.

Answer 3

Use Web Api, let both the WPF and the Web application consume the services from Web Api. Done.

Answer 4

Did you try using Portable class libraries. With this you can make the data layer and use it in ASP.Net MVC, WPF, Windows Phone, Silverlight.

Answer 5

I actually found Rocky Lhotka's books, software, and videos on this topic very helpful. Here's a few links to his content:

http://www.lhotka.net/

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Speakers/Rockford-Lhotka

http://www.amazon.com/Expert-C-2008-Business-Objects/dp/1430210192/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331834548&sr=1-2

Answer 6

Create a service layer for your application by specifying interfaces with methods that represent all of the operations you need to perform. Also, in this service layer, define all of the data types used by the application. Those data type classes should contain only properties, not operations. Put these interfaces and classes in an assembly all by itself. This assembly should be shared between your web app, WPF app, and the code that implements it.

Finally once you have this separation, you can freely develop the application's internal structure, and leave the responsibility of UI operations (e.g. what happens when you click xyz button) to the respective UI.

As an aside, you can expose your service layer, via WCF and web services. You can use this to make call from the web browser via javascript. You could do things like client-side validation or even look up values on the fly for drop down population. all while reusing it between your two application.