[Solved] maintaining performance with larger data sources

[Paul]

Hi,

I was wondering if you could help us with some architectural decisions using the RadGridView.  Our application will contain four RadGridViews with 30 columns and potentially 1000’s of rows, most of the 30 columns will be text-based columns.  We want to leverage the sorting and filtering capability so the user can perform in-Grid searches for data.

Our team just upgraded to the Silverlight Q3 release.

Our service layer is based upon classic WCF Services (not WCF RIA).  Realizing we will have larger amounts of data loaded into these grids, we started by implementing paging in the interface of the service operations, but found this approach conflicts with the RadGridView wanting all of the data and then filter and sort on the UI side.

I see UI virtualization, Data Virtualization and now, with the release of the Q3 controls, the VirtualQueryableCollectionView interface.  Where is good coverage of each of these topics?  I’m trying to understand the virtualization for both the UI and Data implementations.  I’ve read the help, blogs, etc and still don’t have a clear understanding of where it is implemented.

Also, in looking at VirtualQueryableCollectionView, it doesn’t seem compatible with the built-in column filtering. Does VirtualQueryableCollectionView require datacontext back to the database (as in the use of WCF RIA services)?

How could we get all the sorting/filtering of the built-in RadGridView without having to override and manually build all the queries to our WCF Services ourselves?

Does using classic WCF, in this case, make more work for ourselves? 

Thanks,
Paul

[Vlad]

Hello Paul,

 If you want to transfer the grid filtering, sorting, grouping, etc. to the server-side you can use WCF RIA Services. Please check this demo where RadGridView is bound to DomainDataSource. Furthermore we are about to release our own WCF RIA Service data-source control (RadDomainDataSource) before the end of this which will provide even tighter integration with RadGridView - for example you will be able to apply hierarchical filter conditions out-of-the-box (something not possible with the standard DomainDataSource). 

Indeed unlike WPF in Silverlight our VirtualQueryableCollectionView will unable to sort, filter and group (since there is no real IQueryable support in Silverlight - the data base access is with services) if you are using the collection with service data however with our upcoming service pack we will provide extension methods for EntityQuery<T> (WCF RIA Services) and you will be able to sort and filter your query in the collection ItemsLoading event directly on the server and load only needed items. 

You can work with classic WCF services however transferring the collection filters and sort will be additional work - you can check my blog post for more info. 

All the best,
Vlad
the Telerik team