Expose IQueryable Over WCF Service

Question

I've been learning about IQueryable and lazy loading/deferred execution of queries.

Is it possible to expose this functionality over WCF? I'd like to expose a LINQ-to-SQL service that returns an IQueryable which I can then perform additional queries on at the client, and finally execute using a .ToList(). Is OData format applicable at all in this context?

If possible, what is the term for this technique and what are some good tutorials I can follow? Thank you.

Answer 1

You should check WCF Data Services which will allow you to define Linq query on the client. WCF Data Services are probably the only solution for your requirement.

IQueryable is still only interface and the functionality depends on the type implementing the interface. You can't directly expose Linq-To-Sql or Linq-To-Entities queries. There are multiple reasons like short living contexts or serialization which will execute the query so the client will get list of all objects instead of the query.

Answer 2

as far as i know, the datacontext is not serializable meaning that you cannot pass it around with WCF

Answer 3

You can use http://interlinq.codeplex.com/ which allows you to send Linq query over WCF.

WCF Data Services only can be using with webHttpBinding and not all Linq queries can be expressed. Writing queries when WCF Data Service is used is not so attractive - requires string expressions such as:

.AddQueryOption("$filter", "Id eq 100");