public class BeerService : IBeerService

{

    public List<Beer> GetAllBeers()

    {

        DataClassesDataContext db = new DataClassesDataContext();

        var beers = from b in db.Beers

                    orderby b.BeerName

                    select b;

        return beers.ToList<Beer>();

    }

    public void SaveBeer(Beer beer)

    {

        DataClassesDataContext db = new DataClassesDataContext();

        if (beer.BeerId > 0)

        {

            // this is an update

            db.Beers.Attach(beer, true);

        }

        else

        {

            // this is an insert

            db.Beers.InsertOnSubmit(beer);

        }

        db.SubmitChanges();

    }

    public void DeleteBeer(Beer beer)

    {

        DataClassesDataContext db = new DataClassesDataContext();

        db.Beers.Attach(beer, false);

        db.Beers.DeleteOnSubmit(beer);

        db.SubmitChanges();

    }

}

Note that I piggybacked the SaveBeer method to do either an Insert operation or Update operation, based on whether or not a primary key is available in the passed entity.

I guess until ADO.NET Data Services (Astoria) and the Entity Framework are officially available, we will have to settle with LINQ to SQL for Data Access! But I don't think we will be waiting long :)

What can we look forward to with Astoria and the EF?

• no need to write tedious web service methods for CRUD operations like shown above
• serialization of Parent and Child records (LINQ to SQL cannot pass related child records across the wire with parent rows)
• Access to other Database Providers other than SQL Server.
• The ability to flexibly map Conceptual model elements such as class properties to Physical columns in the database (LINQ to SQL provides only a 1-to-1 mapping)