How do I read ESRI shape files?

[EdGraham]

Sorry if this is incredibly simple to do -- I'm a complete beginner!  I have just installed Silverlight 4 and the ArcGIS API for Silverlight and run my first example application:

[HTML]   
  <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">
    <esri:Map Background="White" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="12,12,0,0" Name="map1" VerticalAlignment="Top" WrapAround="True" Height="550" Width="750">
      <esri:Map.Layers>
        <esri:LayerCollection>
          <esri:ArcGISTiledMapServiceLayer Url="http://services.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Street_Map/MapServer" />
        </esri:LayerCollection>
      </esri:Map.Layers>
    </esri:Map>
  </Grid>
[/HTML]

All fine so far but now I want to read the map data from an existing ESRI shape (.shp) file on my machine rather than the web service.  How should I try to do this?

All answers gratefully received,

Ed Graham

[JenniferNery]

This thread seem related: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/18946-Working-with-Shapefiles

[EdGraham]

This thread seem related: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/18946-Working-with-Shapefiles

Thanks for the reply, Jennifer.  That thread points to another thread, which in turn points to a CodePlex library that enables users to upload their own shape files directly onto the Silverlight map (http://esrislcontrib.codeplex.com/). That's fine but all I want to do is read from an existing shape file on the web server; my users don't need to upload anything.  Is there a simple way of doing this through the API?

[dotMorten_esri]

If you want the data to reside on the server, you will need to publish your data using ArcGIS Server (which is really what the Silverlight API was built for :-))