May 2009 - Posts

Entity Framework VB Samples Now Available on CodeGallery!
29 May 09 09:33 AM | dpblogs | 7 Comments   

This week the team was able to make available in VB, 7 of our Entity Framework Samples that were previously only available in C#. We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to one of our wonderful VB MVPs, Jim Wooley , who graciously offered his help to get Read More...

POCO in the Entity Framework : Part 2 – Complex Types, Deferred Loading and Explicit Loading
28 May 09 09:03 AM | dpblogs | 41 Comments   

In my post last week on the POCO Experience in Entity Framework , I covered the fundamentals of POCO support in Entity Framework 4.0. In this post, I’ll cover a few more aspects related to POCO. Complex Types Complex Types are supported in POCO just like Read More...

Filed under: ADO.NET, Entity Framework

Attachment(s): NorthwindPocoSamplePart2.zip

DataSet and Silverlight
26 May 09 09:41 PM | dpblogs | 37 Comments   

I’ve been asked a few times lately whether DataSet is or will be supported in Silverlight, so I thought I’d post the answer here. There are no plans to add DataSet into future releases of Silverlight. However we are investigating work to bridge existing Read More...

Filed under: ADO.NET, DataSet

POCO in the Entity Framework: Part 1 - The Experience
21 May 09 05:46 PM | dpblogs | 40 Comments   

Last week I mentioned in the sneak preview on POCO that support for POCO entities is one of the new capabilities we have added to Entity Framework 4.0. This week, I’d like to go into the details of POCO support in Entity Framework 4.0. There’s quite a Read More...

Filed under: Entity Framework

Attachment(s): NorthwindPocoSamplePart1.zip

Updated Entity Framework Documentation for Beta1
21 May 09 08:38 AM | dpblogs | 10 Comments   

With the release of Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 , we have released supporting Entity Framework documentation . Below are links to documentation for new Entity Framework features and scenarios. Along with feedback on the Entity Framework, we would like to Read More...

Entity Framework 4.0 Beta 1 bits now available in the VS 2010 and .NET 4 Beta 1
20 May 09 09:58 PM | dpblogs | 4 Comments   

Beta 1 has shipped!  You can find information about the Beta and pointers to the download here .  So far on this bog we’ve talked , at a high level, about the scenarios and capabilities that our team has been focused on in this release.  Read More...

Sneak Preview - Pluralization in Entity Framework 4.0
20 May 09 06:42 PM | dpblogs | 4 Comments   

In .NET 3.5 SP1 when you create a model from the database, you often end up with EntityType, EntitySet and NavigationProperty names that are not quite right. Perhaps the most common example is pluralized EntityType names. No one wants to create an instance Read More...

Sneak Peek – Using Code Generation Templates with the Entity Framework 4.0
19 May 09 01:42 PM | dpblogs | 9 Comments   

In the first version of the Entity Framework code generation was implemented internally using CodeDom . The Entity Framework APIs provided some hooks for customizing the generation, but customizing was tricky, relatively inflexible and wasn’t integrated Read More...

Filed under: Entity Framework

Sneak Preview: Entity Framework 4.0 Testability Improvements
18 May 09 04:56 PM | dpblogs | 16 Comments   

Writing unit tests is a core practice in the vast majority of modern software development approaches. There are several benefits to it, but the one I personally tend to value the most is how I can take a component with enough unit test coverage and start Read More...

Sneak Preview: Model Defined Functions
14 May 09 03:31 PM | dpblogs | 9 Comments   

Model Defined Functions is a new feature coming in .NET 4.0. They are similar to SqlServer Table Value Functions because they are composable, so you can layer function calls and queries. The key difference is that they are declared in terms of the conceptual Read More...

Filed under: Entity Framework, EDM

Sneak Preview: N-Tier development with Entity Framework 4.0
14 May 09 11:28 AM | dpblogs | 16 Comments   

Building applications that work across tiers is a core part of many application architectures. In .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 we provided basic functionality that enabled developers to serialize and de-serialize entities. However, the experience in the first Read More...

Filed under: Entity Framework

Sneak Preview: Deferred Loading in Entity Framework 4.0
12 May 09 05:20 PM | dpblogs | 27 Comments   

After our first release, one of the common pieces of feedback we heard from you was that you would like to be able to get automatic deferred/lazy loading of related entities much like the support for deferred loading in LINQ to SQL. I am happy to say Read More...

Filed under: Entity Framework

Sneak Preview: Model First in the Entity Framework 4.0
12 May 09 03:52 PM | dpblogs | 24 Comments   

An exciting new Entity Framework Designer feature in Visual Studio 2010 is the ability to generate DDL that will create a database that can store your entity data model. This feature is not only exciting because it brings a long overdue capability to Read More...

Filed under: Entity Framework, EDM

Sneak Preview: Persistence Ignorance and POCO in Entity Framework 4.0
11 May 09 03:59 PM | dpblogs | 36 Comments   

In Entity Framework 3.5 (.NET 3.5 SP1), there are more than a few restrictions that were imposed on entity classes. Entity classes in EF needed to either be sub classes of EntityObject , or had to implement a set of interfaces we collectively refer to Read More...

Filed under: Entity Framework

Update on the Entity Framework in .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010
11 May 09 01:53 PM | dpblogs | 34 Comments   

Since we shipped the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008, we’ve been working on the next version of the Entity Framework. During this release, we’ve been focused on 2 key areas: 1) enabling scenarios with the Entity Framework that you’ve told Read More...

DataDirect Releases Beta Entity Framework Provider for Oracle
01 May 09 10:26 AM | dpblogs | 2 Comments   

DataDirect has released the much anticipated Beta of their DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET Entity Framework provider for Oracle! DataDirect’s Beta release of its Entity Framework provider for Oracle offers: 100% managed code architecture Superior performance Read More...