Sample ADO.NET Entity Framework Provider - Beta 3

David Sceppa — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:08:00 GMT

We've updated the sample provider to work with Beta 3 of the ADO.NET Entity Framework. The sample provider is available for download as an attachment to this blog post.

The sample provider has undergone some minor changes in moving from Beta 2 to Beta 3. The biggest such in the sample provider is due to changes in the provider manifest. To help provider writers better understand how provider manifests are used in Beta 3, we've included the provider manifest spec along with the sample provider.

As with previous builds, the sample provider wraps System.Data.SqlClient and demonstrates the functionality a provider needs to add in order to support the ADO.NET Entity Framework. The solution that contains the sample provider also includes a modified version of the Entity Framework Query Samples project. The modified project uses the sample provider rather than System.Data.SqlClient.

You'll also find a new project in the solution - ExtendedProvider. This project leverages the sample provider and the Data Designer Extensibility (DDEX) that's part of Visual Studio 2008 to demonstrate how to make an ADO.NET provider available through the various Visual Studio designers, including the ADO.NET Entity Framework Designer.

If you're writing an ADO.NET provider for the Entity Framework and you're not already in touch with me, please drop me a line at David (dot) Sceppa (at) microsoft (dot) com. Enjoy!

Sample ADO.NET Entity Framework Provider - Beta 2

David Sceppa — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 03:13:00 GMT

We've updated the sample provider to work with Beta 2 of the ADO.NET Entity Framework. The sample provider is available for download as an attachment to this blog post.

The sample provider has undergone some minor changes in moving from Beta 1 to Beta 2.

The DbProviderServices class has been enhanced to support returning the mapping file that the EdmGen.exe command-line tool uses to retrieve schema information from the database. This new approach leverages the Entity Framework's mapping functionality and the provider's SQL-gen layer to map conceptual table, view, column, etc. schema information to the database's actual system tables. The end result is that EdmGen.exe can retrieve database schema information in a provider agnostic fasion.

Also, the SQL generation layer within the sample provider has been enhanced to support the new canonical function capabilities added in Beta 2 of the ADO.NET Entity Framework.

If you're writing an ADO.NET provider for Orcas and you're not already in touch with me, please drop me a line at David (dot) Sceppa (at) microsoft (dot) com. Enjoy!

David Sceppa's Ramblings : Sample Provider

Sample ADO.NET Entity Framework Provider - Beta 3

Sample ADO.NET Entity Framework Provider - Beta 2