10-4 Episode 15: Model-First Development with the Entity Framework 4.0

Posted By: Jonathan Carter | Apr 8th @ 4:05 PM | 59,966 Views | 17 Comments

In this episode of 10-4, we introduce a new tooling enhancement coming with Visual Studio 2010 and the Entity Framework 4.0: model-first development. This feature allows you to create your Entity Data Model from scratch and then generate a database from it, as opposed to reverse engineering your EDM from an existing database.

For more 10-4 episodes, be sure to visit:
http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4

Visual Studio Topic Area on Channel 9:
http://channel9.msdn.com/VisualStudio

Visual Studio 2010 CTP VPC:
http://tinyurl.com/GetCTP

10-4! Over and out!
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#May 1st @ 6:11 PM
bertnz
bertnz
Hi folks,

Thought I'd mention an ORM product I've been using - Mindscape LightSpeed - which has provided model first and database first support for quite some time. It has a model designer that integrates directly into VS, supports schema round tripping in both directions and heaps more. It doesn't support such a rich conceptual modelling capability as EF but I find it fits what I need. Also supports 9 database types.

Just thought i'd make some LightSpeed-specific comparisons with posts here -

@PerfectPhase You can write a query similar to that using LightSpeed. UnitOfWork.Remove() takes a query object that can be as complex as you wish and will delete all records that match without returning data to the client.

@foreachdev You can configure the LightSpeed validation in the designer to not allow persistence if a field is over a given length. If an entity has a field that had 21 characters the .IsValid flag would be false and the errors collection would supply a description of the issue to present to the user if desired. Change scripts are supported in a rough manner but this is getting much tidier in the next version I hear.

While we wait for EF 2 to pop out you could have a look at LightSpeed Express here.

#May 12th @ 3:52 AM
santosh_b
santosh_b
Benjy

.NET Framework 3.0 was released before the VS23008 IDE. Some extensions were added to VS2005 for WCF and WF but you could always use notepad Smiley

#May 20th @ 2:08 PM
Rudsen
Rudsen
Andi

It's nice to see that this concept will be improved. But i think you should have a deep look at the extended data types of Microsoft Dynamics AX. That's a great thing i currently miss in Visual Studio.

#Jun 8th @ 4:46 PM
matthargett
matthargett

can we see how to use the API-level aspects of this framework? preferrably in a test-driven fashion? this is what I really need to see to compare this against the Rails style of development. pointing and clicking all over the UI doesn't really do it for me, I'm a keyboard-oriented person.

I really love the 10-4 videos, especially the ones that JC does. Keep up the good work!

#Jul 7th @ 11:00 AM
LostInTangent
LostInTangent

LINQ To SQL is getting quit a few improvements in the .NET 4 timeframe. You can see a pretty comprehensive list here: http://damieng.com/blog/2009/06/01/linq-to-sql-changes-in-net-40

As far as the Entity Framework being the preferred option for data access moving forward, yes, that is the case.

#Jul 7th @ 11:01 AM
LostInTangent
LostInTangent

Thanks for the heads up bertnz. The ORM space certainly has lots of great options.

#Jul 7th @ 11:03 AM
LostInTangent
LostInTangent

I'll definitely be digging into the code much more moving forward. This episode was just an initial introduction to the high level changes coming. I'll make sure to provide plenty of good detail/usage examples Smiley

#Jul 7th @ 11:07 AM
LostInTangent
LostInTangent

Sounds like what you want it to use Dynamics as your data store/platform, and then place the Entity Framework over it so that you can program against its dynamic entities. If so, the guys over at ADX Studio (http://www.adxstudio.com/) are working on something that handles this very nicely.

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