Entity Framework for .NET Architecture


Entity Framework is a concept to allow the database entitiesin the form of class files. This would avoid ground work of creating class files manually for each and every entity in the database. These entities can be further manipulated using LINQ queries. Data that are fetched would act as strong typed objects. Entity is general term can be referred as Table , View or Stored Procedure. An object in an object context of entity framework is an entity type representation of data in the data source.

Ways to Query a conceptual Model



  • LINQ to Entities: Provides Language-Integrated Query(LINQ) support for quering entity types that are defined in a conceptual model

  • Entity SQL: A storage-indpendent dialect of SQL that works directly with entities in the conceptual model and that supports Entity data Model concepts.

  • Query Builder Method: These methods enable you to construct Entity SQL queries using LINQ-style query methods.



Advantages of Entity Framework


Lazy Loading:


Entity framework allows entities to be loaded automatically on demand


Change-Tracking:


Facilitating the developer to make a comparison between the current version and the previous version of the object to avoid concurrency problems.


Model First Development:


Model class files are created against entities with which all the operations like DDL,DML are performed.


Persistence Ignorance:


Ability to track and persist changes to entities.



Entity Framework Latest Release and Features





  • Enums

  • Auto Compilation of Linq Query

  • Table-valued Functions

  • Spatial types support


Comments

Author: Imran11 Jul 2013 Member Level: Gold   Points : 2

Lazy Loading is the best feature a ORM can provide.
Entity frame work comes with all the possible solutions to challenges a developer face.
I have been suing Entity Framework with MVC3 and MVC4 and it has been a great time saving framework

Author: Phagu Mahato25 Oct 2013 Member Level: Gold   Points : 8

Thanks for submitting amazing article on title Entity Framework for .NET Architecture.

The Entity Framework could be a set of technologies in ADO.NET that support the event of data-oriented software system applications. Architects and developers of data-oriented applications have struggled with the requirement to realize 2 terribly totally different objectives. they need to model the entities, relationships, and logic of the business issues they're finding, and that they should conjointly work with the info engines accustomed store and retrieve the info. the info might span multiple storage systems, every with its own protocols; even applications that job with one storage system should balance the wants of the storage system against the wants of writing economical and rectifiable application code.

The Entity Framework permits developers to figure with information within the type of domain-specific objects and properties, like Students and Student addresses, while not having to concern themselves with the underlying info tables and columns wherever this information is hold on. With the Entity Framework, developers will work on the next level of abstraction after they manage information, and might produce and maintain data-oriented applications with less code than in ancient applications. as a result of the Entity Framework could be a element of the .NET Framework


Sample code with Entity Framework
public partial class Students
{
public const string EntitySetName = "Students";

[Browsable(false)]
public string CatName
{
get
{
string res = "";
if (this.Cat != null)
{
res = this.Cat.Name;
}
else if (this.CatReference != null)
{
this.CatReference.Load();
if (this.Cat != null)
{
res = this.Cat.Name;
}
}
return res;
}
set
{
this.CatReference.EntityKey =
new EntityKey("StudentsEntities.Cat", "CatId", value);
}
}
Video Articles of .net framework at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/data/jj590134



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