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Next EF Release Plans

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The information in this post is out of date.

Visit msdn.com/data/ef for the latest information on current and past releases of EF.

 

We recently posted about our plans to rationalize how we name, distribute and talk about releases. The feedback we have heard so far is confirming that we are headed down the right track. Following the plans we shared, the next installment of Entity Framework will be EF 4.2, this post will share the details about our plans for that release.

 

What’s Changing?

When we released ‘EF 4.1 Update 1’ we introduced a bug that affects third party EF providers using a generic class for their provider factory implementation, things such as WrappingProviderFactory<TProvider>. We missed this during our testing and it was reported by some of our provider writers after we had shipped. If you hit this bug you will get a FileLoadException stating “The given assembly name or codebase was invalid”. This bug is blocking some third party providers from working with ‘EF 4.1 Update 1’ and the only workaround for folks using an affected provider is to ask them to remain on EF 4.1. So, we will be shipping this version to fix it, this will be the only change between ‘EF 4.1 Update 1’ and ‘EF 4.2’. Obviously a single bug fix wouldn’t normally warrant bumping the minor version, but we also wanted to take the opportunity to get onto the semantic versioning path rather than calling the release ‘EF 4.1 Update 2’.

 

When is it Shipping?

One thing we learnt from ‘EF 4.1 Update 1’ is that we should always ship a beta, no matter how small the changes. We are aiming to have a beta available next week. Provided no additional problems are reported we plan to ship the RTM version in September.

 

Where is it Shipping?

The beta will be available as the EntityFramework.Preview NuGet package. The RTM version will be available as an update to the EntityFramework NuGet package. We will also make the T4 templates for using DbContext with Model First & Database First available on Visual Studio Gallery. We will no longer be shipping an installer on Microsoft Download Center.

 

What’s Not in This Release?

As covered earlier this release is just a small update to the DbContext & Code First runtime. The features that were included in EF June 2011 CTP are part of the core Entity Framework runtime and will ship at a later date. Our Migrations work is continuing and we are working to get the next alpha in your hands soon.

 

Rowan Miller
Program Manager
ADO.NET Entity Framework

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2011
    This sounds really clean and great. I really believe this is going in the right direction. With what I read here about versioning and the way you deal with feedbacks for CF Migrations, we (or at least I) really feel listened and valued, and it feels GOOD. Thank you.

  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2011
    When is EF going to have support for SQL Azure Federations? The only post related to this on the web is: social.msdn.microsoft.com/.../fa2532d7-dbfe-4d18-b5b3-361cfcd610f2 But according to this post, the USE FEDERATION command throws error with Entity Framework.

  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2011
    I'm excited with the news features! :DD

  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2011
    It's good to know you're resolving the 3rd party provider issue, and you will be releasing beta versions in the future to avoid such issues again.

  • Anonymous
    October 27, 2011
    This all sounds great. But where is the beta that was due to be available 'next week'..?

  • Anonymous
    October 27, 2011
    OK sorry found it. blogs.msdn.com/.../ef-4-2-release-candidate-available.aspx