Entity Framework Beta 2

With the release of Visual Studio 2008 (Orcas) Beta 2, there have been a number of questions around the timing and availability of the Entity Framework.

As previously announced, the ADO.NET Entity Framework will be shipped as a small, incremental update on top of Visual Studio 2008. As promised, we will have Beta releases of the Entity Framework that correspond to the Beta 2 and RTM releases of Orcas. A Beta 2 release of the Entity Framework that works with the recent release of Orcas Beta 2 will be available later this month, along with a list of the new features available in that release.

Please check back regularly for updates.

Elisa Flasko
Program Manager, Data Programmability

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 05, 2007
  Will the final Entity Framework be released together with Visual Studio 2008, or it will come after the main release?

• Anonymous
  August 06, 2007
  Wouldn't you like to provide a link for the documentation to come by the distibution so that we already now may begin to look forward and mentally prepare a bit for it? Best regards, Henrik Dahl

• Anonymous
  August 08, 2007
  Please don't drop O/R mapping functionality again(remember object spaces), this is really a much needed feature ! So please make this a BIG priority on the ship list, this will help small businesses so much !

• Anonymous
  August 08, 2007
  EF came with Orcas Beta 1.. I am assuming it came with Orcas Beta 2 also but is broken? Or perhaps it did not dome with Beta 2, and we need to wait until later this month... I wish you guys had a nitely build/download.. that way we don't have to wait until you guys test it before providing the download.. :P

• Anonymous
  August 09, 2007
  To persist classes with highly complex inheritance structures I wrote a little layer which I use (in development environment) until ADO.NET Entity Framework is released. Thought it might be of some interest since it’s built on top of Microsoft SQL Server and ADO.NET and the .NET Framework. To migrate later on shouldn’t be a problem… http://www.signumsoft.com/objectdatabase/ (I put now some documentation up)

• Anonymous
  August 09, 2007
  Note: Some of the posts referenced in this post (!) are likely to be more out of date than others but...

• Anonymous
  August 16, 2007
  Any news on expected release date..?

• Anonymous
  August 16, 2007
  How does EF relate to Linq for SQL? Is it the same? Is it another way to do the same thing?

• Anonymous
  August 16, 2007
  Danny- Mike Pizzo listed some of hte points of comparison in the comments of a thread in the MSDN Forums. I highlighted some of that in my blog along with a link to the forum thread: http://www.thedatafarm.com/blog/2007/07/30/MikePizzoOnLINQToSQLVsEntityFramework.aspx

• Anonymous
  August 19, 2007
  Need to make a decision on using LINQ to Entities or not.  Do you support One-To-Many mapping.  Multiple tables into single Conceptual table.   I dont think that support was there for beta 1. Thanks, Andy

• Anonymous
  August 21, 2007
  Are you still on track for a new end-of-month beta?

• Anonymous
  August 21, 2007
  I'm new to Micorosoft technology.  What is the difference/similarities between Entity Data Model and SharePoint Business Data Catalog?

• Anonymous
  August 22, 2007
  Exciting times :) Nearly the end of the month, just in time for a new prototype I have to build, before settling on a technology and sticking to it for some years.

• Anonymous
  August 26, 2007
  A few days left in the month...any update (even if it's just an admirably honest "we've slipped a couple of weeks"...)?

• Anonymous
  August 26, 2007
  May be some new features are too strong to implement in some days? may better to inform people what to wait and how much ? Or encouraging promise to delive beta2 in august seems become like some false. (people in nerves)

• Anonymous
  August 27, 2007
  Relax, there's still 5 days left in august, including today... just wait ~desu.

• Anonymous
  August 27, 2007
  Hehe, we're just holding you to your promise... ;) Can't wait to see what you guys have in stock for us in the next release. Ship it, ship it, ship it! :)

• Anonymous
  September 11, 2007
  Today I started investigating the feasibility of using the Entity Framework (beta 2) in our vertical applications. My initial findings are that the Entity Framework is insufficient to replace our current entities.

1. System.Data.Objects.ObjectContext has public constructors. In our n-Tier architecture, we require that entities only be created by authorized entity factories. Currenty, the Entity Framework generates entities with public constructors that allow other layers and parts of the application to circumvent the authorized entity factories. There should be a way to generate entities that do not have public constructors. Likewise, there should be a way to hide the public SaveChanges() method so that workflow and/or business layers are not circumvented by users of the entity.
2. A (column) property setter has code which raises a property changing event. Historically, the property changing event allowed event handlers to validate and alter the value being written to the entity, but the EDM generated classes do not support this.  For example, DataSets allowed event handlers to set the ProposedValue property of the PropertyChangingEventArgs object.  This feature allowed an architecture where workflows (in one or more layers) could hook the property changing event of an entity and add workflow logic and data validation when a value was being written to the entity. In other words, consider the case where column x is being set on the entity, and a workflow (in another layer) that has hooked the property changing event alters the value that is written to conform to the workflow’s rules. Instead of generating:        public string Title        {            set            {                this.ReportPropertyChanging("Title");                this._Title = StructuralObject.SetValidValue(value, true, 255);                this.ReportPropertyChanged("Title");            }        } We would need something like:        public string Title        {            set            {                PropertyChangingEventArgs eventArgs = new PropertyChangingEventArgs("Title", value);                this.ReportPropertyChanging("Title", eventArgs);                this._Title = StructuralObject.SetValidValue(eventArgs.ProposedValue, true, 255);                this.ReportPropertyChanged("Title");            }        }

• Anonymous
  May 30, 2008
  Good afternoon, We are currently using a vfp application designed in an n-tier state. There is a client. A middle layer which consists of a web server (for receiving and processing requests) and a back-end sqlserver 2005 database. The challenge at hand is to convert this code to .net c# environment. My question is this: Is the entity framework usable to enable us to keep this middle layer of a web server which listens for requests, passes them to a back end and then gets back the result. This result is then captured by the client. We absolutely need this n-tier design because our business has many remote locations which change the data in the system. Any thoughts on using the ef in an n-tier environment would be appreciated. I can be reached via email at rwatson@ogleveeltd.com. thanks

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  July 27, 2009
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