Entity Framework Articles

High level overview of the Entity Framework.

Provides an introduction to the design goals and components of the Entity Framework.

This is an introduction to the Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework, it covers the basics that will help you get started.

In this whitepaper, Julie Lerman walks through creating a simple MVC 3 application using Entity Framework's model first workflow and how to use features introduced in Entity Framework 4.1 DbContext API to write the data access code.

In this whitepaper, Julie Lerman walks through creating a simple MVC 3 application using Entity Framework's code first technology to describe the classes and manage all data access.

In this whitepaper, Julie Lerman walks through creating a simple MVC 3 application using Entity Framework's database first workflow and how to use features introduced in Entity Framework 4.1 DbContext API to write data access code.

A 12-part series that goes deep into EF 4.1’s new API

Entity Framework 4.1 provides a great variety of validation features that can feed through to a user interface for client-side validation or be used for server-side validation. When using code first, you can specify validations using annotation or fluent API configurations. Additional validations, and more complex, can be specified in code and will work whether your model hails from code first, model first or database first.

This article focuses on using DataAnnotations (in the System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations namespace) to configure your classes – highlighting the most commonly needed configurations. DataAnnotations are also understood by a number of .NET applications, such as ASP.NET MVC which allows these applications to leverage the same annotations for client-side validations.

An Entity Relational Mapping technology’s primary function is mapping between a relational schema and an object model. This article describes how to take control of the mapping capabilities of the Entity Framework.

In this article, you'll learn how to create an Entity Data Model directly from a SQL Azure database as well as create a SQL Azure database using the EDM Designer's model-first feature.

In this paper we'll look at the new Entity Framework 4 that ships with .NET Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2010. I'll discuss how you can approach it's usage from a model-first perspective with the premise that you can drive database design from a model and build both your database as well as your data access layer declaratively from this model. The model contains the description of your data represented as entities and relationships providing a powerful approach to working with ADO.NET, creating a separation of concerns through an abstraction between a model definition and its implementation.

This paper will discuss how the Entity Framework uses T4 Templates to generate custom code from an ADO.NET Entity Data Model (EDM), and assumes the reader is already familiar with the Entity Framework’s API and designer. We’ll begin with an overview of the T4 technology and see how the technology works. We’ll also look at how we can programmatically consume metadata from an EDM. In the end, we’ll combine these two pieces of knowledge to customize a T4 template.

This white paper describes and demonstrates how to write testable code with the ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010. This paper does not try to focus on a specific testing methodology, like test-driven design (TDD) or behavior-driven design (BDD). Instead this paper will focus on how to write code that uses the ADO.NET Entity Framework yet remains easy to isolate and test in an automated fashion. We’ll look at common design patterns that facilitate testing in data access scenarios and see how to apply those patterns when using the framework. We’ll also look at specific features of the framework to see how those features can work in testable code

This article demonstrates how to easily drag and drop entities onto a WPF form and use those forms right away. It also shows how you can take more control over how queries are executed over the database and easily allow users to edit that data.

In this whitepaper you will learn a variety of ways to leverage your existing (or even new) stored procedures when using an Entity Data Model and the Entity Framework in your .NET applications, regardless of the back-end database.

This topic discusses the object context class and the types of entities supported by the Entity Framework .

Using a sample weblog application (MyBlog), I will explore the new features in both EF and WCF Data Services and explain how the technologies work together to simplify the way data is modeled and consumed.

Entity Framework improvements in Microsoft .NET 4 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

This article discusses the philosophy behind the Entity Framework, the Entity Data Model and querying, mapping, and n-tier development.

Eliminate the impedance mismatch for both applications and data services like reporting, analysis, and replication offered as part of the SQL Server product by raising the level of abstraction from the logical (relational) level to the conceptual (entity) level.

Frequently asked questions about the ADO.NET Entity Framework

This topic describes performance characteristics of the ADO.NET Entity Framework and provides some considerations to help improve the performance of Entity Framework applications.

This blog series outlines a way of combining work with Entity Framework and agile methodology.