Object Relational Designer (O/R Designer)

The Object Relational Designer (O/R Designer) provides a visual design surface for creating LINQ to SQL [LINQ to SQL] entity classes and associations (relationships) that are based on objects in a database. In other words, the O/R Designer is used to create an object model in an application that maps to objects in a database. It also generates a strongly-typed DataContext that is used to send and receive data between the entity classes and the database. The O/R Designer also provides functionality to map stored procedures and functions to DataContext methods for returning data and populating entity classes. Finally, the O/R Designer provides the ability to design inheritance relationships between entity classes.

Note

The O/R Designer currently supports only SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, and SQL Server Express databases. Although O/R Designer does not support SQL Server Compact 3.5, LINQ to SQL does. For more information, see SQL Server Compact and LINQ to SQL. For information about obtaining SQL Server Express, see the Obtaining SQL Server Express section in the How to: Install Sample Databases topic.

In This Section

Reference

System.Linq

System.Data.Linq

Frequently Asked Questions

LINQ to SQL [LINQ to SQL]

LINQ to ADO.NET

LINQ General Programming Guide

PAVE What's New for Data Application Development in Visual Studio 2012

Accessing Data in Visual Studio