Just a quick word to point out that the most recent version of the ADO.NET Entity Framework Feature Community Technology Preview 4 was released recently (on the 13th of July) and is worth a look if you are using the Entity Framework in any meaningful fashion.
Check back soon, we’ll have some notes on the good, the bad and the mischievous features of this CTP.
You can also check out news from the team blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2010/07/14/ctp4announcement.aspx
Some notes lifted from the official announcement:
Productivity Improvements
We recently posted here about a set of productivity improvements we have been working on to simplify the process of writing data access code with the Entity Framework. CTP4 includes the core API surface and functionality that is described in the post. We’d love to hear your feedback on this simplified experience, be sure to check out the walkthrough.
Code First
Updates and enhancements to Code First include:
Moved to the System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration namespace
Refactored ContextBuilder into ModelBuilder and DbModel
ModelBuilder is a high level component that lets you tweak a model, ModelBuilder then produces an immutable DbModel that can be used to construct a context. In the future DbModel will become a fundamental component of the EF stack as we look at other ways to build models beyond ModelBuilder.More Model Discovery Conventions
We posted details about the complete set of conventions we plan to support here
In CTP4 we have implemented the following conventions:
Primary Key
Relationship Inverse
Foreign Key
Pluralization of Table Names
Support for Data Annotations
We posted details about all the Data Annotations we plan to support here
The annotations supported in CTP4 are:
Key
StringLength
ConcurrencyCheck
Required
Timestamp
DataMember
RelatedTo
MaxLength
StoreGenerated
Parameterless overload of MapSingleType()
This allows you to configure table names without having to explicitly map every propertyImproved Relationship Configuration API
We’ve made some changes to the Fluent API methods used to configure relationships to make the API more explicit and intuitive. These changes are covered in the Code First Walkthrough .Road Map
We are still working through the best ship vehicle to deliver a go-live release for these features. Your feedback has had a big impact on the Code First feature so far and we want to be careful not to lock down the API too quickly. That said we are getting consistent asks for a go-live for Code First and we are working to get to an RTM in the earliest feasible ship vehicle.
