Logo Questions Linux Laravel Mysql Ubuntu Git Menu
 

Entity Framework 4 / POCO - Where to start? [closed]

These articles might be of interest...the series really gets into the advantages and disadvantages of a POCO approach.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2009/05/21/poco-in-the-entity-framework-part-1-the-experience.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2009/05/28/poco-in-the-entity-framework-part-2-complex-types-deferred-loading-and-explicit-loading.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2009/06/10/poco-in-the-entity-framework-part-3-change-tracking-with-poco.aspx

In these articles the author mentions future articles that describe best practices in implementing Repository and Unit of Work patterns, but I can't find them. These articles are well written and I'd like to read more from this author.


I've come across this: http://blogs.msdn.com/adonet/pages/feature-ctp-walkthrough-code-only-for-the-entity-framework.aspx

Which gives you step-by-step for code first. It does require the CTP 3 for EF4 (Download linked from that article).

This is pretty close to what I was after (although ideally a solution that doesn't rely on a CTP would've been preferable)


I do recommend that you take a half hour or so and generate a stable EF1.0 model in your current VS. That will get you a long way towards understanding the metaphors and concepts of EF 4.0. Just whip up a simple Customer, Products and Orders db...I recommend doing your own and not using Northwind.


This is a great question, but tough to keep up to date as Entity Framework continues to mature. Probably the best place to start that will stay up to date into the future is Microsoft's EF page.

A few other links I found helpful while Googling (focused on Code First):

  • Getting Started with EF using MVC Tutorial
  • Code First Development with Entity Framework Video from TechEd 2010
  • Scott Gu's post on Code-First Development with EF4
  • MSDN Entity Framework 4.1 and 4.2

You can take Lerman's book or something simplier like "Pro linq object-relational mapping". All concepts are still the same with POCO, except that now you should disable code generation and map directly to your model in edmx csdl (or create your own POCO generator). All mapping principles are the same also. Anyhow in run time you are working with proxy which is derived from your POCO object so you should concern about interception support (virtualization of your POCO properties).