Linq to XSD processing

Question

For Typed Xml to Linq processing ,do i need to download Linq to XSD alpha installer or is it available in VS 2008 ? (I am using VS 2008 Professional edition).

Answer 1

The direct answer to your question: yes, you need to download the installer as it is not built-in to VS2008. freggel is correct that the project is no longer being developed -- but it is still useful!

LINQ-to-XSD has some distinct advantages over LINQ-to-Objects and LINQ-to-XML. I was so intrigued by it that in my recent 3-part series on meta-queries I devoted the whole third article to comparing and contrasting these three LINQ technologies. I reproduce below the executive summary showing that LINQ-to-XSD comes out on top (apologies for the double negatives in the table but it allows one to look for the preponderance of "Yes" answers as a measure of goodness).

Characteristic                     LINQ-to-Objects   LINQ-to-XML   LINQ-to-XSD
Strongly typed                         Yes               No            Yes
No explicit container coding needed    No                Yes           Yes
No code needed for slurping XML        No                Yes           Yes
Easier to read                         Yes               No            Yes
.NET support                         Released         Released      Alpha stage
.NET requirement                       2.0               3.5           3.5

The third article provides a complete implementation of a demo project in each of the three LINQ technologies so you can see exactly how they fare against each other. Here are the links:

A Unified Approach to Multi-DataBase Query Templates (September 30, 2009) Part 1 of my 3-part series on the QueryPicker control.

How to build a Query Template Explorer (October 23, 2009) Part 2 presents the details to integrate the QueryPicker into applications both simple and complex, with screenshots and code samples.

Using Three Flavors of LINQ To Populate a TreeView (December 2, 2009) Part 3, for LINQ lovers, provides a treatment of how the QueryPicker populates its TreeView from XML using LINQ to Objects, LINQ to XML, and LINQ to XSD.

Answer 2

Apparently Microsoft killed the project, but open-sourced it and now it is on Codeplex:

http://linqtoxsd.codeplex.com