We have a project driven by database design. And when someone makes a db modification, I would like to have my EF code updated. So, I was wondering if there is a way to programmatically generate EF source code given a database connection string. I then plan on attaching this generated EF source code to my solution. I don't need an exact solution right now, but if anyone can point me in the right direction, that would be great.
Thanks!
You could query the SQL Server system tables and generate code that way, perhaps using XML and XSLT or T4 templates.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189082(v=sql.105).aspx
There are three approaches to Entity Framework Development: Database First, Model First, and Code First. You are using Database first.
Entity Framework Development Approaches
I recomend Julia Lerman's book Programming Entity Framework 2nd Edition.
The tutorial I've linked to is for Code First but it has a nice introduction to Repository and Unit Of Work Patterns which you will want to know when using any of the three approaches.
Related
I just noticed new Entity Framework Core does not provide .edmx generation any more. But I was loving this because it helps me to focus on application logic, not always create class and do migration things to update database. Now my question is- Does Microsoft have any future plan to add .edmx on Entity Framework Core? Or its permanently gone from .Entity Framework Core? I searched over internet but didn’t found any good answer for that.
I have not found any justification of this decision though I suppose this discussion can be found at least in some podcasts with EF team members interviews. In my opinion, this feature simply didn't deserve enough attention from developers and it didn't worth it to continue its support. Most people, as far as I'm concerned, moved towards code-first approach. You can concentrate on application logic even better with it, not creating any data objects in advance, but evolving your data structure together with business logic objects. That's what I can say based on my experience. Try it and maybe you will love it the same!
Edmx is not there in Entity Framework Core. It only supports a code-first approach. It produces entity class files instead of an edmx file. You can use dotnet ef dbcontext scaffold, it scaffolds a DbContext and entity types for a database.
You can refer the document to start with the already existing database.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/get-started/aspnetcore/existing-db
If you are on heavy load complex database and developing application using this database continuously then there is no easier way than just press refresh button in .edmx file and get your new models ready to use. I think .edmx idea still deserves development for future. Lot of solution already made with it and continuing with .edmx
In my recent interview, my interviewer we asked about approaches in entity Framework I told them code first and table first. Is there any approaches pending.
We can use three type of entity framework approach as per project requirement.
Database First:
An existing database can be used
Code can be auto-generated.
Extensible using partial classes/ T4 templates
The developer can update the database manually
There is a very good designer, which sync with the underlining database
http://www.entityframeworktutorial.net/database-first-with-entity-framework.aspx
Code First:
There is full control of the model from the Code; no EDMX/designer
No manual intervention to DB is required
The database is used for data only
http://www.entityframeworktutorial.net/code-first/what-is-code-first.aspx
Model First:
Good support with EDMX designer
We can visually create the database model
EF generates the Code and database script
Extensible through partial classes
I'm working on a project using entity framework 6. At the start of the project I was a beginner with EF and choose to build with EF model first.
Now the model is quite big and I’m thinking about performance and ease to change the model without dropping the databases every time.
I thinking about switching to code first.
Given that model first has already generated all the classes I need and context, I don't think it's that difficult to switch to code first.
Nevertheless I would like to know what would be the best way to do that and if there will be real advantage in term of performance and ease of model modification.
Thanks for your help,
EF 6.1 tooling now allows creating a Code First model from the database. Here is a short video and a walkthrough showing the functionality. You can download the latest EF tooling from the download center.
The code created by EDMX is not same as Fluent API although it is closed to Data Annotations.
If you would like to work with Fluent API, you can use Entity Framework Power Tools Beta 4 to generate to Fluent API from Database.
I writing data access layer using ado.net entity. But I want do it by manual (not generate code by tool).
I need help how to do it, how many step and example.
You may want to have a look at Entity Framework Code First. See EF 4.1 Code First Walkthrough
I have a sql database and I want to create a class for each table. I think a tool exists that allows me to extract information from a sql database and transform it into classes like "DataTable" or "DataRow". Afterwards, I could use those object in dataset.
Instead of Data Table and Data sets you can use your own objects to represent data in your applications and to do so you can use some persistence frameworks and OR mappers (object relational mappers).For example you can use "Linq to Sql","Microsoft Entity framework" or NHibernate.
There are some code generation tools that let you generate code for these frameworks.
MyGeneration and CodeSmith as two of them that I know.
Maybe T4 (Text Template Transformation Toolkit) ist your friend...
There is a whole world of tools out there that do things like this. It's called ORM. Josh mentioned Subsonic, which is a great free tool. There is also the Entity Framework which is part of Visual Studio 2008 SP1. If you would like an even better tool, the one I suggest you use is LLBLGen.
Hope this helps!
I'm the creator of SqlSharpener which is a light-weight tool that will parse your *.sql files (like in an SSDT project) and create DTO objects and stored procedure wrappers at design-time using T4 templates.
How about good old Linq? Start here.
We are moving in the direction of Entity Framework, but we are taking our time because we dont find EF ready for prime time and Linq2Sql is more or less a poor mans/hobbyists ORM tool. At present we use a combination of a custom homegrown framework (The Kinetic Framework) and Fluent NHibernate.
An option if you want to write your own code generator would be to use SMO objects if you are using MS Sql Server 2005/2008 and pull the information out of the Table/Stored Procedure objects.