Introducing the ADO.NET 4.0 Entity Framework

In July 2008 Microsoft released the first version of the ADO.NET Entity Framework as part of the Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 as well as the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. At the time, Microsoft LINQ (Language Integrated Query) and LINQ to SQL had been out for a while and were gaining a lot of attention. Both the Entity Framework and LINQ to SQL showed that Microsoft was very serious about improving developer productivity, by providing an infrastructure for managing relational data as objects and programming against a conceptual model instead of directly against a storage schema. While Microsoft did its best to tout the Entity Framework, it went somewhat unnoticed out of the gate, primarily due to the rise in popularity of LINQ to SQL and the misunderstanding from the public of what the Entity Framework really was.

By the time this book hits the shelves, Visual Studio 2010 with the .NET Framework 4.0 and ADO.NET Entity Framework will have just been released or will be very shortly. Yet, I still get questions from people wondering what the Entity Framework is or how it differs from LINQ to SQL. Thus, the reason for this book is twofold; first, it will answer the question of what the Entity Framework is and why Microsoft is dedicating a lot of resources and energy to its development, advancement, and developer acceptance. Second, it will discuss all the new features and enhancements that will be available in ADO.NET 4.0, which will be released with Visual Studio 2010. This book is intended to address two types of developers: those who have never worked with the Entity Framework before, and those who have but are looking at what the ADO.NET 4.0 Entity Framework has to offer. As such, it will cover all aspects of the Entity Framework and, where appropriate, point out the new features and enhancements found in the EF 4.0.

The Entity Framework does not, nor is intended to, replace existing ADO.NET data access technologies; rather, it is an enhancement to ADO.NET, providing developers an augmented approach to accessing data, letting them work with a conceptual model, and thus enabling developers to deal with data as objects and properties, a concept already familiar to them.