Tomislav Bronzin [RD&MVP]

ADO.NET Entity Framework Beta 3 & Tools CTP 2

If you are interesting to se what's new in ADO.NET Entity Framework and what Tools are available, go download the Entity Framework Beta 3 runtime and the Entity Framework Tools CTP 2.
This release works with the RTM releases of Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5.

What's new? See below:

• Much quicker object query execution
• Simpler generated SQL
• Faster view generation

• Public, serializable EntityKey property on EntityReference
• ApplyPropertyChanges
• Attach on EntityReference
• Improvements to EntityKey serialization

• Partial methods in code generation for property changing and property changed events
• Load with MergeOption
• AssociationChanged Event

• Additional canonical functions for LINQ to Entities
• Apply operator elimination (makes more operations work in SQL Server 2000 and other databases)
• Compiled LINQ query
• ToTraceString() method on ObjectQuery<T> and EntityCommand to facilitate debugging

• Connection management refinements
• Provider interface allows better reasoning about primitive types

• Generate a model from a database with the wizard and display it on the designer surface
• Edit conceptual model properties (e.g. namespace, alias)
• Embed Entity Framework metadata artifacts (CSDL/MSL/SSDL) in the output assembly or copy them to the output directory without worrying about the connection string
• Cut/Copy/Paste entities and properties
• Undo/redo support
• Layout and control visual aspects of the design surface and persist changes
• Add, delete, and edit entities, scalar properties, associations, and inheritance
• Automatic set management
• Automatic navigation property management
• Control concurrency settings of properties
• Validate model and mappings using the Entity Framework Runtime
• Double-click on validation errors in the VS error window to take you to the right place in the designer where you can fix them
• Automatic entity connection management in App/Web Config when .edmx file is renamed/moved in Solution Explorer
• UI changes based on usability feedback, simpler context menu layout and icons

• View mappings for a C-Side Entity or Association
• View/Edit mappings using stored procedures (insert/update/delete)
• Rename or delete C-Side objects without worrying about mapping
• Map an EntityType to multiple tables
• Apply multiple conditions to a table mapping
• Map associations
• Automatic generation of conditions and referential constraints on associations
• Map an Entity hierarchy to a single table (TPH mapping)
• Map an Entity hierarchy to multiple tables (TPT mapping)
• Create and map abstract entity types in your model

• Understand and visualize the model in a tree hierarchy
• Create, update and delete FunctionImports in your model
• Update model and mappings if tables or columns in the database change
• Navigate to nodes in the model browser from entities and properties on the designer surface

• item template, model generation wizard, EntityDeploy MSBUILD task and Entity Framework validation on build

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