Entity Framework 4.0 Recipes provides an exhaustive collection of ready-to-use code solutions for Entity Framework, Microsoft’s vision for the future of data access. Entity Framework is a model-centric data access platform with an ocean of new concepts and patterns for developers to learn. With this book, you will learn the core concepts of Entity Framework through a broad range of clear and concise solutions to everyday data access tasks. Armed with this experience, you will be ready to dive deep into Entity Framework, experiment with new approaches, and develop ways to solve even the most difficult data access challenges. If you are a developer who likes to learn by example, then this is the right book for you.

• Gives ready-to-use, real-world recipes to help you with everyday tasks
• Provides guideposts for learning core concepts
• Maps out key landmarks for experimenting with your own solutions

What you’ll learn

• Solve the most common data access problems using Entity Framework.
• Implement basic data access design patterns using Entity Framework.
• Seamlessly model your solutions across both code and data.
• Improve data access performance.
• Use data binding to simplify and reduce your code.
• Leverage the recipes to empower your own exploration of Entity Framework.

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone learning Microsoft’s Entity Framework—Microsoft’s primary data access platform. If you have ever struggled to learn a new technology, programming model, or way of doing something, you know how helpful simple, real-world examples can be. For the beginning developer, this book provides concrete examples for common data access tasks. For developers with experience with previous Microsoft access platforms, this book provides a task-by-task mapping between previous approaches and the patterns used in Entity Framework.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started With Entity Framework
2. Entity Data Modeling Fundamentals
3. Querying an Entity Data Model
4. Using Entity Framework in ASP.NET
5. Loading Entities and Navigation Properties
6. Beyond the Basics with Modeling and Inheritance
7. Working with Object Services
8. Plain Old CLR Objects
9. Using the Entity Framework in N-Tier Applications
10. Stored Procedures
11. Functions
12. Customizing Entity Framework Objects
13. Improving Performance
14. Concurrency
15. Advanced Modeling