TechnoVilla Blog

Entity Framework Toolkits & Extensions

Source code libraries and design time tools that extend the reach and augment the development experience of the Entity Framework.

EF Extensions Compatible with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (Visual Basic and C# versions available)
The ADO.NET Entity Framework Extensions library includes utilities that make querying stored procedures, creating typed results from DB data readers and state tracking external data much easier in the Entity Framework. A sample application demonstrates several patterns using these utilities, including stored procedures with multiple result sets, materialization of CLR types, and registering entities in the Entity Framework state manager.

eSqlBlast (Entity SQL Tools and Samples Page) Compatible with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1
eSqlBlast aids authoring, executing, and visualizing ad-hoc Entity SQL queries against arbitrary EDM models. The tools of the eSqlBlast suite may be used interactively, from the command line, or embedded in other programs. The eSqlBlast suite also contains XSL transformation scripts for rendering CSDL and its own raw XML format.

Entity Framework Lazy Loading Compatible with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (Visual Basic and C# versions available)
This sample shows how to use code generation to add support for transparent lazy loading to Entity Framework. It includes code generator (EFLazyClassGen), supporting library (Microsoft.Data.EFLazyLoading) and sample test applications.

EdmGen2.exe Compatible with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visal Studio 2008 SP1
EdmGen2 is a command-line tool for the Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework that is able to read and write the EDMX file format, as well as translate between EDMX and CSDL, SSDL & MSL file formats.

Persistence Ignorance (POCO) Adapter for Entity Framework V1 Compatible with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (Visual Basic and C# versions available)
EF POCO Adapter enables Plain Old CLR Objects (POCOs) to be tracked using released version of Entity Framework V1 using automatically generated adapter objects. It consist of a code generator, supporting library and a test suite and examples.

Tracing and Caching Provider Wrappers for Entity Framework Compatible with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta1
Demonstrates how to implement wrapping providers which add interesting functionality (caching and tracing) to an EF application.

ADO.NET Entity Data Model Designer Extension Starter Kit Compatible with Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2
The ADO.NET Entity Data Model Designer Extension Starter Kit is a Visual Studio project template that helps you understand how to extend the functionality of the ADO.NET Entity Data Model Tools. The project template provides you with a custom Visual Studio project type (ADO.NET Entity Designer Extension Starter Kit) that uses classes in the Microsoft.Data.Entity.Design.Extensibility namespace to build a Visual Studio extension that you can deploy and test.

Entity Framework Samples

Sample source code and projects showing how specific tasks can be completed using the Entity Framework.

Hands-on-Lab: Using the Entity Framework in .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 Compatible with Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2
Complete manual and sample code from the PDC 2009 Hands-on-Lab for ADO.NET Entity Framework. Downloadable in PDF and XPS formats.

Sample Entity Framework Provider for Oracle Compatible with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1
This Sample Provider works with Oracle 10g by wrapping System.Data.OracleClient APIs. It uses the same technique as Entity Framework Sample Provider which wraps System.Data.SqlClient. Sample Entity Framework Provider for Oracle is compatible with Entity Framework released as part of .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. Its goal is to showcase some techniques that provider writers targeting database engines other than SQL Server can use. This is just a sample and its use in a production environment is strongly discouraged.

Entity Framework Documentation Samples Compatible with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1
The ADO.NET Entity Framework samples that accompany the Entity Framework documentation on MSDN. This is the download location for the CourseManager project that you create when you complete the Entity Framework quickstart. You will also find other Entity Data Model tools walkthrough projects as well as the samples described in the Entity Framework documenation.

Entity Framework Sample Provider Compatible with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1
The Sample Provider wraps System.Data.SqlClient and demonstrates the new functionality an ADO.NET Provider needs to implement in order to support the ADO.NET Entity Framework

• • Provider Manifest
  • EDM Mapping for Schema Information
  • SQL Generation

Entity Framework Query Samples Compatible with Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (Visual Basic and C# versions available), and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2
The Entity Framework Query Samples is a small Windows Forms program that contains several basic Entity SQL and LINQ to Entities queries against that NorthwindEF Entity Data Model (based on a modified version of Northwind).
Its goal is to help you learn the features of the two query languages supported by EF and visualize how the results and the translated store query look like.

Entity Data Model Metadata Samples Compatible with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1
EDM Metadata Samples is a small web application that you can use to explore Entity Framework’s metadata API and the Entity Data Model.

Sample EDMX Code Generator
The goal of the Sample EDMX Code Generator is to provide you with enough insight into how the ADO.NET Entity Designer generates code in Visual Studio and hopefully give you a head start with some sample source code.

SketchPad
A simple drawing editor that allows you to create elementary geometric shapes–lines and circles–and model them as entities using either the Entity Framework or LINQ to SQL. Think of it as a ‘Notepad for Shapes’–you can create, read, and delete shapes, and use the built-in spatial index to search for entities by attribute value. A command-line argument allows you to switch between the Entity Framework and LINQ to SQL runtime for the model.

LINQ to SQL Samples

TPT Inheritance with LINQ to SQL
This sample demonstrates a technique for implementing the TPT (Table per Type) object mapping model in a LINQ to SQL context.

SketchPad
A simple drawing editor that allows you to create elementary geometric shapes–lines and circles–and model them as entities using either the Entity Framework or LINQ to SQL. Think of it as a ‘Notepad for Shapes’–you can create, read, and delete shapes, and use the built-in spatial index to search for entities by attribute value. A command-line argument allows you to switch between the Entity Framework and LINQ to SQL runtime for the model.

Entity Framework Learning Tools

Tools that help you in learning Entity Framework concepts.

EF Mapping Helper
Entity Framework mapping helper lets you create sample mapping files for the set of scenarios you are interested in. It’s a great tool for a deeper understanding for how schema files are defined for complex mapping scenarios in Entity Framework.

Ref: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/adonetefx/