Entity Framework 4.3 Gets Final Tune-Up -- Enum Support Promised in 5.0 -- Visual Studio Magazine

Data Driverby David Ramel

Entity Framework 4.3 Gets Final Tune-Up -- Enum Support Promised in 5.0

Microsoft last week shipped the Entity Framework 4.3 Beta 1, with some NuGet integration enhancements and bug fixes in preparation for the final go-live release, expected in the next couple of months.

"We are planning for this to be the last pre-release version of migrations and our next release will be the final RTM of EF 4.3," said a post on the ADO.NET team blog. It said the team is "still on-track to get a full supported, go-live, release of EF 4.3 published this quarter (first quarter of 2012)."

EF 4.3 Beta 1 includes some Code First migration work done last November in a separate beta, now integrated into the EF NuGet package. The Code First Migrations enhancements include new commands, command-line tools, XML documentation, improved logging and more.

The new beta also fixes some bugs in the DbContext API and Code First.

Another piece of good news for database developers was the reminder of upcoming--and long sought-after--enum support: "EF 5.0 (Enum support is coming... finally!)" Along with enums, the 5.0 release will include spatial data types and performance improvements. "As soon as the next preview of the .NET Framework 4.5 is available we will be shipping EF 5.0 Beta 1, which will include all these new features," the blog said.

But some readers were concerned with more than technical nuts and bolts. The disparate versioning system resulting from the separation of Entity Framework and .NET Framework releases led to several comments, such as:

"Oh? EF 5.0 in .NET 4.5? You renamed EF 2.0 to 4.0 to match .NET version, now you are jumping ahead without reasons? Why not keep EF and .NET versions synced? So .NET 4.5 has C# 5.0 and EF 5.0, that's a mess."

Another wrote:

"EF 5.0 is comming. What does it mean? In one of your previous articles you mentioned that EF in .NET 4.5 will be renamed to EF Core libraries and DbContext API will be renamed to EF. So what is EF 5.0? Is it DbContext API supporting new features from EF Core libraries included in .NET 4.5? Or is it EF Core libraries."

Microsoft's Diego B. Vega addressed the issue in his own comment:

"EF 5 will ship as a new version of the EntityFramework NuGet package at the same time NET 4.5 and VS 11 ship.

We are not really trying to differentiate EF from .NET. We are simply trying to evolve EF at a different pace. Indeed, we have decided to version EF separately from .NET and to follow semantic versioning rules strictly."

Vega went on to discuss the issue in more detail, and the entire EF versioning issue is explained in this blog post, if you're curious.

The ADO.NET team also posted some EF 4.3 hands-on tips and guidance in a Code-Based Migrations Walkthrough, an Automatic Migrations Walkthrough and a post on EF 4.3 Configuration File Settings.

How do you database developers like the new EF enhancements such as Code First and the DbContext API? Or do those mere technicalities pale in comparison to the odd versioning structure? Comment here or drop me a line.

Posted by David Ramel on 01/19/2012

comments powered by Disqus

Featured

Uno Platform Wants Microsoft to Improve .NET WebAssembly in Two Ways

Uno Platform, a third-party dev tooling specialist that caters to .NET developers, published a report on the state of WebAssembly, addressing some shortcomings in the .NET implementation it would like to see Microsoft address.
Random Neighborhoods Regression Using C#

Dr. James McCaffrey from Microsoft Research presents a complete end-to-end demonstration of the random neighborhoods regression technique, where the goal is to predict a single numeric value. Compared to other ML regression techniques, advantages are that it can handle both large and small datasets, and the results are highly interpretable.
As Some Orgs Restrict DeepSeek AI Usage, Microsoft Offers Models and Dev Guidance

While some organizations are restricting employee usage of the new open source DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company due to data collection concerns, Microsoft has taken a different approach.
Useful New-ish Features in .NET/C#

We often hear about the big new features in .NET or C#, but what about all of those lesser known, but useful new features? How exactly do you use constructs like collection indices and ranges, date features, and pattern matching?
TypeScript 5.8 Beta Speeds Program Loads, Updates

"TypeScript 5.8 introduces a number of optimizations that can both improve the time to build up a program, and also to update a program based on a file change in either --watch mode or editor scenarios."