One of the key pieces missing in Beta 2 of Microsoft's ADO.NET Entity Framework 4 was compatibility with Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 and the completed Code Only extensions that the company promised (see Entity Framework Gets More Code Only Extensions)
Microsoft released Beta 2 of the Entity Framework 4 October 19th (see EF4 Beta 2 Arrives with New Features) addressing many of the shortcomings of version 1 such as its focus on the data aspect of entities and its failure to support POCO (Plain Old CLR Objects), lazy loading and persistence ignorance.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 11/05/20090 comments
In a move that could boost its fortunes in the open-source database space, EnterpriseDB this week said it received a third round of financing valued at $19 million led by Red Hat.
EnterpriseDB is the key sponsor of the PostgreSQL open source database. The company offers a standard and advanced edition with tools to migrate from Oracle databases and more recently from MySQL. While the companies are not saying how much of a share Red Hat will hold in the company, IBM, NTT and Sony Online Entertainment are also strategic investors in the company.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 10/28/20091 comments
The big news for .NET developers this week is the release of beta 2 of Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4, which became generally available today (see VS2010 and .NET 4 Beta 2 Go Live). For developers of data-driven applications, beta 2 included some major improvements to the ADO.NET Entity Framework, Microsoft's new interface for providing access to apps using object-relational modeling (ORM) rather than programming directly against relational schema.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 10/21/20090 comments
There's good news for those interested in the Code Only extensions Microsoft started adding to the ADO.NET Entity Framework earlier this year. The company this week broadened its support for Code Only POCO (Plain Old CRL Object) entities in the Entity Framework.
In a status-update posted on Microsoft's Entity Framework Design blog, Microsoft outlined some new features coming to the next test build of the Entity Framework, which further its support for Code Only development.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 10/13/20094 comments
Microsoft last week talked up the release of a bridge designed to let Java developers utilize Microsoft's ADO.NET Data Services.
The company that actually developed the bridge, Noelios Technologies, is an obscure French-based consulting services firm. But it's noteworthy because Microsoft provided funding to the company for the tool and announced the release on its Interoperability Blog. The bridge, called Restlet 2.0 M5, is based on an extension to the open source Restlet Framework, designed to allow Java developers to create RESTful applications when building Web 2.0-type applications. (see "Bridge Connects Java to ADO.NET Data Services").
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 10/08/20090 comments
The fate of MySQL has been top of mind since Oracle agreed to acquire Sun Microsystems earlier this year for $7.4 billion. Will Oracle spin it off, treat it as a strategic asset or let it die a slow death?
Well, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison this week finally shed some light on that question during an interview by none other than Ed Zander, who was once president and COO of Sun. Ellison made his remarks during the interview, at The Churchill Club, a non-profit Silicon Valley forum.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 09/25/20092 comments
Earlier this month, Sentrigo, Inc, issued a warning pointing to a vulnerability in Microsoft's SQL Server database where unencrypted passwords could be accessed by unauthorized individuals. The way the vendor put it, someone could retrieve the passwords by reviewing the contents of SQL Server process memory using widely available tools.
Sentrigo described this as a serious issue -- so serious that it is offering a free tool to remedy the situation. That same day, Microsoft posted a bulletin saying it is not classifying the issue as a vulnerability.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 09/17/20092 comments
Oracle yesterday released a major new upgrade to its flagship database that pushes the envelope with advances in clustering and grid computing, storage management and support for large queries from data warehouses.
The availability of Oracle 11gR2 comes two years after the release of its last upgrade and is important for any Oracle shop that is looking to have the latest and greatest in the company's database technology (a look at those features can be found here).
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 09/02/20090 comments
For Oracle shops that run .NET applications, there are two commercial alternatives: DevArt offers dotConnect for Oracle (formerly known as OraDirect .NET) which boasts Entity Framework support. Then Progress DataDirect last week released its Progress DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET Entity Framework provider for Oracle. All of the features are based on 100 percent managed code architecture and it doesn't require the Oracle client, noted Elisa Flasko, Microsoft's program manager for data programmability in a blog posting.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 08/26/20093 comments
Microsoft this week is rolling out a twin bill of previews that will be noteworthy to any developer interested in the future of Redmond's SQL Server platform. One includes a preview of the next release of its traditional premises-based database, SQL Server, while the other will give a look at Microsoft's cloud-based relational database offering.
The community technology preview of its SQL Azure Database is slated to be available today, Wednesday August 19, though as of this afternoon, OakLeaf Systems principal Roger Jennings, said he and others have yet to receive a token.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 08/19/20091 comments
Many database developers have loudly bemoaned Microsoft's decision late last year to marginalize LINQ to SQL in favor of its ADO.NET Entity Framework.
The angst played out as many who build applications designed to access Microsoft's SQL Server felt left holding the bag as reported here . Make no mistake: the Entity Framework is Microsoft's object relational mapping (ORM) technology of choice and that will become even more evident next year with the release of Entity Framework 4, Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 08/10/200910 comments
A new release of NHibernate, the open source .NET port of the Java Hibernate object relational mapping tool, is now available.
NHibernate 2.1.0, which went GA last week, is comparable to Hibernate 3.2.6/3.3.1 in terms of features, according to a posting on the Soureceforge site, where developers can download the new release.
"It’s a wide array of little things rather than any one big thing," said Stephen Bohlen, one of the NHibernate contributors and organizer of the New York City ALT.NET user group.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 07/29/20091 comments