Entity Framework Code-First enables developers to read and write data in a relational database system using C# or VB.NET. It is Microsoft's answer to demand for an ORM from .NET developers. This book will help you acquire the necessary skills to program your applications using Entity Framework. You will start with database configuration and learn how to write classes that define the database structure. You will see how LINQ can be used with Entity Framework to give you access to stored data. You will then learn how to use Entity Framework to persist information in a Relational Database Management System. You will also see how you can benefit from writing ORM-based .NET code. Finally, you will learn how Entity Framework can help you to solve database deployment problems using migrations. Cover 1 Copyright 3 Credits 4 About the Author 5 About the Reviewers 6 www.PacktPub.com 7 Table of Contents 8 Preface 12 Chapter 1: Introducing Entity Framework 18 What is ORM? 18 A brief history of Entity Framework 20 The capabilities of Entity Framework 21 The Entity Framework architecture 22 Self-test questions 23 Summary 23 Chapter 2: Your First Entity Framework Application 24 Creating a new project that uses Entity Framework 25 Creating a new database based on .NET Classes 26 Saving a new record to the database 29 Querying data in a database 32 Updating a record 33 Deleting a row from the database 34 Introduction to schema changes 35 Self-test questions 39 Summary 40 Chapter 3: Defining the Database Structure 42 Creating table structures 43 Mapping .NET types to SQL types 43 Configuring primitive properties 44 Handling nullable properties 50 Defining relationships 52 One-to-Many relationship 52 The Many-to-Many relationship 58 One-to-One Relationship 59 Self-test questions 61 Summary 62 Chapter 4: Querying, Inserting, Updating, and Deleting Data 64 The basics of LINQ 64 Filtering data in queries 66 Sorting data in queries 68 Exploring LINQ functions 69 Element operations 69 Quantifiers 70 Working with related entities 71 Filtering based on related data 71 Lazy and eager loading 72 Inserting data into the database 74 Updating data in the database 77 Deleting data from the database 82 Working with in-memory data 84 Self-test questions 86 Summary 87 Chapter 5: Advanced Modeling and Querying Techniques 90 Advanced modeling techniques 91 Complex types 91 Using explicit table and column mappings 94 Adding supporting columns 95 Enumerations 96 Using multiple tables for a single entity 97 Advanced querying techniques 100 Projections 100 Aggregations and grouping 105 Advanced query construction 106 Paging data with windowing functions 109 Using joins 110 Groupings and left outer joins 112 Set operations 118 Self-test questions 119 Summary 121 Chapter 6: Working with Views, Stored Procedures, the Asynchronous API and Concurrency 122 Working with views 123 Working with stored procedures 127 Create, update, and delete entities with stored procedures 129 The asynchronous API 132 Handling concurrency 136 Self-test questions 140 Summary 141 Chapter 7: Database Migrations and Additional Features 142 Enabling and running migrations 143 Using the migrations API 147 Applying migrations 152 Applying migrations via a script 153 Applying migrations via migrate.exe 153 Applying migrations via an initializer 154 Adding migrations to an existing database 155 Additional Entity Framework features 156 Custom conventions 156 Geospatial data 157 Dependency injection and logging 157 Startup performance 158 Multiple contexts per database 158 Self-test questions 159 Summary 160 Appendix: Answers to self-test questions 162 Index 168 www.it-ebooks.info
About This Book
- Use CoffeeScript to create and test applications and backend services
- Build applications using popular frameworks, libraries, and platforms
- Interface with popular services to send e-mails, text messages, and use cloud storage
Who This Book Is For
If you are interested in developing modern applications, this book will help you leverage the vast JavaScript ecosystem while using an elegant language, helping you avoid the shortcomings of JavaScript.
This book is intended for software developers with some prior experience with the Microsoft.NET framework who want to learn how to use Entity Framework. This book will get you up and running quickly, providing many examples that illustrate all the key concepts of Entity Framework. This book is intended for software developers with some prior experience with the Microsoft .NET framework who want to learn how to use Entity Framework. This book will get you up and running quickly, providing many examples that illustrate all the key concepts of Entity Framework
