Entity Framework 4.0 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice in .NET) [Paperback]

Larry Tenny (Author), Zeeshan Hirani (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1430227036 | ISBN-13: 978-1430227038 | Publication Date: March 1, 2010 | Edition: 1

Entity Framework Recipes takes a to-the-point, example-based approach to Microsoft .NET 4.0's Entity Framework for database access. It's an approach that will resonate with developers who are in a hurry, who just want a good code example so they can get on with their work.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Larry Tenny has more than 20 years experience developing applications using a broad range of development tools primarily targeting the Microsoft platform. He has extensive .NET development experience. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Indiana University.

Zeeshan Hirani actively uses Entity Framework in the development of an ecommerce web site for a top 300 ecommerce retailer. He has written several articles and maintains and active and influential Entity Framework blog at http://weblogs.asp.net/zeeshanhirani/.

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (March 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430227036
• ISBN-13: 978-1430227038
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy the Kindle version...., January 21, 2011

By 

Phil Boyd (APO, AE United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Entity Framework 4.0 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Kindle Edition)

The Kindle version is so incomplete as to be completely worthless. Almost none of the images or example code that is referenced made it into the Kindle version from the print version.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book on EF 4.0, August 25, 2010

By 

H. Zhang "hz" (MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Entity Framework 4.0 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice in .NET) (Paperback)

I have learned a lot from this book and used some methods in the book for my application, so I am a grateful reader. Since this book has been praised by so many reviews, I thought it would be most useful for me to state the strengths of this book quickly then follow it with my reservations that prevented me from giving 5 stars to it.

It is very readable and well organized. It is more than a collection of recipes because the first few chapters could give a beginner a good start on EF. Some people may think it has a lot of redundancy by providing a complete list of the code for each recipe, I personally like the completeness (I have the eBook version so the thickness does not bother me at all).

Here are my reservations:

1. There are three methods to query a conceptual model in EF - LINQ to Entities, Entity SQL, Query builder methods. This could be confusing to novice readers. The book mixes all of them and it may be the best approach to mix them to achieve the most elegant code, but I wish the author could share the rationale of each mixture which can be very educational.

2. Each recipe is a method to solve a problem with a specific approach but it may not be the best overall method. I wish the book could clearly point out this. A typical example is recipe 4-3 which is a method for assigning a value to a property with code during data saving. This is a very common scenario for data entry applications (e.g. setting the user ID value which is not entered by the user for each record) and it is usually achieved by a single line of code in an event handler of a control. In the case of the recipe, it can be handled by one statement in the ItermInserting handler of the DetailsView, but the recipe uses a pure EF way of creating a partial method to intercept SavingChanges event.

3. I think the best way to achieve a solid data model is to have a solid database design and the EF conceptual model should just be a reflection of that. EF has matured a lot but the latest version EF 4.0 still has some glitches or undesirable behaviors. It is quite possible that someone may have to recreate the model from the database and it may happen many times. If a lot of "custom" modifications are made to EF model, all of them have to be repeated and this may require a lot of work, good documentation or memory. The book has a lot recipes doing exact this and some of them even get into the XML code editing. I wish the book could clearly point out the caveats of doing this.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book with great coverage of Entity Framework 4.0, June 3, 2010

By 

Steve Kerns (New Orleans, LA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Entity Framework 4.0 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice in .NET) (Paperback)

This is absolutely the book to have if you are programming with Entity Framework. This book covers all kinds modeling scenarios, improving performance (this was really important for me), querying using both linq and entity SQL, POCO, n-tier applications, and a bunch of other stuff.

The cool thing about this book is that it's full of examples, tons of code that actually works, and has a bunch of stuff I've never seen anywhere else about EF.

The book is very well organized and the author has a good writing style. Everything is right to the point.

I just do not think you can do without this book if you are going to do anything besides play around with the Entity Framework.