Programming Entity Framework: Building Data Centric Apps with the ADO.NET Entity Framework [Paperback]

Julia Lerman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0596807260 | ISBN-13: 978-0596807269 | Edition: Second Edition

Get a thorough introduction to ADO.NET Entity Framework 4 -- Microsoft's core framework for modeling and interacting with data in .NET applications. The second edition of this acclaimed guide provides a hands-on tour of the framework latest version in Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4. Not only will you learn how to use EF4 in a variety of applications, you'll also gain a deep understanding of its architecture and APIs.

Written by Julia Lerman, the leading independent authority on the framework, Programming Entity Framework covers it all -- from the Entity Data Model and Object Services to WCF Services, MVC Apps, and unit testing. This book highlights important changes for experienced developers familiar with the earlier version.

• Understand the core concepts you need to make the best use of the EF4 in your applications
• Learn to query your data, using either LINQ to Entities or Entity SQL
• Create Windows Forms, WPF, ASP.NET Web Forms, and ASP.NET MVC applications
• Build and consume WCF Services, WCF Data Services, and WCF RIA Services
• Use Object Services to work directly with your entity objects
• Create persistent ignorant entities, repositories, and write unit tests
• Delve into model customization, relationship management, change tracking, data concurrency, and more
• Get scores of reusable examples -- written in C# (with notes on Visual Basic syntax) -- that you can implement right away

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Julia Lerman is the leading independent authority on the Entity Framework and has been using and teaching the technology since its inception in 2006. She is well known in the .NET community as a Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider, and INETA Speaker. Julia is a frequent presenter at technical conferences around the world and writes articles for many well-known technical publications including the Data Points column in MSDN Magazine.

Julia lives in Vermont with her husband, Rich, and gigantic dog, Sampson, where she runs the Vermont.NET User Group. You can read her blog at www.thedatafarm.com/blog and follow her on Twitter at julielerman.

Product Details

• Paperback: 920 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Second Edition edition (August 26, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596807260
• ISBN-13: 978-0596807269
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #42 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases > Database Design
  • #61 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > C#

More About the Author

Julia Lerman is the leading independent authority on the Entity Framework and has been using and teaching the technology since its inception in 2006. She is the author of the highly acclaimed book, Programming Entity Framework, 1st and 2nd editions and is well known in the .NET community as a Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider, and INETA Speaker. Julia is a frequent presenter at technical conferences around the world and writes articles for many well-known technical publications including the Data Points column in MSDN Magazine. Julia tweets at @julielerman and blogs at http://thedatafarm.com/blog.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Certainly worth the purchase price... however October 26, 2010

By Rex Pebble the II

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

First - go ahead and get this book. Second - Please let me refine an important point straight away. I would have liked Amazon to provide multiple categories for rating this book and many other books.

Perhaps this chart will help to clarify:

Reference Value = *****
Quick Start Value =**
Organization=***.5
Depth=*****

My priority is Quick Start, hence the 3 star rating. Your mileage may vary.

Background

Like Juval's WCF book, this EF book begins with well-organized introductory material, but later chapters contain a jumble of practical application techniques, deep dives into implementation details, anecdotes, and copious detail. By the time I reached the mid-point of the book, I was buried in detail without a practical understanding of how to approach the immediate modeling problem at hand. I am just now shifting my attention over to the APress EF recipes book to reset my learning effort. I plan on interleaving my study of these two EF books from this point forward. For example, while I start to run through a bunch of the hands-on material in the APress recipes book, I'll fast forward to later chapters of the Lerman book for material on N-Tier, MVC, and POCO.

What would be the best approach? Sanderson's MVC sets the benchmark as it is a perfect example of successive embellish. Success embellish begins with entry level material and builds one core concept upon another. Key material is methodically revealed from top to bottom and the final result is a solid understanding which enables application developers to tackle real-world problems. But it gets even better. The second half of the MVC book is a quasi-reference section that carves out each building block introduced in the first part of the book for detailed examination. I say quasi as MVC reference material is both detailed and practical.

So how could the EF book be improved? For my immediate quick start purposes, it would have been quite helpful if the EF material had been organized using the successive embellishment/reference section two-part model.

In summary, this book is a must have and is destined to become a trusty, dogged-eared volume on many prairie dog shelves. Best wishes on happy coding and natural light shining brightly on your p-dog cubicle.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Work on Microsoft's Entity Framework Version 4 November 10, 2010

By W. W. Martin

Format:Paperback

Prior to reading this book, I was not completely sold on Microsoft's Entity Framework. Version 1 of EF fell far short of other ORM methods such as LINQ to SQL in a number of areas, not the least of which was ease of use and overall querying capability. With the release of .NET 4.0 and the accompanying release of Entity Framework version 4, I (wrongfully) assumed that the pain points of EF in its first incarnation would continue to be so. I work with very complex financial data models and have yet to come across an ORM/RDMS that did what I needed out of the box so to speak. It was not until I took up reading Julie's book - "Programming Entity Framework 2nd Edition" that my eyes were opened.

Through a masterfully crafted text, one of the current data coding masters of .NET has laid out, from beginning to end, a way to realize those complex data models as usable objects to be programmed against. Even at just over 900 pages, you will find NONE of the typical "filler" tech garbage seen in many computer books today where they parrot information readily available freely from other sources just to increase page count. Within each chapter can be found numerous "ah ha!" moments wherein a conceptual theory actually becomes a practical application, usable in daily coding. This is how all computer books should be written - with actual complex, real world examples.

Microsoft has designated EF as their primary ORM for use with SQL Server and SQL Azure going forward which warrants its adoption and use by all RDMS data centric .NET developers. Entity Framework in its latest release becomes a powerhouse of data persistence and functionality, yet it remains rather hard to grasp from a development standpoint even with the massive convention over configuration initiative brilliantly implemented under the sheets. There is simply no way to master a technology until you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, and this is where Julie comes in. Julie makes it so easy as to be construed as simple (which it isn't.)

Thank you Microsoft and Julie Lerman!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great All-Around Starter for All EF-Related Technologies May 8, 2011

By Shawn Brock

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

It would be nice if there were multiple reviews available. If you're looking for an expert guide to every nut and bolt of the Entity Framework (EF) - I'm not sure this is the book.

If you're looking for a quickstart, I think this is a decent book. But, anybody can draw a model without a book. The challenge is DOING something with that model, and that takes a little more than a 1 page MSDN tutorial.

The challenge is that if you're going to talk about EF, there are hundreds of semi-directly related topics. LINQ, Entity Queries, WCF, WPF, Silverlight, MVC. There is no way any book could cover everything you can do with EF.

However, this book covers all the core topics very well. As someone relatively new to LINQ, WCF, and MVC, it was great. As someone who is familiar with databinding, but never really used it (because it's been mostly awful), it was nice to get into it.

So, 5 stars might be a little high, but this book did everything I wanted:
1. It gave enough detail to help me start reasonably quick.
2. It covered all the related technologies with enough depth that I don't have to buy a LINQ book, WPF book, etc, just to use EF.

So, if you're newer to the 2010 technologies, I think this is a great place to start.