Customer Reviews

Programming Entity Framework

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is definitely the book to have by your side if you are programming with the ADO.NET Entity Framework 1.0.

The author touches on a ton of subjects that include: Data Binding with Windows Forms and WPF Applications, Using Stored Procedures with the EDM, LINQ to Entities Queries, Customizing Entities, Using the ASP.NET EntityDataSource Control, Using Entities with Web and WCF Services, Using the Entity Framework in n-Tier ASP.NET Applications and n-Tier Client-Side Applications, Handling Entity Framework Exceptions, Performance, Security, Multithreaded Applications, and much more.

There is a lot covered in this book. One of the coolest things about this book is the amount of new possibilities it introduces. Many which I would not have considered without seeing them in this book.

I also like that the book covers the architectural aspects of integrating EF into several different types of architectures.

The author drills into each subject enough to get a thorough understand. With all the material covered, that is rare, but the book is an 800 page whopper.

I have been working with the EF 1.0 since its release in August and can say that this book has more information jammed into it than all the other resources I have been using combined.

The book includes VB.NET and C# code examples.

The book has a support site (google for learnentityframework) with the code samples and the database scripts available. The downloaded code is also in both VB.NET and C#. It is well organized and very usable.

The book is very well organized and is a good read. The author has a good writing style.

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

Over the past 20 years of my career as a software developer, application architects have recommended that enterprise applications be developed using multiple tiers to separate the concerns of the user interface, business logic and data access layers. The challenge for programmers has been to determine how one would actually build and maintain such a beast. Microsoft has addressed part of the data portion of this architecture recommendation by introducing the "Entity Framework" (EF) to the .Net technology stack.

In most cases, databases are designed for the database administrator and not the application developer. The EF allows a programmer to add an Entity Data Model (EDM) to a client application. With an EDM, programmers can create application centric object interfaces to their data sources without having to concern themselves with the nuances of the underlying data structures. The EF takes care of translating these application objects to the SQL statements that interact with the database. So, what will lead us on this journey?

The "Programming Entity Framework" book can be divided into two major sections. Chapters 1-14 provides an introduction to all the major EF concepts while Chapters 15-23 covers advanced topics. There is a website at http://learnentityframework.com/learnentityframework/ that supports the book and allows you to download database scripts and sample applications. (As a side note, I learned from this site that the author has agreed to update her book to cover changes introduced in the 2010 version of Visual Studio.)

I like the fact that Ms. Lerman provides both VB and C# code side by side with all of her examples (my personal goal is to become fluent in both languages). The book is peppered with side notes (designated by three paw prints) that make some clarification or add pertinent information to the page.

I did a search of alternative books that cover this same subject. I investigated the online information provided by Microsoft. None of the books I researched (as well as the Microsoft articles online) came close to the scope and readability of this book. Lerman does a great job of balancing her independent point of view on this subject with the insider tips and information that make for a good read.

The myriad of tools and components contained in the EF are now a strategic part of Microsoft's data access strategy going forward. So don't get left behind. I recommend "Programming Entity Framework" as your train to the data access future. I guess that would make Julia Lerman your Conductor and Engineer on this trip as well ... ;-).

I'm a seasoned VB6/PHP/Green Screen developer who has floated around .NET but never gone beyond tinkering. Entity Framework (and LINQ and MVC) have convinced me that it's time to jump fully on the .NET wagon.

I'm loving this book because while it assumes the reader knows how to write a program, it doesn't assume that the reader is a .NET programmer. It explains Entity Framework excellently while also explaining Visual Studio/.NET concepts succinctly, without wasting the reader's time explaining what an integer is.

The many pointers to web resources for further information are greatly appreciated and increase the book's value to someone, like me, coming to .NET rather late in the game without bogging down the book for seasoned .NET programmers.

Finally, the author's use of a "brown field" application for the examples, complete with "legacy typos" and examples of how EF can free you of legacy design flaws while leaving the legacy intact show that the author has been in the trenches writing real code and has a great deal of wisdom beyond Entity Framework to share.

Entity Framework (EF) will be a foundational technology for Microsoft for many years to come...just poke around Microsoft's site and see how many other departments are using it outside of the ADO.NET team. There already are database EF adapters for Oracle and IBM's DB2 amongst other databases...Oracle and IBM see the future and so should you. You can add EF to the list of must-learn technologies for the Microsoft platform which also includes WCF, WF, LINQ and WPF/SilverLight. Combine EF and WPF/SilverLight, using MVVM for the Presentation Model, with Prism/Unity for modular design and cross cutting concerns (validation, logging, cache, security, real-time constraints, monitoring, ?business rules) you will have a powerful architectural infrastructure. Domain Driven Design (DDD) is the architectural mindset Microsoft is blueprinting with EF a cornerstone of DDD implementation. Model Driven Development will mature in the future "Oslo" effort and EF will figure prominently. DDD is as much a team discipline and mindset as it is an architectural pattern that EF facilitates. In EF version 1 (EFv1), combined with present day modeling tools, is already better than OMG's MDA(Model Driven Architecture) in building real world applications in my opinion. EFv1 currently supports the Active Record pattern (as does LINQ-to-SQL according to Dino Esposito in Microsoft® .NET: Architecting Applications for the Enterprise (PRO-Developer)) with further support for Domain Model pattern in the upcoming EF4 (i.e. EF version 2 on .NET 4.0). EF is more than an ORM, but EFv1 is not without well placed criticism of shortcomings implementing DDD and impairment of various development methodologies such as Agile. Nevertheless going forward EF, especially with upcoming EF4 will more fully follows DDD principles, will be everywhere, so you might is well start now. The concepts will be the same in EF4 with added benefits of "model first" design, support for POCO (plain old CLR objects), N-Tier, Reports, and improved Testability as well as the niggling issue of "pluralization". NHiberbnate, an open source project supported by RedHat, reportedly has many of these features planned for EF4 now, but does not have the weight of a broad Microsoft strategy behind it. Choosing NHibernate over EF, is an important strategic/emotional decision. Ideablade's DevForce , which builds off EFv1 now and soon EF4 when it is released, helps with some of these pain points and more now....but you still need to understand EF. Architecting software is difficult and there are no tools to magically create well designed architectural patterns. EF as a foundational component will put you on a solid footing and put you in a DDD frame of mind, while doing a good deal of grunt work for you, so you can spend more time on business logic and UI usability.

The table was set with Entity Relationship Modeling by Dr. David Chen in the 70's and garnished by Martin Fowler's Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (Addison-Wesley Signature Series) Eric Evans'Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software and Jimmy Nillsson's Applying Domain-Driven Design and Patterns: With Examples in C# and .NET, DDD is now being served to the masses by Microsoft. Julia Lerman with "Programming Entity Framework" does not try to emulate these seminal works. She takes you in a practical step by step approach through EFv1 without being a simplistic Step-by-Step book. The initial examples are simple, but it would be asinine to use Adventure Works in the initial chapters unless you are like Kobayashi at Nathan's hotdog eating contest. I like my hotdogs and concepts one at a time. The examples and databases become more complex as the book goes forward showing the nitty gritty underpinnings and practical applications of EF.

Despite Julia's reluctance to write books, as suggested in her preface, I think she will be on the book publishing treadmill for a long time given the raves about this book, EF's strategic positioning by Microsoft and the attendant demand for well explained intricacies of this emergent technology. Her book is wonderfully explanatory, especially compared to the other book on the market regarding LINQ and EF. I predict she will not be able to resist readers holding up their lighters, like at a concert begging for an encore, especially with EF4 around the corner followed by EF5.

What a wonderful book. Clearly written. Comprehensive. Candid. More than a year in the making and well worth every pound. To be fair, I've just started reading (it arrived only 5 days ago) and I've been dipping in at various points. A more thorough review awaits. But this I know: every few pages I find myself exclaiming "very well said!" or "I didn't know that!"

It happens to me whether I'm reading the introduction to EDM, the discussion of n-tier and Astoria, Entity SQL versus LINQ for Entities, Expression versus Method syntax, stored procedures, views, Defined Queries. All covered simply, correctly, and intelligently. I may have hundreds more pages to discover but I've got my money's worth already and I'm buying copies for the office.

If you are using Entity Framework or think you might want to ... this is the book to own. I'm looking forward to seeing more EF books from other authors but I doubt they can equal or surpass this one.

A quick note of "full disclosure": First, I've met Ms. Lerman once, we've corresponded a few times, but there is no other connection and, as my momma taught me, if I didn't have something nice to say ... I wouldn't have had to say anything at all. Second, I've been working with Entity Framework for almost a year; I'd know if there was any fluff or BS and I have found none.

I'll be back w/ more thoughts soon ... just had to register my thumbs up now.

When I first saw this book I was put off by the sheer size of it, but when I started to dig in, I found that every page was full of information and was well organized. It is an easy read and easy to follow the code examples which can be had in both VB and C#. I was a bit worried when she mentioned that she was a VB developer, but she has not favored VB over C# which I appreciate.

Julia covers topics in fine detail where needed but skips the detail when unnecessary or not relevant (or simply says, "You learn more about that in chapter ...") which really helps comprehension. With a wide variety of topics ranging from "Querying entities" to "EF in WCF" it's hard to believe that she makes sure the reader understands what's going on at each turn, but Julia does it. Along the way you are given examples using both Linq to Entities and Entity SQL and she explains any caveats of using either.

Even though she did answer the question, "What is the difference between Linq to SQL and EF", I still find myself wanting more of an answer, but other than that this is a great book and I recommend it to anyone even if it's just as a reference.

This book is definitely the best book about EF on the market. Programming EF was second book I read about EF. After reading Jennings's Professional ADO.NET 3.5 with LINQ and the Entity Framework I was little bit confused about some EF topics and this book helped me to get rid of many of those confusions. Especially chapter 2 and 3 about 'philosophy' behind entities and their implementation in EF were excellent.

During reading I found 2 things that could be improved. The first is data model used in samples. It contains about 15 tables/entities with many relationships. Maybe it would be better to have smaller model, or several models focusing on different features of EF instead of one 'big' model at the begining of book. I always had to browse to Chapter 5, where model was described.

The bigger problem was order of chapters. Book starts well with chapters about EF essentials, but then for me little illogically it shifts toward the usage of EF in WinForms, WPF, ASP.NET (chapters 9 and 11). I think these 'technology-special' chapters (and also chapters about stored procedures) should be added at the end of the book, or at least after other extremely importatnt topics like working with relationships (chapter 15), object state manager (chapter 17), or exception handling and concurrency issues (chapter 18).

But even for these two small issues I recommend this book to everyone who wants to learn EF in 'why' way. I have already ordered second edition of this book.

If you're looking into learning ADO.NET Entity Framework, this is the book to have. The book is concise, very detailed, and well-written-- and that's usually rare to find in most technical books these days. The author often sheds some insights on remote subjects that are related, and gives the most-straightforward answers. Apart from other technical books, I can really tell that she took a lot of time and effort on making sure that every single topic is well-understood. I felt that she's actually speaking my language instead of trying to impress me with jargon that will just throw me off. Having said that, it's a natural gift to communicate and be able to explain complicate things in the most simple manner. I wish sometimes that every author out there shares the same passion of teaching as her.

Aside from the book being well-written, the combination of screen shots, notes and codes in both VB and C# makes the material easier to "stick". The reason for having both languages is the fact that C# and VB has some language distinctions that may not well translate easily into the other language, and vice-versa. It helps to have both just for reference. The book is filled with every information that you'll need to know to work with Entity Framework, and every options are explored as far as utilizing the available features. People with no experience regarding Entity Framework or LINQ to SQL will be able to pick up things easily since it all starts with the basics and build upon the previous examples.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who are interested in getting to know Entity Framework from the inside-out. The book is well-written and the topics are easy to understand. If you've been wondering about the intricacy of EF such what the underlying metadata does, or how queries are being executed, among other things, then this is it.

Lerman's writing style is very clear and concise. The book is full of in-depth information and practical tidbits. There is a great mix of explanatory material of EF's architecture and guidance for using EF in your own applications.

I read this book to learn about ADO.NET Entity Framework and I have to say the author did an excellent job. She has an easy to read writing style and delivers each topic in a straightforward and uncomplicated way. The code examples are in both VB.NET and C#. The author admits to having a stronger VB.NET background over C# and I did find a few discrepancies here and there. I am usually not a big fan of books that try to cover both languages in the same text. This book is over 800 pages but there is a fair amount of white space, especially in the code examples, so it is actually a quick page-turner. Compared to the other books available on this topic, I can recommend it and you will learn more than you will ever need to know about EF.