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 ) 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 Eric Evans' and Jimmy Nillsson's , 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.
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