LINQ and Entity Framework Posts for 5/4/2009+

Note: This weekly post is updated daily or more frequently, depending on the availability of new articles.

Entity Framework and Entity Data Model (EF/EDM)

Alex James continues his Entity Framework tips with (in reverse chronological order):

• Tip 18 – How to decide on a lifetime for your ObjectContext (5/7/2009)
• Tip 17 – How to do one step updates with AttachAsModified(..) (5/2/2009)
• Tip 16 – How to mimic .NET 4.0’s ObjectSet<T> today (5/1/2009)
• Corrected Tip 15 - How to avoid loading unnecessary properties (4/27/2009)
• Tip 15 - How to avoid loading unnecessary Properties (4/24/2009)

Simon Segal continues his series on Entity Framework and the Repository pattern with:

• Entity Framework Repository Testing : addendum (5/6/2009)
• Entity Framework Repository Testing (4/27/2009)

• Danny Simmons offers pointers to EF-related sessions at Tech*Ed 2009 in his Lots of EF Fun at TechEd Next Week post of 5/1/2009. Here’s my list from a session search on “Entity Framework”:

• BOF17 Build Great Web Applications Today: What Technologies Should I Use? • Thu 5/14 | 2:45 PM-4:00 PM | Room 501A • Presenter: Todd Anglin
• BOF21 Solving the Unforeseen Challenges of the ADO.NET Entity Framework: How Can .NET Developers Get Better Prepared? • Fri 5/15 | 1:00 PM-2:15 PM | Room 501A • Presenter: Jonathan Bruce
• BOF65 Implementing the Entity Framework in an n-Tier World • Thu 5/14 | 8:00 PM-9:00 PM | Room 502A • Presenter: David McCarter
• DAT308 Design Patterns for Application Architecture with the ADO.NET Entity Framework • Fri 5/15 | 2:45 PM-4:00 PM | Room 151Presenter: • Alex James
• DAT401 Data Access Hacks and Shortcuts • Fri 5/15 | 10:45 AM-12:00 PM | Room 502A • Presenter: Stephen Forte
• DTL05-INT Surprise! It's the Entity Framework Gotchas • Thu 5/14 | 1:00 PM-2:15 PM | Blue Thr 1 • Presenter: Julia Lerman
• DTL201 A Strategic Comparison of Data Access Technologies from Microsoft • Tue 5/12 | 4:30 PM-5:45 PM | Room 515A • Presenter: Michèle Leroux Bustamante
• DTL20-HOL Application Development with the ADO.NET Entity Framework in the Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• DTL312 The ADO.NET Entity Framework: Tips and Tricks• Wed 5/13 | 4:30 PM-5:45 PM | Room 152• Presenter: Julia Lerman
• DTL324 Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Overview for the Business Application Developer • Tue 5/12 | 4:30 PM-5:45 PM | Room 515B • Presenter: Jay Schmelzer
• DTL401 Applied Entity Framework • Wed 5/13 | 1:00 PM-2:15 PM | Room 408B • Presenter: Daniel Simmons
• PAN65 The Data Access Menu: Making Intelligent Choices • Wed 5/13 | 2:00 PM-3:00 PM | 501C • Presenter(s): Kent Alstad, Richard Campbell, Stephen Forte, Rockford Lhotka, Paul Sheriff

Looks to me like EF got the lion’s share of the data-related sessions.

Beth Massi’s Notifying the UI when Entity References Change in Lookup Comboboxes of 5/1/2009 observes:

[D]epending on your UI, you may need a notification to fire when the entity reference changes. By default this doesn’t happen with entities generated by the EF designer. Only scalar properties raise change notifications.

Beth’s shows how to solve the problem.

Alex James announces in Video on Entity Framework’s Model First in .NET 4.0 post of 5/1/2009:

Jonathan Carter (aka LostInTangent) has done a Channel 9 video on our upcoming Model First experience.

Model first was announced a while back here.

Beth Massi dives into problems with EF’s lack of exposed foreign key values in her Data Binding WPF Lookup Combobox Values to EF Entities post of 4/30/2009.

Beth Massi’s Tally Rows in a DataSet that Match a Condition post of 4/27/2009 begins:

Today I got a question that comes up often in data application programming about how to count rows in a DataSet that matched a condition. The DataSet may be bound to a DataGridView or other list control and it’s tempting to start looking at the control to see if you can coax it into returning what you need but usually there is a much better way.

This post describes the “much better way.”

Julie Lerman describes her first “baby steps” writing unit tests for EF in her Overcoming "Fear of Unit Testing" Disease article of 4/26/2009 for DevSource.

LINQ to SQL

Frans Bouma’s lengthy The desperate quest for doing it 'right' post of 5/4/2009 describes some of the new features coming in the next version of LLBLGen Pro.

Tech*Ed 2009 lists the following four sessions from a search on “LINQ to SQL:”

• DAT308 Design Patterns for Application Architecture with the ADO.NET Entity Framework • Fri 5/15 | 2:45 PM-4:00 PM | Room 151 • Presenter: Alex James
• DAT401 Data Access Hacks and Shortcuts • Fri 5/15 | 10:45 AM-12:00 PM | Room 502APresenter: Stephen Forte
• DTL402 How LINQ Works: A Deep Dive into the Microsoft Visual Basic and C# Implementations • Thu 5/14 | 2:45 PM-4:00 PM | Room 515BPresenter: Jonathan Aneja
• PAN65 The Data Access Menu: Making Intelligent Choices • Wed 5/13 | 2:00 PM-3:00 PM | 501C • Presenter(s): Kent Alstad, Richard Campbell, Stephen Forte, Rockford Lhotka, Paul Sheriff

LINQ to Objects, LINQ to XML, et al.

Sergey Zwezdin’s jLinq – LINQ for JavaScript post of 5/5/2009 describes jlinq and provides pointers to more information.

LinqMaster compares Returning a Single Element With LINQ First and LINQ Single in this 4/29/2009 post.

Tech*Ed 2009 lists the following 10 sessions from a search on “LINQ:” 

• DTL06-INT Task-Based Parallel Programming with the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 • Thu 5/14 | 1:00 PM-2:15 PM | Blue Thr 2 • Presenter: Stephen Toub
• DTL11-HOL Parallel Extensions: Building Multicore Applications with the Microsoft .NET Framework
• DTL12-HOL Microsoft Visual Basic 9 and LINQ • Presenter: David Aiken
• DTL313 Essential LINQ with C# • Wed 5/13 | 2:45 PM-4:00 PM | Room 402 • Presenter: Mark Michaelis
• DTL329 Parallel Computing APIs with the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 • Tue 5/12 | 2:45 PM-4:00 PM | Room 150 • Presenter: Mark Michaelis
• DTL336 Future Directions for Visual Basic • Wed 5/13 | 8:30 AM-9:45 AM | Room 152 • Presenter(s): Jonathan Aneja, Anders Hejlsberg
• DTL402 How LINQ Works: A Deep Dive into the Microsoft Visual Basic and C# Implementations • Thu 5/14 | 2:45 PM-4:00 PM | Room 515B • Presenter: Jonathan Aneja
• OFC307 Integrating WPF and WCF into Your Office Business Applications • Wed 5/13 | 2:45 PM-4:00 PM | Room 515BPresenter: Tim Huckaby
• OFC403 Developing Office Client Solutions Using LINQ and Open XML • Thu 5/14 | 4:30 PM-5:45 PM | Theatre (Room 411) • Presenter: Eric White
• PRC09 Mobile Device Development on Windows Mobile • Room 409 • Presenter: Jim Wilson

Eric White provides a preview of his Tech*Ed presentation in LINQ / Open XML at TechEd 2009 of 5/4/2009.

ADO.NET Data Services (Astoria)

Gil Fink reviews Apress’s new Astoria book by John Shaw and Simon Evans in his Pro ADO.NET Data Services Book Review post of 4/22/2009. He give the book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Phani Raju lists his duty hours covering Astoria at Tech*Ed 2009’s Data Development Technical Learning Center booth in his Going to Tech Ed post of 5/7/2009.

Tech*Ed 2009 lists the following four sessions from a search on “ADO.NET Data Services:”

• DTL327 Modeling RESTful Data Services • Mon 5/11 | 1:00 PM-2:15 PM | Room 404 • Presenter: Mike Flasko
• SOA04-HOL Connecting Microsoft .NET Applications to Legacy IBM Mainframe and Midrange Systems Using Microsoft Host Integration Server 2009
• SOA302 Building RESTful Services Using WCF • Thu 5/14 | 10:15 AM-11:30 AM | Room 404 • Presenter: Jon Flanders
• WUX02-HOL Microsoft ASP.NET Dynamic Data

ASP.NET Dynamic Data (DD)

Steve Naughton surfaces again with Communicating Between FieldTemplates in Dynamic Data of 5/8/2009:

A question that is asked a lot on the Dynamic Data Forum is how can I get a reference to a FieldTemplate, the reason people ask this is because they are used to doing things this was from classic ASP.Net code; the problem with this is that it leads to specialised code in the page, which means custom page and I always go for custom FieldTemplate over custom page.

Scott Hunter announces Dynamic Data Preview 4 Released in his 5/7/2009 post that describes its relaxed data requirements.

David Hayden’s ASP.NET Dynamic Data Preview 4 - Still No ASP.NET MVC Love post of 5/7/2009 reviews the new DD release that includes an ADO.NET Data Services sample. His complaint:

The only question I have is - “Where is the ASP.NET MVC Love?” Surely they still can't be “looking to see where Dynamic Data may fit with ASP.NET MVC” given ASP.NET MVC has been around for over a year in some fashion. Could they? :)

Tech*Ed 2009 lists the following two sessions from a search on “ASP.NET Dynamic Data:”

• DTL324 Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Overview for the Business Application Developer • Tue 5/12 | 4:30 PM-5:45 PM | Room 515B • Presenter: Jay Schmelzer
• WUX02-HOL Microsoft ASP.NET Dynamic Data

SQL Data Services (SDS) and Cloud Computing

This topic moved on 1/3/2009 to Windows Azure and Cloud Computing Posts for 1/5/2009+.

Miscellaneous (WPF, WCF, MVC, Silverlight, etc.)

Not covered at the moment.

Technorati Tags: Entity Framework,Entity Data Model,EDM,LINQ to SQL,LINQ,ADO.NET Data Services,Astoria Project,ASP.NET Dynamic Data