The .NET Framework’s Object Relational Mapper programming framework contains an integrated integration with Microsoft Visual Studio that establishes the Entity Framework Code First package for generating classes that represent relational tables and their relations.
The Entity Framework ORM Code First package from the .NET Framework’s Object Relational Mapping programming framework makes the representation of relational tables and relations simple to grasp.
Entity Framework Core 6
Previously, EF Core 6 supported both.NET 5 and.NET 6 in its first preview versions. In later versions, it supports just.NET 5. You can still work with entity models developer frameworks developed in previous Entity Developer versions for now. You will be able to design new models for future versions of Entity Developer when we release them.
- Currently EF Core 6 has discontinued.NET 5 support, and supports only.NET
- .NET 6 support has also been removed from Visual Studio 2019 Preview, and is currently only available in Visual Studio
We don’t have an available version of this course yet, but we’re working hard to make it available soon! Entity Developer is still in Beta. It currently supports Entity Framework Core 6 in the Standalone and Console versions, but this feature is not yet available for Visual Studio 2022.
Support for New Types
As you’ve learned how to create a complex type model, we are now building out support for other types as well. The previous Entity Developer version included support for IPAddress and PhysicalAddress types. We’ve added Uri to the list of other types supported by the plugin in the Plugin Options dialog.
The Entity Framework Core 3.0 version supports Uri type for both DbContext and ObjectContext. Entity Framework Core provides a number of built-in providers that make mapping data to the underlying table types easier.
The new DateTime and TimeSpan types have been improved to be more suitable for many more situations. The new DateOnly and TimeOnly types can also be useful in some cases. EF Core supports a wide variety of providers, but this update adds the support for Microsoft OData v4. The DateOnly type and TimeOnly type are now available in the Primitive Types section.
The list of implemented types in Entity Developer grew progressively over time, but the Type UI list in the Property Editor dialog box was small by default. The new version includes support for more types in the Property Editor dialog box, making property selection significantly easier.
Storing Model Connection
The edps file has long been an accepted location for a generated model’s g (connection string). However, in certain circumstances this is impractical due to the security concerns associated with this tactic. In the case of when a model is stored in a code repository (Git Mercurial SVN etc.), this is an issue.
There’s a special parameter for this, called Persist Security Info, which lets you limit how long the model’s sensitive information remains stored. If you want to remove the password from the connection string before saving, set this property to False. The new Entity Developer provides additional security features. It’s recommended to upgrade if you want the maximum protection for your data and your business.
Now you are able to discard the connection string in the script file perfectly. This provides the greatest security, but can be a bit frustrating especially if you must connect to the database often, for example, for the process to remain the same as when it’s first established or when the database has been updated.
For our future plans for this feature, we are working on partial support for ASP.NET Core User Secrets, and we are aiming to improve VS integration with this project. This task is not without its complications, as .NET Core is intended to exclusively support .NET Core projects and the user is strongly associated with Visual Studio.
Repository and Unit Of Work Template
The Generate UnitOfWork Repository Properties property for EF Core models (by default, True) has been added to the Repository And Unit Of Work template for Tomorrowland values.
Before this property, this property generated a IUserTask interface, which could then be used in different parts of your application. User tasks may also be implemented in many different ways, which would depend on your business’s configuration.
Data Transfer Object Template
The Data Transfer Object template now includes the “Validation Framework” and “Validation Error Messages” properties for all ORMs. If you need to add metadata to your model classes, the Entity Framework Core includes an attribute generator in the package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Metadata. Now you can easily generate a collection of DTO classes with different names and values for every property of your domain model without having to touch a single line of code.
EF Core Template
Enum types in the Entity Framework Core model are a special feature. When using them, they can generate the code for them, when needed. However, in some cases, when using such enums as property types of entities and DTO classes, there may be a problem with the DTO template if output is generated to different projects.
In this case, there is a need to specify output for enums. We have added the new “Enum Output” property to the EF Core templates to allow you to specify output for generated enums.