LINQ and Entity Framework Posts for 8/24/2009+

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

Entity Framework and Entity Data Model (EF/EDM)

Julie Lerman’s Follow up on last week’s Entity Framework Tips & Tricks webcast post of 9/3/2009 says:

Update: The webcast is online! But I unfortunately, the sound is dreadful.

I’m still waiting for the recording of the webcast to go online. It’s not there yet, but when it is, it will be on the same OReillyNet page that was used for registering: Entity Framework Tips & Tricks August 27th 2009 Webcast

In the meantime, I did put my demos online. You can find them at  www.learnentityframework.com/downloads. They are at the bottom of the page.

Alex James continues on 9/1/2009 his Entity Framework tips with Tip 34 – How to work with Updatable Views, which add a key overlay to every property icon for the entity.

Matthieu Mezil’s ADO.NET EntityObject Generator: how to get the EntityType’s EntitySet and how to get EntitySet’s EntityTypes? of 9/2/2009 begins:

One of my customers wanted to know how to get all EntityTypes for an EntitySet in his T4 template based on the MS ADO.NET EntityObject Generator one. So I made a POC for him. What do I do? I change two classes included in the template …

Matthieu describes the Entity Framework example he made for the Parallel Framework (PFx) in his PFx is good post of 8/1/2009.

Julie Lerman gives questions and answers in her Chat room questions from the EF Tips & Tricks webcast post of 8/28/2009.

Beth Massi’s New “How Do I” Videos Released on Entity Framework & WPF post of 8/26/2009 lists current Entity Framework-related videos:

Yesterday we released a couple more videos onto the Visual Basic Developer Center on building WPF data-entry forms with Entity Framework:

• How Do I: Hook Up and Display Validation in WPF using Entity Framework?
• How Do I: Build a WPF Master-Detail Data Entry Form Using Entity Framework?

That makes 5 videos total on working with EF in WPF applications. Others released previously:

• How Do I: Get Started with Entity Framework in WPF Applications?
• How Do I: Build a WPF Data Entry Form Using Entity Framework?
• How Do I: Create a WPF Lookup Combobox using Entity Framework?

These videos are based on articles I’ve posted here in the past. So if you like reading better that watching videos here you go:

• Data Binding WPF Lookup Combobox Values to EF Entities
• Notifying the UI when Entity References Change in Lookup Comboboxes
• Using the WPF ObservableCollection with EF Entities
• Implementing Validation in WPF on Entity Framework Entities
• Master-Detail Data Binding in WPF with Entity Framework
• Filtering Entity Framework Collections in Master-Detail Forms

There are also additional resources listed on the How Do I video pages themselves pointing to topics in the MSDN Library.

LINQ to SQL

LinqMaster’s LINQ to SQL Tips and Tricks of 8/29/2009 includes the following topics:

• Loading a delay-loaded property
• Intercepting create, update and delete operations
• Take full control of  the TSQL
• Complex stored procedures
• Cloning an entity

LINQ to Objects, LINQ to XML, et al.

Deborah Kurata’s Enumerable.Repeat post of 9/4/2009 “focuses on the Enumerable.Repeat method”:

The Enumerable class is new in .NET 3.5 and is part of the System.Linq namespace. It provides a set of static methods that allow you to query any object that implements IEnumerable, basically meaning any object that supports a for/each.

This post focuses on the Repeat method of the Enumerable class and some of the helpful things that this class can do for you.

Her Enumerable.Range post of the same date does the same for the Range method.

Deborah’s Nullable Data Types post of 9/2/2009 begins:

A data type is said to be nullable if it can be assigned a value or a null reference. Reference types, such as strings and class types, are nullable; they can be set to a null reference, and the result is a null value. Value types, such as integers, Booleans, and dates, are not nullable. If you set a value type to a null reference, the result is a default value, such as 0 or false.

And don’t miss her earlier Object-Oriented programming posts (in chronological order):

• What is OO? 8/31/2009
• What Are Objects? 8/31/2009
• What is a Class? 8/31/2009
• What is Inheritance? 9/1/2009
• What is an Interface? 9/1/2009
• Basic Pillars of an Object-Oriented System 9/1/2009

Bart De Smet continues his Type-Free Lambda essays with Type-Free Lambda Calculus in C#, Pre-4.0 – Defining the Lambda Language Runtime (LLR) of 8/30/2009:

A while back, I blogged about (Mis)using C# 4.0 Dynamic – Type-Free Lambda Calculus, Church Numerals, and more which was a fun post and got some good feedback and solid reading numbers. So, let’s continue our journey of brain-exploding theoretical foundational posts with “The Revenge of the Type-Free Lambda Calculus, Now Compatible with C# 3.0”. …

ADO.NET Data Services (Astoria)

Phani Raj explains Using the ADO.NET Data Services Silverlight client in x-domain and out of browser scenarios – I in this 9/3/2009 post:

With the release of ADO.NET Data Services v1.5 CTP2, you can now use the Silverlight Astoria client library to access Cross-Domain services and applications written with the new client library can go out of browser.

The new Client Http networking stack introduced in SL3 supports the standard and custom HTTP Verbs(GET/PUT/POST/DELETE/MERGE) as well as access to the response status codes required for a full fidelity REST-based client experience in Silverlight.

Working with the SL networking team, we modified the Astoria client library to use the networking stack in cross-domain and out-of-browser scenarios.
With this change, we are now able to support Cross-Domain calls allowed by ClientAccessPolicy.xml files and applications written with the Silverlight Astoria client library can go Out Of Browser. …

Marcelo Lopez Ruiz offers a table of Astoria 1.5 CTP2 updates in his ADO.NET Data Services - CTP and more post of 9/2/2009:

Feature	Available in CTP1?	New in CTP2
Projections	No	Yes!
Data Binding	Yes	API cleanup for types
Row Count	Yes	Bug fixes
Feed Customization	Yes	Renamed attributes and more flexibility
Server Driven Paging	Yes	Client library support
Enhanced BLOB support	Yes	Client library support
Request Pipeline	No	Yes!
New Provider Interface	Yes	API refactoring

Shayne Burgess provides a highly detailed Introduction to Data Binding in CTP2 in this 9/1/2009 post:

This blog post is an update to an introduction to the data binding capabilities we first added in Data Services v1.5 CTP1. In CTP2 we have taken the feedback we received from CTP1 and made some updates to the data binding feature. Since this is a CTP release of this feature we eagerly look forward to hearing more of your feedback. …

Elisa Flasko announces ADO.NET Data Services v1.5 CTP2 Now Available in this 9/1/2004 post:

ADO.NET Data Services v1.5 CTP2 is now available for download! This release (v1.5) targets the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 & Silverlight 3 platforms and provides new client and server side features for data service developers. 

What’s included in CTP2?

This release includes updates to the features that were in the CTP1 release of ADO.NET Data Services v1.5 plus a few additional new features and a number of bug fixes including:

• Projections
• Data Binding updates
• Feed Customization (aka "Web Friendly Feeds") updates
• Server Driven Paging (SDP) client library support
• Enhanced BLOB Support client library support
• Request Pipeline
• "Data Service Provider" Interface updates

For more information and to watch the Getting Started video check out the ADO.NET Data Services Team Blog.

Aaron Dunnington’s lavishly illustrated ADO.NET Data Services v1.5 CTP2 – Projections Overview (Server) post of 9/1/2009 is “an introduction to the projection server capabilities we have added in the ADO Data Services v1.5 CTP2 release.”

Phani Raj offers the following three-part series on Customizable feeds (a.k.a. Web-Friendly Feeds) for the ADO.NET Data Services v1.5 CTP2 release:

• Introducing Web Friendly Feeds aka Friendly Feeds (Updated for CTP2)
• ADO.NET Data Services Friendly Feeds , Mapping EDM Types – I
• ADO.NET Data Services Friendly Feeds , Mapping CLR Types

Anu Chandy, Asif Shaikh, ClaudioC, and Satish Nikam offer their Toolkit for PHP with ADO.NET Data Services:

Toolkit for PHP with ADO.NET Data Services enables PHP developers to access data services created using ADO .NET Data Services framework. The goal is to provide the similar functionality as .NET library to access and modify the data and its relationship using URIs which points to pieces of data integrated with the web.
Check the project page on the "Interoperability Bridges and Labs page" and read this blog post "A new bridge for PHP developers to .NET through REST: Toolkit for PHP with ADO.NET Data Services" for a more detailed introduction.

The toolkit was updated on 8/21/2009, but I missed it in the last post of this series.

ASP.NET Dynamic Data (DD)

No new articles of significance for this topic.

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

See the Astoria section for ADO.NET and Silverlight articles.

Technorati Tags: Entity Framework,Entity Data Model,EDM,LINQ to SQL,LINQ,ADO.NET Data Services,Astoria Project,Silverlight 3