Entity Framework 6 - ALPHA

Having logged in to the NuGet package manager in Visual Studio this morning, I discovered that a prerelease version of Entity Framework 6 appeared on the update list . Interested in what's new for us, I decided to find out more about this update. There is not much information yet, but we managed to find out something.

Entity Framework 6 is the next version of the Entity Framework, which will be released shortly. Now the alpha version of the Entity Framework 6 is available from the NuGet repository or downloaded as source codes from the CodePlex website.
In addition, you can also get the source code of the Entity Framework Power Tools on CodePlex. In the near future there will be the code for the project Entity Framework Designer.

What's new in Entity Framework 6

Task-based async

Task-based async - allows the Entity Framework to use asynchronous requests appeared in the .NET Framework 4.5. Thus, asynchronous requests, asynchronous data updates, etc. will be available.
Stored Procedures & Functions in Code First - now it will be possible to bind stored procedures and functions using the Code First API.

Custom Code First conventions

As you know, using the Code First approach to generate the database, the Entity Framework uses a number of default conventions. They define the rules for creating tables and are sufficient for a large number of situations. Now you can create and register your own agreements in Code First.
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Enum, Spatial and Better Performance on .NET 4.0

After moving the main components that were previously part of the .NET Framework, now support for enumerations and spatial data types has been added to the Entity Framework package for NuGet. In addition, performance has been increased compared to the Entity Framework 5 .

Code-Based Configuration

Traditionally, the Entity Framework configuration was made in the appropriate files (web.config, app.config). Entity Framework now provides the ability to configure in code.

Updated Provider Model

In the previous version of the Entity Framework, some of the core components were part of the .NET Framework. In Entity Framework 6, all of these components have been moved to the NuGet package. This will allow the development team in the future to provide more updates and new features in a shorter time.

Dependency Resolution

The Entity Framework now supports the Service Locator pattern and now has some functional blocks that can be replaced by custom implementations.
Recall that the Service Locator pattern abstracts the search (naming) API services, vendor dependencies, the complexity of the search operation and the creation of a business object, and provides clients with a simple interface. This reduces the complexity of the client. In addition, the same client, or other clients, can reuse the Service Locator.

How to get?

To try a new version in practice, you can quickly install it from the NuGet repository .
To do this (if you are using Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Studio 2012), just type in the package manager console:

Install-Package EntityFramework -Pre . Or you can download the project from the CodePlex website .

This is not a complete list of innovations. However, I want to remind once again that only the pre release version is now available, which means that it is not recommended to use it in commercial products.

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useful links

• Asynchronous programming and C # 5.0
• Entity Framework. Part 3 - Code First and Agreements
• EF6 Alpha 1 Available on NuGet
• Entity Framework Code-Based Configuration
• Code-based Configuration
• Entity Framework Providers for EF6
• Rebuilding EF providers for EF6
• Entity Framework 6
• Service Locator Pattern