What Is Entity Framework In ASP.NET MVC

What Is Entity Framework?

 

Entity Framework is ORM(Object Relational Mapping) 

introduced by Microsoft. It proves very useful for new 

developers for it’s simplicity to query against 

conceptual 

schema and also has rich feature set. Many time the 

question has been asked in the interview to explain

differences between Entity Framework and LINQ To SQL 

to the developers who has work experience in Entity 

Framework. I have made table of differences between 

these two technologies.

Entity Framework (EF) is an open source ORM framework 

for 

ADO.NET which is a part of .NET Framework.
 

An ORM takes care of creating database connections and 

executing commands, as well as taking query results and 

automatically materializing those results as your application 

objects.  

An ORM also helps to keep track of changes to those 

objects, and when instructed, it will also persist those 

changes back to the database for you.  

 

Parameter	LINQ To SQL	Entity Framework
DB Server	LINQ To SQL  supports only  Microsoft SQL  Server 2000 and later version and  even SQL Server  2000 has some  limitations.	With Entity Framework you can  plug any DB Server i.e. IBM DB2,  Sybase  SqlAnyWhere,  Oracle, SQL Azure,  and lot more.
Inheritance	In LINQ To SQL inheritance is difficult to apply. It supports Table Per Class Hierarchy(TPH).	In Entity Framework inheritance is simple to apply. It supports Table Per Class Hierarchy(TPH) and Table Per Type(TPT). It also provides limited support of Table Per Concrete Class(TPC).
Complex Type(Non scalar property of an entity type that does not have a key property) Support	LINQ To SQL does not support the creation of complex types.	Entity Framework support the creation of complex types.
Complexity	LINQ To SQL is easier to use.	Entity Framework is more complex compared to LINQ To SQL.
Model	LINQ To SQL provides one-to-one mapping of tables to classes.	Entity Framework enable decoupling DB Server(Database Schema) and Entity Representaion in terms of Model(Conceptual Schema). You can map one table to multiple entities or multiple table to one entity.
Development Time	LINQ To SQL is simple to learn and implement for Rapid Application Development, but it will not work in complex applications.	Entity Framework has more features which will take time to learn and implement, but it will work in complex applications.
Mapping Type	In LINQ To SQL each table is mapped to single class. Join table must be represented as a class. Also, complex types cannot be easily represented without creating separate table.	In Entity Framework a class can map to multiple tables.
File Type	It uses Database Markup Language(DBML) file that contains XML mappings of entities to tables.	Entity Framework uses four files EDMX, CSDL, SSDL and MSL. The later three are generated at runtime.
Query Capability	LINQ To SQL has DataContext object through which we can query the database.	With the Entity Framework, we can query database using LINQ To Entities through the ObjectContext object and ESQL(provides SQL like query language). In addition, Entity Framework has ObjectQuery class(used with Object Services for dynamically constructing queries at runtime) and EntityClient provider(runs query against conceptual model).
Performance	LINQ To SQL is slow for the first time run. After first run provides acceptable performance.	Entity Framework is also slow for the first run, but after first run provides slightly better performance compared to LINQ To SQL.
Future Enhancement	Microsoft intended to obsolete LINQ To SQL after the Entity Framework releases. So it will not receive any future enhancements.	Entity Framework has future enhacements.
Generate Database from Model	It has no capability to generate database from Model.	Entity Framework supports generation of database from Model.

Features Of Entity Framework :  

Following are the basic features of Entity Framework. This 

list is created based on the most notable features and also 

from frequently asked questions about Entity Framework.  

1. Entity Framework is a Microsoft tool.   

2. Entity Framework is being developed as an Open Source product. 

3. Entity Framework is no longer tied or dependent to the .NET release cycle.  

4. Works with any relational database with valid Entity Framework provider.   

5. SQL command generation from LINQ to Entities.   

6. Entity Framework will create parameterized queries. 

7. Tracks changes to in-memory objects.
    

8. Allows to insert, update and delete command generation.  

9. Works with a visual model or with your own classes.

10. Entity Framework has stored Procedure Support.  

 How to setup in entity framework in asp.net mvc click here.