ADO.Net seems to refer directly to the technology for data sets and data tables. Entity Framework is Microsoft’s recommended data access technology for new applications. When an entity has the property of another type of entity property, it is called reference navigation property. EF API can map each entity to tables and each property of an entity to a column in the database. Internally, these E-SQL queries are converted to SQL queries that are data store dependent.
Prior to .NET 3.5, we (developers) often used to write ADO.NET code or Enterprise Data Access Block to save or retrieve application data from the underlying database. We used to open a connection to the database, create a DataSet to fetch or submit the data to the database, convert data from the DataSet to .NET objects or vice-versa to apply business rules. Microsoft has provided a framework called “Entity Framework” to automate all these database related activities for your application. It is an entity class that does not depend on any framework-specific base class. It is the normal .NET CLR class that’s why it is named “Plain Old CLR Objects”.
Code First Approach
This tutorial is designed for those who want to learn how to start the development of the Entity Framework in their application. The aim of the ORM is to increase the developer’s productivity by reducing the redundant task used in the application. This tutorial on ‘ASP.NET Entity Framework’ covers its features and architecture. Apart from what ASP.NET Entity framework is, it also includes why to use it and its version history.
As you can see, there’s a many-to-many relationship between my two classes, and when I run my migration, everything goes well. I get my table A, my table B, and my table AB, which contains A_ID and B_ID. In this scenario, a different context is used to retrieve and save data. One instance of context class is used to retrieve the data, and another is used to save the data. EF API is responsible for maintaining the states of entities throughout their lifecycle. Each entity possesses a state according to the operation performed by the context class.
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It supports many operations like update, create, and delete that are generated by the entity data model. This approach first targets a database that does not exist and then creates it. It allows the developers to define and make new models with C# and .NET classes. In the code-first approach, EF Core API creates the database and tables using migration based on the conventions and configuration provided in your domain classes. Here, you can observe we have created the connection object, created the data adapter object, and created Dataset, Data Tables, and DataView objects.
- Now your object directly works with the database to retrieve or make changes.
- Proceeding further, you will see the comparison between EF6 and EF Core.
- This list is created based on the most notable features and also from frequently asked questions about Entity Framework.
Let us first see the example without using Entity Framework and then we will see the same example using Entity Framework. In the below example, we are using ADO.NET to interact with the database to fetch the data and display it in the console. Version 5.0.0 was released on August 11, 2012[11] and is targeted at .NET framework 4.5. Also, this version is available for .Net framework 4, but without any runtime advantages over version 4. The following figure illustrates where the Entity Framework fits into your application.
Navigation Property
Entity Framework will execute the relevant query in the database and then materialize results into instances of your domain objects for you to work within your app. That means the Entity Framework eliminates the need for writing the data-access code that developers usually need to write. As per the above figure, Entity Framework fits between the business entities (domain classes) and the database. Now your object directly works with the database to retrieve or make changes. The above diagram shows that the Entity Framework fits between the Data Layer and the database.
Entity Framework is an ORM and ORMs are aimed to increase the developer’s productivity by reducing the redundant task of persisting the data used in the applications. The following figure illustrates the supported application types, .NET Frameworks and OSs. Entity Framework (EF) is an open source[2] object–relational mapping (ORM) framework for ADO.NET. It was originally shipped as an integral part of .NET Framework, however starting with Entity Framework version 6.0 it has been delivered separately from the .NET Framework. There are other ORMs in the marketplace, such as NHibernate and LLBL Gen Pro. Most ORMs typically map the type of the domain directly to the schema of the database.
Foreign keys in Entity Framework Core in an ASP.NET Core Web API
E-SQL queries are converted to datastore-specific query languages like T-SQL via the Entity Framework (Transact SQL). This approach is an alternative for the code-first approach and the model-first approach. It creates the model and codes from the database in the project and connects them with the database and developer.
Now copy and paste the following code in the main method of the program class as shown below. From our next article onwards, I am going to explain everything in detail. The Entity Framework Create Employee and Department classes automatically based on the Employees and Departments Tables. Tables are mapped to classes and columns are mapped to class properties.
What Is the Use of Entity Framework in C#?
EF Core includes providers as NuGet packages which you need to install. Entity Framework Core is the new version of Entity Framework after EF 6.x. It is open-source, lightweight, extensible and a cross-platform version of Entity Framework data access technology. An ORM framework does this object to SQL mapping by generating SQL statements and the Entity manager will execute them when you need to save or load objects from the database. It comes at the cost of another abstraction layer, but it will make the code easier to write.
But Entity Framework can do all of the above automatically for us if we provide the necessary database schema to the Entity Framework. Let us understand this step by step how to achieve the same using Entity Framework. Entity Framework is an Object-Relational Mapper which enable the .NET developers to work with the database using the .NET objects. It eliminates the need for accessing the code of the data that developers need to write. Entity Framework Core uses a provider model to access many different databases.
Basic Workflow in Entity Framework
It also reduces the code size of the data specific applications and also the readability of the code increases by using it. This is a new technology for accessing the data for Microsoft application. Entity Framework is an open-source ORM (Object Relational Mapping) Framework for the .NET applications supported by Microsoft. It enables the developers to work with the data using the what is entity framework objects of domain-specific classes without focussing on the database tables and columns where the data is stored. With the Entity Framework, developers can work at a higher level of abstraction when developers deal with the data. With the help of Entity Framework, we can create and maintain data-oriented applications with less code when compared with traditional applications.
