Entity Framework Promises Simpler Data Access

A planned data access technology called the ADO.NET Entity Framework could simplify application maintenance by insulating applications from database design changes and reducing the amount of repetitive data access code that developers have to write. The Entity Framework will also support promising new Microsoft technologies for Web services development, and it could play an important future role in Microsoft’s business intelligence offerings. The Entity Framework is not appropriate for some application scenarios though, and the technology could change significantly in future versions.

Bridging the Application-Database Gap

Shipping in Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (released Aug. 2008), the Entity Framework is an object-relational mapping (ORM) system, a set of developer tools and runtime components that automatically map blocks of data (objects) in an application to corresponding tables in a relational database management system, such as Microsoft’s SQL Server. Rather than access the database directly, the application uses the intermediate objects to create, read, update, and delete data in the underlying database. (See the illustration “Mapping Application Data to Databases“.)