The next version of Entity Framework has many new features, many of which are enabling it to catch up with features previously available in other frameworks like LINQ to SQL.  One of these new features is the updated stored procedure support.  In previous versions of EF, working with stored procedures was quite limited and really only usable with CRUD operations that were mapped to already defined entities.  With EF 4, you can start with your stored procedure and have the designer automatically...

Lately I've been working with EF 4.0 and finding that many of the new features are catching up with the features previously available in other framework like LINQ to SQL.  One example of this is the ability to easily attach objects (for example, disconnected objects that come in from another tier).  For example, imagine you had a web service where a consumer submitted an object to get saved – you'd want to instantiate a new context, attach the incoming entity, and save the object.  In previous v...

Recently my company [http://appliedis.com/] just released the first version of a new MVC web site: AlbumCredits.com [http://albumcredits.com/].  This project, led by Oskar Austegard [http://mo.notono.us/], is was I consider a highly successful real-world implementation of MVC. In a time when most music these days is downloaded, the production and performance engineers, and recording professionals that work on the music don't always get credit because there is no CD booklet to look through.  Albu...

If you're planning on being at Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp [http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/WKSP08] (already sold out) at PDC 09 [http://microsoftpdc.com/] next week come check out the "Lunch with the MVPs" scheduled from 12:00-1:15. We will be having several tables where you can come over and have (informal) conversations on a wide range of topics including: MVC, RIA, Silverlight, XNA, LINQ, and more.  I will be leading the table "MVC in the Real World" so come check us out.  Hope to see y...

Thanks to everyone who attended my LINQ to SQL presentation at RockNUG [http://rocknug.org/] last night.  The code samples can be downloaded here: LINQ to SQL demo code [http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=michelotti&DownloadId=1791] . As a point of clarification from last night's Q&A session after the presentation regarding using LINQ to SQL with true POCO classes that do not even have [Column] mapping attributes, you can have a class like this: pu...