Features related to Entity Framework support

To use the Entity Framework v1 (.NET 3.5 sp1), v4 (.NET 4), or v5 (.NET 4.5), you have all the designer features at your disposal. Choosing the Entity Framework v1, v4 or v5 as target framework allows you to generate code from the entity model in your project. The following list gives an overview of the various aspects of that generated code, what options are available to you and which functionality is available to you to configure the generated code and control what the generated code looks like.
  • The Databases which are supported for Entity Framework:
    • SQL Server 2000 or higher (EF v4 / v5 require SQL Server 2005 or higher), CE Desktop 3.5 or higher
    • Sybase iAnywhere / ASA
    • MySql (DevArt provider)
    • PostgreSql
    • DB2
    • Firebird
  • Configure the generated code using a wide range of settings.
    For Entity Framework v1, v4 and v5, the designer offers specific settings. For more details see Entity Framework v1 settings, Entity Framework v4 settings and Entity Framework v5 settings
  • Support for DbContext API, POCO entities, Self-tracking entities and 'Entity Framework v1 style entities'.
    Through the selection of 'presets', you can select what kind of code is generated: code which uses the DbContext API, code which utilizes POCOs, code which uses self-tracking entities or code which is equal to the code generated by the Microsoft Entity Framework v1 designer. More information...
  • Entity Framework v5 specific feature support
    LLBLGen Pro supports Entity Framework v5 specific features like Enums and spatial types.
  • Designer constructs and their effect on the generated code
    • Entities can be mapped onto a table, view or resultset of a table valued function and are available as normal classes.
    • Fields mapped onto a related field are available at the entity class level.
    • Value Type Definitions are generated as 'Complex Types', which is the term the entity framework uses
    • Typed Lists are generated as linq queries. This allows you to design projections over model elements in the LLBLGen Pro designer and use them using linq in your code. More information...
    • Action stored procedure calls are generated as methods on the generated datacontext class and use normal ADO.NET to call the stored procedure. More information...
    • Retrieval stored procedure calls are also generated as methods on the generated datacontext and return un-typed data in datatables/sets. More information...
    • Typed Views mapped onto a stored procedure resultset are resulting in a method onto the generated datacontext to call the stored procedure and obtain a typed resultset. More information...
  • Generated code is compatible with Microsoft's own generated code.
    If you are used to the generated code generated with Microsoft's own T4 templates, using the generated code produced by LLBLGen Pro is very easy as the features found in Microsoft's own generated code are also found in LLBLGen Pro's generated code.
  • Generated code is source-control friendly and well documented.
    The generated code is designed to be generated in the same form every time so elements appear at the same position and are named the same. Every element is documented with XML document elements to make it easy to produce XML Doc reference manuals.
  • Generated code is extensible.
    The generated code is designed to be extensible: both with generic base classes which can be used to add code to all generated classes of a given kind (e.g. all entity classes) and through a partial class per generated class to implement partial methods and add own custom code. The EDMX file is extensible through user code regions so you can add your own XML to the EDMX file at various places inside safe regions which are preserved by the code generator across code generation cycles.