Azure Functions Development Best Practices : Bindings vs EF Core

Question

I know the big thing about Azure Functions is to use the Bindings...and I love it :-)

For MSSQL, you put the query, the connection and voilá...Work like a charm...

But what about use EF Core ? If I do it, I can't use Bindings, right ?
Is EF Core an anti-pattern for Azure Functions ? Maybe I am wrong and it's possible to use bindings with EF Core?

What is your opinion ?

Answer 1

Hello @MarcoSJunior-5055 - Thanks for reaching out! Below are my inputs on the questions you raised:

But what about using EF Core? Maybe I am wrong and it's possible to use bindings with EF Core?

It's definitely possible to use EF Core in your Azure Functions, and the best way is via a Dependency Injection, as demonstrated here: Entity Framework on Azure Functions with Dependency Injection

Is EF Core an anti-pattern for Azure Functions? If I do it, I can't use Bindings, right?

I think being able to leverage DI for well-organized abstractions of EF Core & Functions integration is something very positive for our consideration. Now, how useful and efficient that is to the overall workload & development effort is the next to consider. If your functions interact with SQL data at a minimum and don't carry out complex data-handling operations, using Bindings and structuring your functions accordingly is sufficient.

Conversely, if your workload does require a lot of data handling where the use of ORM can be more effective, there's nothing wrong with start using EF Core. Although I would also be mindful of stateful and stateless workloads, and consider using Durable Functions when it makes more sense.

I hope my answers are helpful, feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.