When Microsoft will release Entity Framework 6.x (.NET Full framework) having Microsoft.Data.SQLClient support?

Question

We are migrating our .NET Full framework 4.8 based Data Access Layer projects from System.Data.SQLClient to Micosoft.Data.SQLClient. While it is very straightforward for AD0.NET based projects, we do have some projects where we are also using EF 6.0. As EF 6.0 doesn’t have Microsoft.Data.SQLClient support yet, we are not able to proceed with the migration.

We have come across this link : https://github.com/dotnet/ef6/pull/2063 which has detail about EF 6.5 source code having Microsoft.Data.SQLClient support but this is not officially available to be used in production.

So, may we know when Microsoft is planning to release EF 6.5/X having Microsoft.Data.SQLClient support for .NET Full framework project?

Answer 1

@Buch, Dishant, Welcome to Microsoft Q&A, based on my test, I find as you mentioned.

Microsoft.Data.SQLClient is currently not supported in ef 6.x.

I find Microsoft has stated some notes in their Github Status and Support:

EF6 is no longer being actively developed. This means that:

• Security issues will be fixed, as for any supported product.
• High-impact bugs, typically those impacting a very large number of users, may be fixed.
• Other bugs will not be fixed.
• New features will not be implemented

From the fourth point, Microsoft may not developed the new feature for using Microsoft.Data.SQLClient in ef 6.x.

Therefore, I recommend that you use ef core to replace ef.

Based on my test, I find that ef core supports Microsoft.Data.SQLClient.

Here is a sample you could have a look.

Hope my advice could help you.

Best Regards,

Jack

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Answer 2

in short there is no plan to release EF 6 with the Microsoft.Data.SQLClient.

EF 6 is no longer supported by Microsoft (except security fixes). Last supported nuget update was in may 2020.

the EF source code was uploaded to GitHub and made open source.

https://github.com/dotnet/ef6

The open source project has had feature updates, but does not have Microsoft support. If you want to use this project, you pull and build it yourself. I’d probably fork first as recommended.