Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta & .NET 3.5 SP1 Beta
We are very excited to announce that .NET 3.5 SP1 Beta 1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta 1 are now available!
This beta marks the entry of the ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services (aka project Astoria) as part of the overall .NET/Visual Studio product install and will be the final beta before the RTM of these two technologies. In addition, this beta will introduce the new date time functions for SQL Server 2008 to LINQ to SQL.
The Entity Framework extends the reach of ADO.NET, providing a new data model that will be the foundation for a range of data services moving forward, and enhances the common ADO.NET provider model enabling a LINQ programming experience against 3rd party databases. The Entity Framework designer in Visual Studio works with 3rd party databases as well and enables developers to visualize the data model being used by the application.
ADO.NET Data Services, provides the foundation for building the next generation of data-driven applications and services, building on Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) to provide an end-to-end experience for building data-centric REST based services in .NET. The ADO.NET Data Services framework provides a REST based query model, a means of exchanging metadata (in terms of the Entity Data Model) and client and mid-tier API’s that let people build rich data services and clients in a way that is easier than ever before. You can start with the Entity Framework and expose relational data via the Data Services Framework, you can expose non-relational data using a custom provider, or you can use some of the existing services that already expose these protocols including Live App Storage and Live Spaces Photos.
We invite you all to download this beta and start using these technologies today.
Jason Wilcox
Product Unit Manager, DP Runtime
and
Britt Johnston
Product Unit Manager, DP Tools