Getting Started (Entity Framework)

The ADO.NET Entity Framework supports data-centric applications and services, and provides a platform for programming against data that raises the level of abstraction from the logical relational level to the conceptual level. By enabling developers to work with data at a greater level of abstraction, the Entity Framework supports code that is independent of any particular data storage engine or relational schema. For more information, see Entity Framework Overview.

The Entity Framework supports the Entity Data Model (EDM) for defining data at the conceptual level. When using the ADO.NET Entity Data Model Designer, conceptual model, storage model, and mapping information is contained in an .edmx file. The Entity Framework also enables developers to program directly against the data types defined at the conceptual level as common language runtime (CLR) objects. The Entity Framework provides tools to generate an .edmx file and the related CLR objects based on an existing database. This reduces much of the data access code that used to be required to create object-based data application and services, and makes it faster to create object-oriented data applications and services from an existing database. The tools also allow you to build a conceptual model first, then automatically generate related CLR objects and a supporting database. For more information, see Generate Database Wizard.

The topics in this section help you understand how to quickly use the Entity Framework by explaining the underlying technologies in the context of the Quickstart tutorial. The Quickstart tutorial demonstrates how to build an Entity Framework application from an existing database.

In This Section

• Generating Models and Mappings
  Describes how to derive a conceptual model from an existing database.

• Mapping a Conceptual Model to a Storage Model
  Describes how the conceptual model is mapped to the storage model.

• Working with Entity Data
  Demonstrates how to query a conceptual model and work with object data.

• Quickstart
  A tutorial that demonstrates how to create an Entity Framework application.

See Also

Concepts

Entity Framework Overview
Entity Framework Resources

Build Date: 2011-08-29