How to Use Entity Framework 4 with Visual Studio 2013 - visual-studio-2010

We have recently upgraded our Visual Studio from 2010 to 2013. With it came EF 6.0, which is incompatible with the code generated from EF 4.
I need to update a table in the model with the latest version from the DB schema. When doing that, both "Update" and "Add" after deletion of the table definition do the following:
Remove all custom code already written for all types in the model, even if they are in separate files than the model;
Generate the new EF 6.0 bindings;
(optionally) Generate the new repository.
Now, that's obviously not the same behavior as in EF 4, which only regenerated the repository and did not touch the custom code.
We are not using NuGet, but referencing the EF library inside the project.
I guess VS 2013 uses a different version of the code generator than VS 2010. How can we revert to the old behavior?
UPDATE:
I have tried using NuGet to download EF 4.3.1 and repeat the update model steps (also delete and then recreate), but I am still seeing the old behavior. I think there is a problem with the VS 2013 EF Code Generator.

For me, the following solution worked.
Double-click on your edmx file and open its properties window. Change Code Generation Strategy from T4 to Legacy Object Context. Build your solution. It may cause thousands of errors because you have redeclared functions and properties, so remove all files that weren't there before.

Related

Entity Framework not appearing in Add New Item list in Visual Studio 2017

I created a new MVC project in Visual Studio 2017. I wanted to add an EDMX file (I will be doing database-first) so right clicked on the project and selected Add|New Item.
However, I cannot find the Entity Framework components that were available in the previous versions of Visual Studio. Does anyone know where they went?
I had a similar issue today after i updated my VS to the latest 2017 version. I tried to open an .edmx file in VS2017 and it didn't show the designer view. So i realised i forgot to select Entity Framework tools during the installation:
Everything is back to normal :)
In .NET Framework-based projects, the Entity Framework 6 templates are still there. However, for .NET Core-based projects, I believe you're expected to use the dotnet ef commands. This includes a means of scaffolding a code-first DbContext from an existing database. See ASP.NET Core - Existing Database.
To verify this, I setup a demo project with the following structure:
The New Item/Data dialog for the .NET Framework project:
Note that there is also an EF POCO Generator template available in the Online templates section that may be of interest to you:
I know this is late, but I ran into the same exact issue. After reading some of the other answers, I realized I had created a .Net project with Standard library instead of the Framework library.
I faced this issue, while creating an MVC application on my latest installation of VS2017.
Failed:
Tried installing Entity Framework using Nuget package manager[Install-Package EntityFramework], but failed to show Ado.NET Entity data model
Success:
1. open programs under control panel and select Visual Studio 2017
2. select Change the installation
3. Select Modify installation
4. Select Individual components
5. If SQL server data tools already installed, deselect/uninstall this component and reinstall the same again.
6. uninstall and reinstall SQL Server Data tools
Note: with one component change, other components may also be deleted. You have to recheck while reinstalling

Where is the EDM tool in Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate Trial?

I just installed VS 2013 Ultimate Trial and I noticed there is no EDM option as shown in the following figure.
Why?
According to ADO.NET Blog, the tool should be available out of the box.
From Visual Studio 2013 onwards we will no longer include the extension that enables configuring an "EDM" data source in this way, e.g. if you add an .MDF file to a project you will no longer see the option to create an EF model, and the option of creating an "EDM" data source based on an existing EDMX model as well as the ability to drag and drop to create data-bound controls automatically in WPF application based on those "EDM" data sources are no longer included.
The recommended ways to create an EF model are either creating the classes,manually (Code First) or adding a new "ADO.NET Entity Data Model" using Add New Item.
The recommended way to do data binding against EF models in WPF applications is through use regular object data sources as explained in this walkthrough.

how can i use Entity Framework 4.1 in Visual Studio 2012?

I have a web application on a web farm and i use .NET 4 and entity data model 4.1.
when i started working on this web application i used visual studio 2010, and today i have uninstalled it and installed new version (Visual Studio 2012).
Due to some reasons, i have deleted my ado.net entity data model to recreate it, but i
pay attention that visual studio 2012 use entity framework 5 not 4.1. I have updated it but in old model i can context constructor to change my connection string but in this new model have no constructor, is that true?
I have installed EF 4.1 but it doesn't works and I've added version 5 to my project.
Background info: my web application is on a shared host and i can not update it to EF 5.
How can i use entity framework 4.1 in visual studio 2012 ?
is that possible? if yes, how?
Remove Existing (Entity framework 5)
Remove the existing reference (to Entity framework 5) under the References section in your Project in Solution explorer.
Remove the corresponding entry from your packages.config file. If you open the packages.config file, you will see an xml structure and you will see an element with id EntityFramework with version attribute value as 5.0.0. Remove that line( that package element).
Add Again (Entity framework 4.1)
Now go to the package manager window(View->Other Windows -> Package Manager Console) and execute the following command there.
Install-Package EntityFramework -Version 4.1.10331.0
This will download EF 4.1 to your project and you will see the success message like below.
Reference : http://nuget.org/packages/EntityFramework/4.1.10331.0
Always keep in mind that there are a lot of improvements made in EF 5. So consider to consume all those as possible as you can.

Table Valued Functions in EDMX with Entity Framework 5 / Visual Studio 2010

If it possible to use table valued functions in an EDMX with Entity Framework 5 RC / Visual Studio 2010?
I cannot see the option in the EDMX designer, I have a feeling that the designer is in .net 4.5? Are my suspicions correct? Or perhaps in Visual Studio 11?
I'm not really in a position to be able to upgrade our project to .net 4.5 yet, is there another way of using table valued functions (perhaps modifying the edmx by hand?).
ADDITIONAL INFO:
This blog post on msdn helps confirm the incompatibility:
Some features are only available when writing an application that
targets .NET 4.5. This includes enum support, spatial data types,
table-valued functions and the performance improvements. If you are
targeting .NET 4.0 you still get all the bug fixes and other minor
improvements.
However interestingly, this tutorial discuses modifying the EDMX directly to add support for TVF, but it appears to be for a an old beta. The XML intellisense also didn't find the elements discussed in the tutorial, but it might be because it was using a different schema. Unfortunately I've run out of time to try and apply the tutorial to the new EF5 Release candidate, but I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has had any luck.
Unfortunately table valued function support is currently dependent on .NET 4.5 and VS 2012.
I have been using this approach in order to use table-valued functions from EF 4. Basically it includes hand-editing the EDMX file. The downside to that approach is that you need to edit the file manually whenever you update your model.

How to find dbcontext template in Visual Studio 11

I'm using database first approach to create a model with entity framework. In VS2010 after the model was generated I always choose a different code generation template (right click on diagram "Add new code generation item") then, in the dialog box, choose "DbContext Generator". This will instruct VS to generate POCO classes instead of the, very complex, standard class. When I tried to do the same in the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview I can't find the template "DbContext Generator" in the dialog.
How can I add the dbcontext template to the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview?
I saw I can use nuget but I'm unable find it when I do a search.
Can you add the Entity Framework Power Tools via the Extension Manager? Then in a class library, you can right-click and "Reverse Engineer Code First". That will pull your database in and create everything you need (no need for EDMX and TT files). You will need to have EF 4.1 installed or have added the EntityFramework NuGet package to your project before running reverse engineer.
I don't have VS 11 installed here, so can't check if the tools will install (I'm also not sure whether these features are being rolled into 11) but anyway will work great in 2010 as I frequently use it.
Richard
In February Microsoft release a dbContext Generator that works on Visual Studio 11 Beta.
The link to download this generator is:
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/da740968-02f9-42a9-9ee4-1a9a06d896a2?SRC=VSIDE
Hope it helps.

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