Entity Developer 3.00 with Advanced Model-First Support released!
November 29, 2010
Devart is glad to present the release of Entity Developer
3.00, a powerful modeling and code generation tool for ADO.NET Entity Framework,
LinqConnect, and LINQ to SQL. The new version delivers advanced Model First support
and Update model from database functionality.
Model-First
New Entity Developer provides advanced Model First support for both Entity Framework
1 and 4, for LinqConnect, and for LINQ to SQL. Model First approach implementation
in Entity Developer offers automatic synchronization of mapping and storage part
with the conceptual part of the model and easy to use wizards for synchronizing
database with the model.
-
Synchronizing Database with the Model
Entity Developer offers you two options for creating database based on your model.
You may either generate a create script, that creates a new database, or use Update
to Database Wizard that synchronizes an existing database with the model. This wizard
makes only necessary changes to the database and retain the data if possible. Even
changes inside entity are detected and resulted in ALTER statements, the table doesn't
need to be dropped and created again. The wizard displays the tree of the changed
objects and their changes, allowing you to choose which database objects need to
be synchronized with the model, specify the renamed objects, etc.
-
Mapping Synchronization
When automatic mapping synchronization is enabled, changes to the conceptual model
are automatically applied to its mapping and storage part. For example, when you
add a class to the conceptual part, a corresponding table is created in the storage
part, and the class is automatically mapped to this table. Even the most complex
conceptual part changes are supported - complex types, many-to-many associations,
complex hierarchies. All these changes can be automatically reflected in the storage
part. However you may make manual changes to the storage part, and they will be
preserved when editing conceptual part.
Updating Model from Database
Update From Database Wizard was the most demanded feature at our
UserVoice forum. The opinion of our users is important to us, so this feature
was implemented in Entity Developer 3.00 as soon as possible.
Update From Database Wizard allows synchronizing your model with the database for
Entity Framework, LinqConnect, and LINQ to SQL in a fast and convenient way. Unlike
standard Visual Studio Update Wizard, Entity Developer Update From Database Wizard
tries to preserve manual changes to the model where possible. The wizard detects
all the database changes that can affect the model, e.g. created and deleted tables
and views, their columns and foreign keys, column datatype changes, created and
deleted stored procedures and functions, changes to their parameters etc.
You are welcome to download Entity Developer
here.
If you wish to provide feedback on the new version, you can do it in our forums or with contact form.
There is also a feedback form, and
we are always glad to hear your comments and take into account your development
needs.
If you want to share your ideas about new Entity Developer features, you may do
it on the UserVoice.
See our blog article
for more information.