Entity Framework

Entity framework is designed to separate the usage of the data layer elements like table names columns types, database type, and some added functionalities like super-set and subset.

It is good in the aspects mentioned above. But as Microsoft says, it is not a OR mapper. So, you cant get the benefits of the OR mapper like caching and database column validation, custom load, foreign keys values, and some like that.

All you have is the designer that you can do many things in it. and you have to edit this file for further subclassing conditions value - it saves the hexadecimal value and you have to change it manually, hope it will be solved at the final release- also, you can manage whether this table can be accessed via stored procedure or by generated query - if you select a stored procedure for one function like delete, you have to supply *sp for the rest update, insert :S - It is not complete now. Hope that it will be fixed in the final release. I made a comparison between Entity framework and .net Tier, and I found this

Entity Framework	.net Tier
one file contains entities and relations	contains many projects and files to represent the entities and its relations	No. of files generated
you can subclass entities based on condition easily from designer	you have to create the subclass file and modify the super-class manually	Super-class and subclass
entity object references not accessible outside domain [web service, WCF]	entity object accessible anywhere	entity object accessibility
queries accessible via linq and e-sql	accessible via defined functions	data retrieved
select query generated from linq and e-sql	select query defined in sp	select query
using the facade generated class for update and delete and insert, no e-sql	using the sp for all the operations	DML functions

This is all as far as I used the Entity framework. it is good but not as good as hibernate.


*sp: stored procedure