Microsoft® ADO.NET 4 Step by Step

Chapter 14. Visualizing Data Models

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Design an entity model using drag-and-drop techniques

• Describe how Visual Studio converts Entity Framework models to source code

• Import objects from an existing database into the Entity Framework

ADO.NET’s Entity Framework (EF) rests on a foundation of XML schema files. From the conceptual model used in your applications to the mapping links between your code and an external database, EF stores its core modeling data using three different XML schema languages. If you already understand XML, using these schema variants is not overwhelming. But trying to handcraft three layers of modeling data for the dozens or even hundreds of database objects that support a complex ...