IdeaBlade Whitepaper

Is the Entity Framework for Real?

By Ward Bell
Introduction
Five months after the official release of Microsoft’s ADO.NET Entity Framework
(EF), do we know where it stands? In particular:

(a) What is Microsoft’s commitment to Entity Framework?

(b) Is it good technology?
(c) Should you move to Entity Framework?
(d) Should you move to IdeaBlade’s “DevForce EF”?

Short answers: (a) total, (b) yes, (c) it depends, (d) it depends.
There are no fully adequate brief answers. I will give you a summary opinion now
and then I’ll expand my observations and answer your questions over the coming
weeks.

Microsoft’s Commitment
Entity Framework is the future of database access technology from Microsoft.

That may be hard to see. Microsoft announces a new data programmability option
every six months. In the last year I count LINQ to SQL, Entity Framework,
ADO.NET Data Services (aka, Astoria), SQL Data Services (not the same thing),
Dynamic Data, and Azure Storage Services. Yikes.

These are actually a mixed bag of often interrelated capabilities. Who can keep them
straight? In fact, of this set, only LINQ to SQL (L2S) and EF directly touch the data
sources. The other services offer alternative modalities of client data access and
themselves depend internally upon L2S or EF (or something else) for the “last mile.”

Microsoft recently merged announced that L2S is a dead end, smothered in the
cradle. You can read about it here where Tim Mallalieu, the program manager for
both LINQ to SQL and Entity Framework technologies writes,

“as of .NET 4.0, LINQ to Entities [aka, Entity Framework] will be the
recommended data access solution for LINQ to relational scenarios.”

You can learn more from Julie Lerman and L2S developer Damien Guard but Tim’s
statement settles it for me.

There remain plenty of non-“LINQ to relational scenarios” that call for raw
ADO.NET. But the contest between pro- and anti-ORM camps has been decisively
won by the pros. There is no discernable Microsoft action on “traditional” data access
technologies.

Is the Entity Framework for Real?  1

 Entity Framework was the data access technology on display at Tech Ed and PDC
2008, turning up repeatedly in talks about a wide range of subjects including cloud
computing, the “M” modeling language, and Silverlight LOB application
development.

With this kind of promotion and visibility it is hard to imagine Microsoft backing off
or changing course. Perhaps they might if EF were an irredeemable catastrophe.

Is Entity Framework Good Technology?

In fact, Entity Framework is pretty good. And it’s getting better.

There is a small crowd of nay-sayers. Some of the more alarmists made their case in
the widely noticed web petition called the "Vote of No Confidence". You’ll find my
response on my blog where I say, in essence, that the petitioners grossly exaggerate
both the deficiencies of EF and the benefits of their alternatives.

Is EF great? Not yet in my opinion. EF is still “version one” software so there are
problems a plenty … and I’m not shy with my list of “turn offs”. Our “DevForce EF”
product compensates for many of these problems but some of them will have to be
worked through over time with a combination of upgrades, commercial products
(e.g., ours), and community contributions.

Yet the EF core is rock solid and unequivocally suitable for most line-of-business
applications. We’ve worked with it intensively for almost two years, starting long
before its official release. If there were a rat to smell we would have smelled it and
walked away long ago. Instead, we’ve committed to Entity Framework and so have
many of our customers. One of them is building a software service on it that will
reach more than 20,000 customers next year.

They are not alone but just how many have moved to EF remains a mystery.
Microsoft hasn’t announced any numbers and they aren’t particularly good at this
kind of counting anyway. My only figure comes from an October 2008 survey on
Scott Hanselman’s blog in which 643 of 4900 respondents (13%) said they used EF.
There is nothing remotely scientific about this survey but we’ll take what we can get;
at least we know there 643 adoptees  !

Compare this with NHibernate adoptions. Ayende Rahien reports that, in September
2008, there were over 20,000 downloads of NHibernate and 1300 members of his
“NHibernate Users” group. I rather doubt EF has 20,000 users yet; we can’t measure
EF interest from downloads because EF was embedded in Visual Studio 2008 SP1.
On the other hand, I do think we can make some reasonable inferences about user
community size by comparing his user group size to EF forum traffic.

A casual tour of the Entity Framework forum on MSDN reveals that post viewings
routinely exceed; as I write there are three posts today with more than 1000 views –
that’s a 1000 views in less than 24 hours. Is that a lot? Seems like traction to me and
strongly suggests EF is already overtaking the field.

Is the Entity Framework for Real?  2

Should You Move to Entity Framework?
The consultant in me knows to say “it depends”. I think the major dimensions for
consideration are:
 The nature of your application
 Your freedom to control the database schema
 Your willingness to lead
 Your reasons for choosing EF

In my view, EF could be right for you if:

 You are building a significant line-of-business application – one with plenty of

user interaction and complex, interrelated data. By “significant” I mean an
application you’ll spend more than a year developing.

 You are thinking seriously about building a Silverlight client for your
application, you should strongly consider Entity Framework; your best
Silverlight data programmability options are going to rely on Entity Framework.

 You control the database schema. EF excels at mapping objects to existing

databases but there are some peculiarities that are best resolved if you can change
the schema. You also must beware of very large entity models. I’d hold off for
awhile if you think you’re application domain is over 500 entities. I hasten to add
that your design needs some serious rethinking if you’re entertaining a domain
model with that many entities.

 You are prepared to be at the front of the adoption curve. EF quality is great – it
is not buggy. But you are going to take some lumps and it lacks the wealth of
knowledge and experience that surrounds more mature technologies. We are all
going to be doing “stupid things” for awhile.

 You have a sound business reason to use Entity Framework. If your application is
already built upon an existing object relational framework and you are
reasonably content with that framework, don’t move to EF right now. Yes, it
makes sense to migrate to what will surely become the industry standard
platform. But today is not the day.

On the other hand, if you are starting fresh, I believe it is foolhardy to consider
any other object relational platform. I am not making a technical case. For the
sake of argument, I will stipulate that there are several other choices that are
technically “better” than EF … and I don’t have to know what you are doing to
say that. Because it doesn’t matter.

You are making a business decision and you want to weigh heavily the benefits
to your organization of going with the industry leader, with a product whose

Is the Entity Framework for Real?  3

 mind share and market share will most certainly be preeminent one year from
now. Think about that. Think about future development on your application and
what you will have to do to find and develop the expertise necessary to maintain
and grow your application.

Maybe I’d feel differently if some alternative were dramatically better than EF or
if EF were going to let you down. But no alternative is that much better and EF
won’t betray you. EF is good enough today and with Microsoft’s unmatched
resources and commitment, EF will only get better.

Should you move to IdeaBlade’s “DevForce EF”?

I said “it depends” and it does; it depends upon your answer to the previous question.

If like most of our customers, you are happy users of IdeaBlade’s “DevForce
Classic” product, this is probably not the day to switch to Entity Framework or
DevForce EF.

If you are starting a new project but Microsoft’s EF immaturity gives you pause …
listen to your gut. I’d be happy to suggest techniques that position you for an EF
future while writing with our “Classic” product today.

On the other hand, if you think Entity Framework is right for your next project, you
owe it to yourself to consider “DevForce EF”. This essay isn’t really about our
product; I recommend you go to our website to learn more. So let me give you the
story in a nutshell:

DevForce EF is thoroughly grounded in Microsoft’s Entity Framework. We share

exactly the same entity data model file and we rely on EF to perform all persistence
operations. You don’t surrender an iota of EF capability when you adopt DevForce.

But DevForce EF will save you months of application development time and help
you build a far better application than if you proceeded with EF alone because
DevForce EF:

 Extends the Entity Framework with capabilities you need

 Compensates for many of EF’s deficiencies today
 Makes EF easier to learn and use correctly

And if you are considering a future with Silverlight, know this: DevForce EF is the
only way to take full advantage of Entity Framework on the Silverlight client. Yes,
that’s an extraordinary claim; but it ain’t bragging if it’s true. Make me prove it to
you.

Is the Entity Framework for Real?  4

About the Author:
Ward Bell, V.P. of Product Management, IdeaBlade
Ward champions the company's customer-focused product direction and leads the
Professional Services group. He has over twenty-five years of application development
experience.
Prior to joining IdeaBlade in 2002, Ward was Senior Director of Product Management at
Rivio, Inc. where he was responsible for definition and development of all Internet
applications. Later Ward created the Rivio professional services department that managed
all customization and private labeling activities for Rivio partners including Bank of
America and Fleet Boston Bank.
Before Rivio, Ward was V.P. of Financial Services and a Director of Business
Development at GE Capital Computer Leasing. Prior to GE, he designed and developed
numerous enterprise applications for American Express, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley,
Mobil Oil and other global industrial companies.
Ward has a BA from Haverford College and pursued doctoral studies at the University of
California, Berkeley.

# # #
For more information on Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework, visit the official Microsoft Entity
Framework site.

For more information on the DevForce EF product, please visit IdeaBlade’s DevForce EF page.

For more information on IdeaBlade, please visit www.ideablade.com.

# # #

Is the Entity Framework for Real?  5