Entity Framework 4 in Action Book Review

This is rock solid coverage of the Entity Framework 4.0. It does not include coverage, beyond a small mention, of EF 4.1 (code first and DbContext API) or the June CTP release (enum support) of EF, but that does not take anything away from the book. The book is broken down into 4 sections - Redefining your Data-Access Strategy, Getting Started with Entity Framework, Mastering Entity Framework, and Applied Entity Framework. This book starts with a great overview of the history of data access, its issues, and how the Entity Framework can be used to address them. One of the things I like most about this section is that the authors also tell you when you should not be using O/RM. The book continues with chapters on Querying the object model, Querying with LINQ to Entities, Domain model mapping, Understanding the entity lifecycle, Persisting objects into the database, Handling concurrency and transactions, Entity SQL, Working with stored procedures, and Exploring EDM metadata. The last part of the book covers Designing the application around Entity Framework , and using the Entity Framework with ASP.NET, n-tier development, and Windows applications. It also covers Testing and performance. The book goes in depth into all the topics covered. I found the author's writing style made reading the book from front to back easy and enjoyable. It will also make a great reference. My only gripe is that I wish the printed book would have been in color. The downloadable code is very well organized and usable. The book contains samples in VB and C#. One of the things I like about buying Manning books is that I get an ebook with it. I can't stand reading ebooks, but I do like them for searching. Manning gives you the ebook, not a trial to your ebook which is great. All in all I highly recommend this to anyone just getting started with EF as well as anyone experienced with EF.

Entity Framework 4 in Action