14 DAY TRIAL // Version 4.1 of the Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework is very close to being wrapped up, having hit the Release Candidate development milestone. Early adopters that have already been leveraging the technology in their applications can now head over to the Download Center and get the ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.1 RC.
According to Microsoft, the ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.1 is almost complete, and in fact, in the last month ahead of finalization.
The software giant currently plans to offer the final Release to Web (RTW) version of the technology sometime by the end of April 2011, although a specific availability deadline wasn’t provided.
There are two new features introduced in the release Candidate Build, a member of the ADO.NET Entity Framework Team revealed:
“•The DbContext API is a simplified abstraction over ObjectContext and a number of other types that were included in previous releases of the ADO.NET Entity Framework.
The DbContext API surface is optimized for common tasks and coding patterns. DbContext can be used with Database First, Model First and Code First development.
•Code First is a new development pattern for the ADO.NET Entity Framework and provides an alternative to the existing Database First and Model First patterns.
Code First is focused around defining your model using C#/VB.NET classes, these classes can then be mapped to an existing database or be used to generate a database schema. Additional configuration can be supplied using Data Annotations or via a fluent API.”
Developers need not hunt for any additional major changes, since there are none. Furthermore, the Redmond company underlines that no consistent modifications are planned for the evolution from RC to RTW.
ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.1 RC is designed to allow for any bugs that survived until this point to be identified and resolved ahead of RTW.
If no issues will need to be dealt with, ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.1 RTW will essentially be identical to the RC Build, including the API surface and behavior.
A very important aspect of the ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.1 RC release that needs to be mentioned is the fact that Microsoft slapped a go-live license on this Build.
But not only are developers free to use ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.1 in their projects already, they will also be able to tap Microsoft for support.
The ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.1 Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.