Part 4. Applied Entity Framework

You’ve learned how Entity Framework can simplify application development and make code more readable and usable. In part 4, you’ll discover how Entity Framework behaves in the real world. Web and Windows applications have different needs and different architectures, and by making Entity Framework entities aware of these needs, you can easily integrate them into any application. The context lifecycles of these applications differ too; web applications and web services are disconnected by nature, whereas Windows applications are connected, so different approaches are required.

In the real world, an application’s architecture must be aware of Entity Framework for both data access and testing. The domain-driven design philosophy is growing in popularity, and you’ll learn how Entity Framework can be integrated with it.

Performance is also critical in any data-access application. Even if applications do what they’ve been created for, if they do it too slowly, it’s like having a nonfunctional application.

In chapter 14, we’ll tour the different types of architectures. We’ll start with a classic three-layer application and move on to a domain-model-driven one. Finally, we’ll look at how Entity Framework fits into a domain-model-driven application.

Chapters 15, 16, and 17 talk about Entity Framework inside the different application types. ASP.NET applications, web services, Windows Forms applications, and WPF applications are covered in these chapters.

Chapter 18 covers the subject of testing. Here you’ll learn how to make applications testable even when Entity Framework and LINQ to Entities are in place.

Chapter 19 discusses performance. By the end of this chapter, you’ll be a master of Entity Framework.