Entity Developer for LINQ to SQL is a powerful ORM designer for LINQ to SQL. You can use Model-First and Database-First approaches to create your model and generate C# or Visual Basic .NET code for it.
Entity Developer for LINQ to SQL is a powerful ORM designer - modeling and code generation tool for LINQ to SQL. You can use Model-First and Database-First approaches to design your model and generate C# or Visual Basic .NET code for it. You can also customize the templates to fit all your needs.
The product allows you to create and edit models visually, without typing a line of XML code, and supports creating all kinds of mapping. T4-based code generation in Entity Developer is very flexible allowing virtually anything you may want for code generation.
Key Features
Visual ORM Model Designer with Code Generation
Entity Developer for LINQ to SQL allows you to create and edit LINQ to SQL models visually, without typing a line of code. It provides advanced support for methods: visual mapping of methods returning value types and multiple result sets. It allows visual creating of enum types, offers generation of property validation attributes, setting custom attributes for model objects, etc. Code generation is very flexible due to using T4-like templates. Entity Developer also includes template for generating POCO classes.
Advanced Support for Large Models
Entity Developer offers you a number of optimizations for designing large models on all stages of development. When generating model from a large database, Entity Developer retrieves metadata in an optimal way, reducing the number of server calls. To make your model better understandable, Entity Developer allows splitting your model into several diagrams, which makes working with large models faster and easier. To avoid a huge file with generated code for a large model, Entity Developer provides you an option to generate a separate file for each entity class.
Integration to Visual Studio
Entity Developer seamlessly integrates with Visual Studio 2008-2019. You may edit your Entity Developer models as Visual Studio documents, in the same way as standard Object Relational Designer models. Entity Developer toolbars and tool windows behave as native Visual Studio toolbars and toolwindows, all Entity Developer functionality is available from Visual Studio menu. However, Entity Developer can be used as a standalone application, and it does not require Visual Studio.
Model-First Approach
Model First approach implementation in Entity Developer offers automatic synchronization of mapping and storage part with the conceptual part of the model and easy to use wizards for synchronizing database with the model. Update to Database Wizard can synchronize the database with the model. In case of existing database, it performs only necessary changes to it, retaining data if possible. Entity Developer also includes Generate Database Wizard, which generates a DDL script, creating database tables.
Database-First Approach
Entity Developer allows you to generate a model from a database quickly and easily, providing flexible naming rules for generated classes. Update From Database Wizard synchronizes your entity model with database, trying to preserve manual changes to the model where possible. The wizard detects all the database changes that can affect the model, e.g. created and deleted tables and views, their columns and foreign keys, column datatype changes, etc.
Data Viewing/Editing
Entity Developer allows executing LINQ queries against the model, and viewing/editing data.
Model Refactoring
Powerful Model Refactoring feature allows users to automatically build TPT or TPC inheritance hierarchy or a complex type from several entities having a common subset of properties in few clicks.
Model Validation
Entity Developer checks your model for errors asynchronously while you edit it.
