EF6 Ninja Edition Course is Live on Pluralsight

It’s been a long haul and a long wait. I started work on this course, then switched gears to work on the Domain–Driven Design Fundamentals course with Steve Smith. When I returned to work on the EF6 course, a number of minor releases and patch releases had been published so I had to revise much of what I had already recorded, edited and produced.

But today, finally, the full course has been published on Pluralsight.

Entity Framework 6: Ninja Edition
– What’s New in EF6

It is a little over 7 hours long. This is what I would have done had I written another huge book. So if you are looking for my next book, just watch this course! And you can go back to it for reference.

If you don’t have a Pluralsight subscription (and honestly, the $29 monthly fee if you were to just subscribe to watch this course, is less than those huge books), send me a note and I’ll send you a code for a trial. You’ll probably realize quickly that you want a subscription though to continue accessing the enormous library.

Course Description

Entity Framework 6 brings major improvements to EF that allow developers to align their data access with advanced software practices. The biggest news for EF6 is that it is open-source and has gained a lot from developer community input. Features with broad appeal such as stored procedure mapping in code first, support for the Async/Await pattern when executing queries and commands, simpler patterns for unit testing, and built-in database logging capabilities have gotten a lot of visibility. EF6 is now very extensible with custom Migrations, custom mapping conventions, and the introduction of Dependency Injection patterns to open up low-level DbContext configuration. There are new methods and properties that allow simpler and smarter coding patterns. Rather than present a high level list of the new features, this course dives into each new feature in EF6, ensures that you understand not only what it is for, but how it works, scenarios where you can benefit from it, and gotchas you should watch out for. This course provides a comprehensive look at what EF6 adds to Entity Framework, and it will leave you with the ability to truly benefit from all of the Ninja power that’s been added to this version of EF.

Course Outline
Overview of What’s New in EF6

Introduction

What Is Entity Framework?

What’s in This Course?

What’s in This Module?

A Brief History of Entity Framework

Why EF6?

A Lap Around EF’s CodePlex Site

Overview of Changes to the EF Designer

Overview of New Features

What’s Not (Yet) in EF6

Summary

Resources






Getting to EF6

Introduction

In This Module

Getting EF6 Into New and Old Projects

Updating Projects to EF6

Summary

Resources






Performance and Stability Improvements

Introduction

In This Module

Faster Processing of LINQ’s Enumerable Contains

Faster Mapping View Generation

Using nGen to ‘Pre-JIT’ EF6 Assembly

Reuse Open Database Connections

Create DBs That Are More Scalable and Less Prone to Deadlocks

Connection Resiliency for Transient Database Connections

Digging into the Connection Resiliency Feature

Quick Review

Resources






Changes to the EF Tooling

Introduction

EF Designer History

In This Module

EF Designer’s New MSI Installer

Creating a Code First Model From a Database in the Designer

Database Views in Your Code First Model

Customizing the Code First Designer Templates

Refactoring the Generated POCOs and Model

A Warning About a Naming Conflict With Code First From Database

What Does the Empty Code First Model Wizard Do?

Comparing the Code First Model Wizard to the EF Power Tools

Using EF4 or EF5 With the New Designer

A Notable Change to the Model First Workflow

Why You Still Need the EF Power Tools

Quick Review

Resources






Stored Procedure Mappings for Code First

Introduction

In This Module

Understanding EF Stored Procedure Mappings

Visualizing Stored Procedure Mappings

Differences Between Designer-Based and Code First Model Mappings

Conventions for Procedures Created by Code First

Customizing Mappings to Work With Existing Stored Procedures

Quick Review

Resources






Custom Code First Conventions

Introduction

In This Module

Custom Code First Conventions: Why Would You Want Them?

Custom Conventions Basics With Lightweight Conventions

Using Attributes to Specify Custom Conventions

Encapsulating Custom Conventions

Understanding and Controlling Execution Order

Model-Based Conventions

Extending Existing Conventions

Quick Review

Resources






More Code First Goodies

Introduction

In This Module

Database Index Support in Code First

Adding Indexes With Fluent API

Setting the Default Database Schema

Using AddFromAssembly to Load Conventions and Configurations

Understanding and Fixing How Code First Pluralizes Table Names

Using a PluralizationService to Localize Non-English Table Names

Implementing a Custom Pluralization Rule in Your Data Layer

Mapping to Results of Table Value Functions and Stored Procedures

Quick Review

Resources






Enhancements to Code First Migrations

Introduction

In This Module

Affecting the Schema of the Migrations History Table

Smarter Migrations With Idempotent Scripts

Limitations of Existing Migrations Methods

How Migrations Get From Method to SQL

Create Custom Migrations for Other Database Operations

Why HasColumnAnnotation and HasTableAnnotation?

Implementing a Simple Table Annotation

Implementing More Complicated Annotations

Performance Tweak for MigrateDatabaseToLatestVersion Initializer

Migrate From Multiple Models to a Single Database

Using HasDefaultSchema and ContextKey for Multiple Model Support

Easier Migrations for Multiple Models in a Single Project

Combining Database Initializers and Migrations

Quick Review

Resources






Improved Database Interaction

Introduction

In This Module

Simple Database Logging With the Log Property

Tweaking the Log Functionality

SQLCE Functions for LINQ Queries

Introducing the Async EF6 Methods

Demonstrating the Effect of Asynchronous EF6 Methods

Perception and Performance: Load Testing With Async EF6

Quick Review

Resources






Code-Based DbContext Configurations and Interceptors

Introduction

Why DbConfiguration?

In This Module

Creating and Triggering a DbConfiguration Class

Why Move Config File Settings to Code?

Moving Connection Factory to DbConfiguration

Moving Database Initializers to DbConfiguration

The New NullDatabaseIntializer

Provider Services and DbConfiguration

Tap into the Pipeline With Interceptors

Beyond the Interceptor Basics

What Stops Does the DbCommandInterceptor Make in the Pipeline?

Building an Interceptor for Database Logging

Using Interceptors to Solve Complex Problems

Understanding the Role of Dependency Resolution

Hosting DbConfiguration in External Assemblies

Quick Review

Resources






Sometimes It’s the Little Things

Introduction

In This Module

EF6 and Mocking Frameworks

Writing Tests to Mock Methods Like DbSet.Find

Writing Tests to Mock LINQ Queries

Nested Entities and Complex Types

Fixing the Ambiguous Types Problem

Custom Equals vs. Change Tracker Equals

Smarter LINQ to Entities Queries

Yes, You Can Haz Changes With HasChanges

Quick Review

Resources