Devart is delighted to introduce the new version of Entity Developer with greatly improved code generation and many other improvements.
Code Generation Improvements
Entity Developer offers the following new templates:
- MVC Controller and MVC View Advanced - templates designed for generating an ASP.NET MVC Controller and View for using entity classes in ASP.NET MVC applications. Our MVC View Advanced template offers significant advantages over the standard MVC Scaffolding template. It supports such advanced features as sorting, filtering, and paging.
- Data Annotations Metadata - generates Data Annotations metadata classes and decorate entity classes and properties with Data Annotations attributes that specify validation rules, data display settings, and define metadata for Windows Communication Foundation, Dynamic data, and WCF RIA Services.
- Data Transfer Objects - template, designed for generating Data Transfer Object (DTO) classes.
DbContext template now can generate one of the following kinds of mapping: attribute mapping (for simple cases), fluent mapping in the OnModelCreating method, and fluent mapping in configuration classes.
Another new feature of code generation is that now you can generate context and entity classes to different namespaces.
Create Model Wizard Improvements
Create Model Wizard was substantially improved. Now it is able to download and install the required 'EnityFramework' Nuget package for Entity Framework 6 models, and for models for Entity Framework 4 and 5 in case they use the DbContext template. It also automatically adds references to Entity Framework specific assemblies to a project when you add a new Devart Entity model to it.
Model First Improvements
Entity Developer 5.5 provides a number of settings to ease the Model First development. It allows you to define a set of properties that will be present in all the new entities, and when you create a new entity, these predefined properties will be added to it automatically.
Model initialization settings now allow you to specify if the string properties should be mapped to columns of unicode data type by default, and to set default facets for all the numeric properties.
Attributes
Working with attributes is greatly improved. Now it is possible to edit attributes for several selected entities or properties at once. The Attributes page of the Model Settings dialog box has now the refresh button for refreshing the available attribute list for the selected assemblies.
Other Improvements
Generate Database Wizard now can generate DROP statements for database tables before CREATE statements. Update To Database Wizard offers a Recreate Database Tables setting to drop and recreate tables instead of altering them.
When adding a model object (a class, complex type, or enum) from Model Explorer to a diagram, or a table from Database Explorer to a diagram, now you can add them with all the related objects.
Entity Developer 5.5 offers a number of other improvements, not mentioned here. For the complete list, please visit its history page.
You are welcome to download Entity Developer here.
If you wish to provide feedback on the new version, you can do it on our forums or with the contact form. There is also a feedback form, and we are always glad to have your comments and take into account your development needs.
If you want to share your ideas about new Entity Developer features, you may do it on the UserVoice.
Devart development team
http://www.devart.com/entitydeveloper/