In a recent article, I developed a theoretical basis for an adapter that allows for the adaptation of Entity Framework (EF) entities into IDataReader-implementing form, and announced the preview availability of this software.
Herein I describe with more specificity the use of the adapter generator and the resultant adapters, and announce the release of the first production-ready version of the adapter generator software.
Microsoft’s Entity Framework (EF) introduces a new data design paradigm within .NET. This framework, however, can be difficult to implement in projects that internally rely heavily on the exchange of IDataReader-implementing objects between layers (or within interface contracts). This is a shortcoming that is not easily overcome, especially without a standardized method with which to convert EF entities into an object implementing this interface. In many ways, migration of these projects to the Entity Framework is an all-or-nothing proposition. This is a shortcoming that begs for remediation.
The .NET-supplied DataContext allows Linq to Sql development using the attributed model automatically generated by a Visual Studio designer. However, when deployed within DotNetNuke, these attributes do not pick up the database owner and object qualfier required by DotNetNuke. Because of this, large-scale deployment of modules using Linq to Sql is infesable, and modules using the technology are unfortunately limited to internal applications.
To rememdy this issue, I have developed an adapter that converts the attributed meta model generated by the designer into a DotNetNuke-compatable model that uses both the object qualifier and database owner specified by an end-installation.