How Do I Get Started with the Entity Framework?

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8DCC9279-1296-4C5C-B581-A75C961D5FC7&displaylang=en

How Do I Serialize a Graph with the Entity Framework

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7626E0BE-DE55-48F7-97EB-E08557BF114F&displaylang=en

ADO.NET Entity Framework

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/aa937723.aspx

A primary goal of the ADO.NET Entity Framework is to raise the level of abstraction available for data programming, thus simplifying the development of data aware applications and enabling developers to write less code. The Entity Framework is the evolution of ADO.NET that allows developers to program in terms of the standard ADO.NET abstraction or in terms of persistent objects (ORM) and is built upon the standard ADO.NET Provider model which allows access to third party databases. The Entity Framework introduces a new set of services around the Entity Data Model (EDM) (a medium for defining domain models for an application).

Technical Articles

Introducing LINQ to Relational Data Learn more about using LINQ against a Relational database with LINQ to SQL and LINQ to Entities. What are the key scenarios for which each of these technologies was designed?

Next-Generation Data Access: Making the Conceptual Level Real Eliminate the impedance mismatch for both applications and data services like reporting, analysis, and replication offered as part of the SQL Server product by raising the level of abstraction from the logical (relational) level to the conceptual (entity) level.

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Channel 9

• ADO.NET Entity Framework on Channel 9
  Pablo Castro, Mike Pizzo, and Britt Johnston
• Pablo Castro, Britt Johnston, Michael Pizzo: ADO.NET Entity Framework – One Year Later
  Pablo Castro, Mike Pizzo, and Britt Johnston

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Webcasts

	Programming LINQ and the ADO.NET Entity Framework (Level 200) Language Integrated Query (LINQ) introduces an exciting new way for applications to build strongly typed queries that are deeply integrated into the programming language. The ADO.NET Entity Framework allows applications and services to work in terms of an application-oriented Entity Data Model, decoupling the application’s data model from the storage considerations of the relational schema. Join this webcast to see how these two technologies work together to change the way applications work with data.
	24 Hours of SQL Server 2008: Using the Microsoft Data Platform for Easy Data Access with SQL Server 2008 (Level 100) Join this series as we look at Microsoft SQL Server 2008 as a productive data platform. Throughout this series, we use Contoso (Container Overseas Shipping Operation) LTD as our scenario customer while we explore the features that make SQL Server 2008 this platform.
	MSDN geekSpeak: Julie Lerman on ADO.NET (Level 200) MSDN geekSpeak is a new kind of webcast series, hosted by Glen Gordon and Susan Wisowaty from the MSDN Events team, that provides a “talk-radio” format where industry experts share their knowledge of and experience with a particular developer technology. In this installment of geekSpeak, Julia Lerman, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), discusses the next version of ADO.NET, which presents a host of new ways to interact with data in your Microsoft .NET applications. Learn how the ADO.NET Entity Framework provides for abstracted access to your data, client views and schemas, and mapping of data to objects. See how you can build queries on the client against your own views and schemas using Entity SQL and Language-Integrated Query (LINQ).
	Framework Masterclass: LINQ to Entities (Level 200) In other sessions, we explored how Microsoft .NET Language Integrated Query (LINQ) is used for Structured Query Language (SQL) databases and working with XML. In this webcast, we connect to the data access layer, the business objects that provide the functionality of working with enterprise data. Join us to learn how you can make your LINQ applications really sing when working with entities.
	Entity Framework for Database Administrators (Level 200) The Entity Framework is a new data technology from Microsoft that may particularly interest database administrators (DBAs). Join this webcast to see how this technology can radically change the development of applications from a DBA perspective, and also change access patterns on servers. We discuss these changes and their impact on DBAs and data developers.

ADO.NET Entity Framework

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb399572.aspx

The ADO.NET Entity Framework is designed to enable developers to create data access applications by programming against a conceptual application model instead of programming directly against a relational storage schema. The goal is to decrease the amount of code and maintenance required for data-oriented applications. Entity Framework applications provide the following benefits:

• Applications can work in terms of a more application-centric conceptual model, including types with inheritance, complex members, and relationships.
• Applications are freed from hard-coded dependencies on a particular data engine or storage schema.
• Mappings between the conceptual model and the storage-specific schema can change without changing the application code.
• Developers can work with a consistent application object model that can be mapped to various storage schemas, possibly implemented in different database management systems.
• Multiple conceptual models can be mapped to a single storage schema.
• Language-integrated query support provides compile-time syntax validation for queries against a conceptual model.