Announcing the release of Dynamic Data provider and EntityDataSource control for Entity Framework 6

Today, we are pleased to announce RTM of ASP.NET Dynamic Data and EntityDataSource control for EntityFramework 6

What’s in this release

– Dynamic Data provider for Entity Framework 6

– EntityDataSource control for Entity Framework 6

How to install

You can download this release for ASP.NET DynamicData.EFProvider (http://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AspNet.DynamicData.EFProvider/) and EntityDataSource (http://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AspNet.EntityDataSource/) from the NuGet gallery.

Install-Package Microsoft.AspNet.DynamicData.EFProvider -Version 6.0.0
Install-Package Microsoft.AspNet.EntityDataSource -Version 6.0.0

Getting started

Microsoft.AspNet.DynamicData.EFProvider

This package has a DynamicData EFProvider for EntityFramework 6. This provider can work with a Model (either Code First or Model First) which was created using Entity Framework 6. This package also installs the Page Templates, Entity Templates and Field Templates which are required for DynamicData. The templates have been updated to use Microsoft.AspNet.EntityDataSource control which we are also previewing today as well.

For more information on ASP.NET DynamicData please see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc488545.aspx

Following are the steps for using this package in a ASP.NET DynamicData application:

Create a new ASP.NET Dynamic Data Entities Web Application
Add the Microsoft.AspNet.DynamicData.EFProvider NuGet package
This will do the following

Add a reference to the DynamicData EFProvider binary
Install the templates. If you are starting with a new project, then you can override the templates. If you have an existing application, then you should be careful when overriding the changes. These templates will replace the EntityDataSource control which shipped in .NET Framework with Microsoft.AspNet.EntityDataSource and the Page Templates, Field Templates, Entity Templates.

Create your model using Entity Framework Code First or EF Designer.
Add the following code in RegisterRoutes in Global.asax.cs to register your DbContext:

Code Snippet

DefaultModel.RegisterContext(
new Microsoft.AspNet.DynamicData.ModelProviders.EFDataModelProvider(() => new YourDbContext()),
newContextConfiguration { ScaffoldAllTables = true });  

Run the project
You would see all the tables listed on the Default page.

Microsoft.AspNet.EntityDataSource Control

This is an update to the EntityDataSource control which shipped in the .NET Framework. The EntityDataSource control has been updated to work with Entity Framework 6.

To use this control, please do the following

Create an ASP.NET application
Install the package Microsoft.AspNet.EntityDataSource
- This package will
  - Install the runtime binary for Microsoft.AspNet.EntityDataSource
  - Install the EntityFramework version 6 NuGet package
  - Add the following tag prefix in web.config

Code Snippet

<pages>
  <controls>
    <addtagPrefix=“ef“assembly=“Microsoft.AspNet.EntityDataSource“namespace=“Microsoft.AspNet.EntityDataSource“ />
  </controls>
</pages>

Create a new Web Form page
Use the control as follows and bind it to any Databound control such as GridView, FormView etc.

Code Snippet

<asp:GridViewID=”GridView1″runat=”server”DataSourceID=”GridDataSource”></asp:GridView>
<ef:EntityDataSourceID=”GridDataSource”runat=”server”EnableDelete=”true”/>

Give feedback

If you find any issues with this preview, please file issues at the EntityFramework CodePlex sitehttps://entityframework.codeplex.com

Thank you for trying out this release.

1 comment

Andrew Stanton September 8, 2019

> Create a new ASP.NET Dynamic Data Entities Web Application
Cant anymore for some reason, the only choice is to create a crummy web site. Not sure why that was the one that was kept but instead of converting that to a web application, is there a way to use this package set with a vanilla web application (webforms, mvc, w/e)?