Entity framework 3.5, mapping stored procedure results to custom entity

Question

I tried to follow this link to map stored procedures to Custom Entities, but when I did so I could no open the EDMX file in the VS 2008 designer. so looks like it is causing som

Answer 1

In VS2010 and EF4 this is extremely easy todo. When you do a function import it there is an extra option for returning the collection as a complex type. Even better there is a feature @ the bottom of the 'Add Function Import' dialog that will attempt get the columns from the stored proc result set. Finally, it gives you the option todo a one-click 'Create New Complex' type based upon the result sets. It appears the EF team saw this as a pain and took all necessary steps to make this easier.

We have a large project that we are about to start on (large meaning 30+ developers and taking 2+ years to complete). We were weighing the options of using standard ADO.Net, EntityFramwork, or a 3rd party ORM like LLBLGen. What we are seeing so far is that the Entity Framework 4 release is a much more full featured ORM. I would be very skeptical @ using EF in VS2008 mostly because of the issue you are talking about in this post + how EF handled the FK's in the VS2008 release (http://blogs.msdn.com/efdesign/archive/2009/03/16/foreign-keys-in-the-entity-framework.aspx)