Best practices for using the Entity Framework with WPF DataBinding [closed]

Answer 1

I followed this link from my blog and wanted to mention something else I found with EF. Kind of off topic, but not totally.

I have noticed some crazy performance issues with EF when using the .Include. MS explains why in an article on their website so I have actually started shifting most of my code to use the .Load method instead.

Because it is a tedious task to do and because I couldn't find another way to do it... I created my own method called "IncludeByRoundTrip". What it does is takes an object path and ensures the entire path is loaded. The end result is the same as when using include however behind the scenes, I am simply calling Load on all the properties in the object graph.

It would be similar to doing something like order.Load("Customer.Address") if such a mechanism existed. Either way, check it out at my blog and let me know your findings. I would be curious to see if others have noticed slowdowns using Include and if you have other approaches at attacking the situation.

There is more info on my solution at: http://blog.nicktown.info/2009/07/27/method-to-load-an-entire-object-graph-using-adonet-entity-framework.aspx.

Again, sorry this was a bit off-topic, but I look forward to your responses.

Answer 2

Another tool could be BindableLINQ

Bindable LINQ is a set of extensions to LINQ that add data binding and change propagation capabilities to standard LINQ queries

Answer 3

Also, I dont think you need to do a ToList() here. I believe ObservableCollection() takes an IEnumerable which families already is. If you do a ToList, and then pass that to the ObservableCollection, then I think you will loop through all your records twice.

familyOC = new ObservableCollection<Family>(families.ToList());

Instead, try this, which should be a bit faster:

familyOC = new ObservableCollection<Family>(families);

Answer 4

You need to implement a repository pattern to seperate WPF concerns from EF

Then you can use generics to reduce the complexity of the EF to CollectionViewSource handling

A well designed repository should reduce code levels and enable any ORM to be substituted (required for decent testing)

Some ideas for this are in here

http://blog.nicktown.info/2008/12/10/using-a-collectionviewsource-to-display-a-sorted-entitycollection.aspx

Answer 5

My recommendations is, if possible use Expression Blend for designing your interface, instead of Code Behind and instead of using the Visual Studio designer, it will save you lots of time. Also try to rethink using the C# instead of xaml. Xaml isn't so ugly if you are do it the "WPF Way". Often times, when I think it is easier to use the code behind instead of xaml, it is because I'm doing it the wrong way and need to rethink how it should best work with WPF/xaml. Xaml is great once you get used to it. I have also used entity framework which is not too great yet. I prefer NHibernate.

Answer 6

I understand where you're coming from. This article by Josh Smith helped me change (or start to change) mindset so that you can some benefit from WPF rather than seeing it as a weird, obstructive, hard-to-debug and unfriendly framework!