Patterns for using EntityFramework ?

Question

What is alternative patterns of using for Entity Framework ?

Some I know are:

1. "Plain" EntityFramework - aka Unity of Work

   using (Data.Model c = new Data.Model())
   {
       var z = c.Users.Where(x=>x.Name=='John');
   }
   
   

2. Repository pattern

   //Model implements IRepository
   User user = Model.Instance.Get<User>(u => u.Name == "John");
   

3. What else ?
4. ?

Answer 1

We use code similar to what you have in your unit of work example.

What we do in addition is to map objects to Data Transfer Objects.

Answer 2

A good book to look at is Martin Fowler's "Patterns of enterprise application architecture".

There he goes through some patterns for retrieving/mapping data like DTOs, Unit of work, repository pattern etc... Maybe something could be useful together with the Entity Framework. I'd have to take a look at it.

Answer 3

There are many articles on the subject, but the list will be reduced substantially if you'd like a good one. This article from MSDN Magazine is pretty good, although it deals specifically with n-tier applications. But since you don't say what you're building, maybe it will help.

Answer 4

LINQ 2 SQL can be an alternative. Here is an article Dependency Injection with Unity and Linq to SQL DataContexts

UNITY - http://unity.codeplex.com/