Hi,
I am using LINQ2SQL in my current project. I have a quite a lot of tables ~30. When I create my DBML file I change some of the column names etc for readability.
Recently if I made a change to the table in the underlying Database I just deleted and re-added the table in the DBML file, but this is getting tedious. How can I mimic any changes to the database in the DBML file? (e.g. new column, drop column, new default constraint etc)
Thanks.
Out of the box, Linq-to-SQL has no update feature - amazing, but unfortunately true.
There's two tools I know of that get around this:
PLINQO is a set of CodeSmith code generation templates which handle DBML generation and offer lots of extra features (like generating one file per db entity) - including updates!
The Huagati tools offer updates and enforcing naming conventions for DBML and Entity Framework
Marc
I'm not expecting this to be the correct answer, but I thought I'd chime in anyway.
My approach has been to use the drag-n-drop feature for creating the initial DBML file. Then, any changes I make in my DB are also then made, by hand, in either the designer or in the DBML file (as XML) itself. (You can right-click on the DBML file, select Open With, and choose XML editor.) Sometimes it is much easier/faster to work with its XML instead of messing around in the designer.
I would only consider the deleting and re-adding, as you have been doing, if the changes were significant. For adding a new column, however, I'd suggest working directly with the dbml's XML, it's probably faster.
Good luck!
As far as free solutions, there are a couple of blunt instruments that mostly move you away from using the O/R Designer: SQLMetal and Damien Guard's T4 templates.
There are multiple commercial solutions available that offer a lot more features.
The question you have to ask yourself is: Am I using the right ORM? LinqToSql has quite a few significant drawbacks, database change handling being only one of them.