Is retrofitting Entity Framework into my app appropriate for my situation?

Question

So, I have an app that uses a SQL Server express db. I have about 80ish tables all with a primary key but no foreign keys. (The reason we have no foreign keys is because of how we do our sql client-to-server replication. It's not true replication but it's a sync system that was in place when we took over the app. We have no guarantee what records are going to make it to the database first when a client syncs to the server so it is possible that a record would make it to the database with a foreign key that points to a nonexistant record).

We use a type-per-model convention. For each of our business objects there is a table in the db. We currently use stored procedures for every database transaction. This means for every new class there is at least 4 new stored procedures (crud). We have abstracted out our data access layer from our business objects. Each business object has a corresponding businessObjectDAO.

My question is, is entity framework feasible for me to move to? With no foreign key relationships I'm going to have to set up every association between tables manually. Is it worth the time to do this?

My biggest hang up right now is trying to figure out how I map my DAOs to the EF partial classes.

Should I be creating one big .edmx or multiple?

A lot of questions I know. This is my first big architectural type decision and I've been given the go ahead to make the change if I think it is beneficial and feasible.

Maybe I should try Linq-to-SQL? NHibernate is out because we're not allowed using open source products in production (stupid, I know).

Thanks Cody

Answer 1

My personal recommendation is that if something is working, leave it. I am a big big fan of both LINQ-SQL and Entity Framework, and have managed to get my workplace to make use of the Linq-Sql. I realise that if you did bring one of these in place with your project, maintainability would probably be easier, but by the sounds of it the initial work will be more work than is worth it in the end.