What's New

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LinqConnect 5.3 new features:

.NET 9.0 compatibility
Supported Visual Studio 2022 version 17.13 Preview
Supported PostgreSQL 17

LinqConnect 5.2 new features:

Supported Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12 Preview

LinqConnect 5.1 new features:

Compatible with dotConnect providers
Supported Visual Studio 2022 version 17.11 Preview
.NET 8 compatibility
Visual Studio 2022 version 17.9 Preview is supported

Entity Developer

Resolved an issue with saving 'Version=Original' in the Stored Procedure Mapping menu
.NET 8 is added to the list of available Target Framework versions in Create Model Wizard and Model Settings in LinqConnect model
The new option "Show System Schemas" (by default, False) is added to Servers' Options -> SQL Server. If the "Show System Schemas" check box is selected, database objects from system schemas will be retrieved (SQL Server)
The new option "Retrieve Cross Schema Relations" (by default, True) is added to Servers' Options -> SQL Server. If the "Retrieve Cross Schema Relations" check box is selected, foreign keys from different schemas will be retrieved. This can take much time (SQL Server)

LinqConnect 5.0 new features:

.NET 6 compatibility
macOS 11 Arm64 (or "Apple Silicon" or "Apple M1") support
Windows 11 is supported
Visual Studio 2022 version 17.2 is supported
Visual Studio 2022 version 17.3 Preview is supported

Entity Developer

64-bit version of standalone Entity Developer application is added
64-bit version of console Entity Developer application is added

LinqConnect 4.9 new features:

Visual Studio 2019 is supported
Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11 Preview 2.0 is supported
PostgreSQL 13 is supported
Deprecated design-time Synchronous API calls are no longer used with Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2017
The insert of the object, the type of which is an unmapped class inherited from a mapped class, is supported
The integration with Visual Studio 2019 is improved: now the installation detects both 2019 Release and 2019 Preview versions
The overloads of Contains(), StartsWith(), EndsWith(), IndexOf(), Equals() methods, that accept StringComparison as an argument, are supported (PostgreSQL)
The overload of Compare() method, that accepts StringComparison as an argument, is supported (PostgreSQL)
The overloads of Contains(), StartsWith(), EndsWith(), IndexOf(), Equals(), Compare() methods, that accept StringComparison as an argument, are supported (SQL Server)
The new property Local is added to the Table and Table<T> classes to return a collection of the entities attached to the context
The new method GetEntityState(object entity) is added to Table class and ITable interface to return one of the EntityState values
The new methods IsNotDistinctFrom() and IsDistinctFrom() are added to the Devart.Data.Linq.SqlMethods class

Entity Developer

The ability to disable generation of the byte order mark (BOM) in the beginning of code files in a standalone Entity Developer is implemented
The "Optimize rendering for screens with different pixel densities" feature of Visual Studio 2019 is supported
The time to wait while trying to retrieve metadata before terminating the attempt and generating an error by Create Model Wizard / Update From Database Wizard / Update To Database Wizard is increased to 180 seconds for SQL Server
The 12cR2 option is added to the list of available Oracle versions in Model Synchronization Settings
Graph tables in SQL Server 2019 are supported (SQL Server)
.NET 5 is added to the list of available Target Framework versions in Create Model Wizard and Model Settings in LinqConnect models
.NET 6.0 is added to the list of available Target Framework versions in Create Model Wizard and Model Settings
The new options "Don't show this message again" in the prompt window and "Prompt before generating code when there are model validation warnings" in the menu Options are implemented in a standalone Entity Developer to provide the ability not to stop code generation by warnings
The new property Validation Framework is implemented in the Data Transfer Object template for generating DataAnnotations attributes
The Data Transfer Object template is improved:

The new template property Serialization Library is added for specifying library used for serialization, possible values are Data Contract, JSON (Newtonsoft.Json), JSON (Microsoft.Text.Json), YamlDotNet
The new extended property Do Not Serialize is added for properties and navigation properties to exclude them from serialization
The new extended property Serialization Name is added for properties and navigation properties to set custom names in serialization
The behavior is changed: WCF Data Contract Attributes is set to False by default now

Console Entity Developer improvements:

Import of stored procedures and functions via Create-Model command is supported
The new options --Procedures and --Functions are added to Create-Model command for filtering stored procedures and functions; by default all procedures/functions are imported
The new option --Execute is added to Create-Model command for executing procedures/functions to get metadata from result set
The asterisk symbol (*) is supported in --Tables and --Views parameters of Create-Model to include all objects

Schemas of type A (Application role) are supported in Create Model Wizard / Update From Database / Update To Database (SQL Server)
The new attribute DisplayName is implemented for model objects' extended properties which are available via template properties
The new options --ContextNamespace and --DefaultNamespace are added to the Create-Model command of Console Entity Developer
The list of keywords and reserved words of Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL being quoted by Entity Developer is updated
Retrieving SQL Server metadata of cross-schema foreign keys by Create Model Wizard and Update From Database Wizard is optimized (SQL Server)
Schemas of type E (External Login from Azure Active Directory) are supported in Create Model Wizard / Update From Database / Update To Database (SQL Server)
Detection of GENERATED ALWAYS AS ROW START and GENERATED ALWAYS AS ROW END columns in SQL Server 2016 and higher by Create Model Wizard / Update From Database Wizard is implemented
Model file tree in .NET Core / .NET Standard projects is improved: all generated code files and model files are nested under the same node in Solution Explorer
The behavior of Create Model Wizard and Update From Database Wizard is changed: timeout used for reading SQL Server metadata is greatly increased (SQL Server)
The behavior is changed: columns with IsHidden=1 in SQL Server 2019 are ignored by Create Model Wizard (SQL Server)
The behaviour is changed: a plural form of names ending with "s" now has a longer version (for example, status -> statuses)
The behavior is changed: only one confirmation for executing a stored procedure is requested by Entity Developer when dragging the stored procedure from Database Explorer to Model Explorer or diagram surface
The error message in console Entity Developer is improved: now the text includes the list of all available templates if the specified name of template was incorrect

LinqConnect 4.8 new features:

Visual Studio 2019 Release Candidate 4 is supported
.NET Standard 2.0 is supported
.NET Core 2.0 is supported
PostgreSQL 11 is supported
The macaddr8 data type introduced in PostgreSQL 10 is supported
The performance of generating complex queries is improved
The generation of CROSS JOIN LATERAL and LEFT JOIN LATERAL when connecting to PostgreSQL Server 9.3 or higher is supported (PostgreSQL)
The XmlMappingSource.FromResource method is supported in .NET Standard provider assemblies
A destructor for DataContext is added
The new overload DataContext.Refresh(bool ignoreErrors, RefreshMode mode, object entity) is added for ignoring errors during refresh
The existing overload DataContext.Refresh(RefreshMode mode, object entity) is improved: its check avoids the try to refresh the entity that is added to the context but not submitted to the database
The behavior is changed: all existing overloads of the method DataContext.Query() are replaced with DataContext.Query<TResult>(String,params Object[])
The behavior is changed: the License Key connection string parameter value is not sent to the LinqMonitor instance when "Persist Security Info=false;"

Entity Developer

The .NET Standard 2.0 projects in Visual Studio 2017 are supported
The .NET Core 2.0 projects in Visual Studio 2017 are supported
The macaddr8 data type introduced in PostgreSQL 10 is supported
The usage of long identifiers (up to 140 symbols) for naming model objects is supported
The ModelNameAsFilesPrefix property is implemented in the RepositoryAndUnitOfWork template
Identity columns in PostgreSQL 10 are supported
The new Retrieve Cross Database Relations option is implemented in Model Settings for detecting FK relations between tables in different databases (MySQL)
Using an extended property of type OutputInfo is supported
Code generated for nullable properties is simplified: now T? is generated instead of System.Nullable<T>
The behaviour is changed: a base class in TPT Inheritance is allowed to be abstract now

LinqConnect 4.7 new features:

.NET Core is supported
The NuGet packages with .NET Standard 1.3 (.NET Core) compliant assemblies are uploaded to www.nuget.org

Entity Developer

The .NET Core projects in Visual Studio 2017 are supported
The Snake case in both Model and Database naming rules is supported via the new "Add underscore" option

LinqConnect 4.6 new features:

Visual Studio 2017 is supported
The HSTORE data type is supported (PostgreSQL)
The CITEXT data type is supported (PostgreSQL)
The JSON data type is supported (MySQL)

LinqConnect 4.5 new features:

Visual Studio 2017 Release Candidate 4 is supported
Visual Studio 2015 is supported
The possibility to use .IsRowVersion() method for properties with non-binary data types when using the fluent mapping approach is added
The Parent property is added to the IInheritanceConfiguration interface
Bitwise And, Or, Xor, and Not operators are supported in LINQ queries for integer operands (SQL Server)
Bitwise And, Or, and Xor operators are supported in LINQ queries for integer operands (Oracle)
The 'Do not install assemblies in the GAC' check box that allows disabling placing LinqConnect assemblies to the GAC is added to the Install Wizard
The exception message for invoking CreateDatabase() for the model which includes an association with missing end is improved
The behavior is changed: DataContext.CreateDatabase() uses now the same datatype names like the ones used in model mapping (SQLite)

Entity Developer

The support for materialized views is implemented (Oracle)
The DbProviderFactory provider registration in application's *.config is supported by the Entity Developer version integrated into Visual Studio
The possibility to set values of stored procedure parameters for getting metadata to generate automatically the corresponding complex type is implemented
The possibility to choose whether to add new entities to a diagram or not in Update From Database Wizard is implemented
The default behaviour is changed: bit(2..8), bit(9..16), bit(17..32) are mapped to Byte, Int16, Int32 correspondingly by Create Model Wizard and Update Model From Database Wizard (MySQL)
The behaviour is changed: now the 1:1 and 1:0..1 associations are displayed differently on the diagram

LinqConnect 4.4 new features:

Visual Studio 2015 Release Candidate is supported
Visual Studio 2013 is supported
The possibility to inherit from the data provider classes is added (Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server)
The CommandTimeout property is added to the DataProvider class
The JSON data type is supported (PostgreSQL)
The rowversion data type is supported (SQL Server)
The support for the comparison operators (==,! =,>,> =, <, <=) in LINQ queries for two objects of the Devart.Data.Linq.Binary type, that correspond to the rowversion/timestamp columns, is added (SQL Server)
The possibility to add LinqConnect assemblies as Extension SDKs for SQLite, Oracle, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases in Metro style and Windows Phone applications (Windows 8.1) is added
The JSONB data type is supported (PostgreSQL)
The OpenConnection() method is added to the DataContext class
The support for columns with the 'uniqueidentifier DEFAULT NEWSEQUENTIALID()' data type is added (SQL Server)
The dependency on the System.Windows.Forms.dll assembly is removed
The behaviour is changed: installation with the /VERYSILENT install parameter will uninstall the other version of the product without any dialog box if it is installed
The behaviour is changed: now the script is generated with "ON DELETE NO ACTION" when using the CreateDatabase() method and the "Delete Rule" for the association is set to "NO ACTION"
The behaviour is changed: now the CreateDatabase() method uses the same algorithm for naming foreign keys as in Entity Developer
The behaviour is changed: now the cascade deletion of tables in DeleteDatabase() method is performed via the "DROP TABLE CASCADE" statement (PostgreSQL)
The behaviour is changed: now explicit deletion of the foreign keys by their names is not performed via the DeleteDatabase() method (SQL Server, MySQL)
The behaviour is changed: the new "OUTER APPLY is not supported by Oracle Database 11g and lower. Oracle 12c or higher is required to run this LINQ statement correctly. If you need to run this statement with Oracle Database 11g or lower, rewrite it so that it can be converted to SQL, supported by the version of Oracle you use." exception is added (Oracle)

Entity Developer

SQL Server 2014 is supported
The predefined templates (POCO Entity and LinqConnect) are improved: new template setting, "Generate Dummy Comments", is added
The possibility to use relative paths to assemblies in code generation templates is implemented
The Remove Invalid Characters option (by default, True) is added to the Model Naming rules; if it is set to False, all invalid characters will be replaced with underscores
The support of ID generators for primary keys in the Fluent Mapping template is added
The possibility of setting default values for enum properties is implemented
The behaviour is changed: the values of "Target Server" and "Server Version" can be reset via the Model Settings > Synchronization > Mapping dialog despite the fact whether connection is specified in Database Explorer or not
The behaviour is changed: now replication stored procedures are not shown on the "Select database objects" step of the Create/Update Model From Database wizard (SQL Server)
The behaviour is changed: now paths to assemblies with attributes (Model Settings -> Model -> Attributes) are saved and used as relative paths
The behaviour is changed: now by default VARCHAR(8000) / NVARCHAR(4000) columns, instead of VARCHAR(MAX) / NVARCHAR(MAX), correspond to the string properties in the model (SQL Server)
The default behaviour is changed: the INTEGER database type is mapped now to System.Int64 .NET type when using Database-First approach; the new mapping will be applied after pressing Reset in Server Options settings of Entity Developer (SQLite)

LinqConnect 4.3 new features:

Oracle 12c is supported
VARCHAR2/NVARCHAR2/RAW types with length increased to 32KB are supported for Oracle 12c
Oracle 12c specific SQL generation for paging is supported
The Collate method of the SqlMethods class is implemented
The behaviour is changed: CreateDatabase functionality generates columns with the identity clause 'GENERATED AS IDENTITY' for primary key properties with 'IsDbGenerated=True' (only for Oracle 12c)

Entity Developer

The predefined templates are improved: new template setting, "Use Compiled Query Cache", is added
The behaviour is changed: "Generate Database Script"/"Update Database From Model" wizards generate columns with the identity clause 'GENERATED AS IDENTITY' for properties with 'Auto Generated Value=True' (only for Oracle 12c)

LinqConnect 4.2 new features:

Visual Studio 2013 Release Candidate is supported
LINQPad integration is supported
The possibility to use the extension method AsQueryable() in LINQ queries is added
The possibility to disable query cache via the DataContext's 'EntityCachingMode' property is added
Creation of auto-incrementing sequences and triggers for Oracle models is supported (Oracle)
Support for SERIAL and BIGSERIAL database types when using CreatedDatabase() method is added (PostgreSQL)
The possibility to add LinqConnect assemblies as Extension SDKs for Oracle, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases in Metro style applications is added
The support for correct retrieving of the TimeSpan and DateTimeOffset values while materializing is added
The support for the operators of equality(==) and inequality(!=) for the "inet" data type in LINQ queries is added (PostgreSQL)
The implementation for the DatabaseExists method, which checks the existance of the tables in the database, is added (Oracle)
The possibility of creating Oracle schemas (users) for mapped model classes via the CreateDatabase(false,true)/CreateDatabase(true, true) method of the DataContext class is implemented (Oracle)
The possibility of deleting Oracle schemas (users) for mapped model classes via the DeleteDatabase(false,true)/DeleteDatabase(true, true) method of the DataContext class is implemented (Oracle)
The encryption support for local SQLite storage in LinqConnect for Metro is added (SQLite)
The performance when working with the TPT-inheritance and retrieving descendants via OfType<> is improved
The behaviour is changed: now, when trying to synchronize composite primary key after insert, the "Auto-sync of multiple key parameters is not supported for SQL Server" and SqlNullValueException exceptions are not thrown (SQL Server)
The behaviour is changed: new database is created when using CreateDatabase method with createSchema = true (SQL Server)
The behaviour is changed: now batch updates are disabled by default (SQLite)

Entity Developer

A new MVC Controller template, generating a ASP.NET MVC controller with data access code, is added
A new MVC View Advanced template, generating an ASP.NET MVC view based in Twitter Bootstrap, is added
A new Data Transfer Object template for DTO classes generation is implemented
A new WCF RIA Domain Service template, generating a WCF RIA Services domain service class for a Devart LinqConnect model is added
A new Data Annotation Metadata template, generating Data Annotation metadata classes and decorating classes and properties with data annotation attributes for validation, presentation and defining metadata, is added
Add Template dialog box is improved
The Namespace property of class, complex type, enum is implemented
The capability for setting special rules for generating default names of database objects when using the Model First approach is implemented (a new Advanced page is added to the Synchronization->Database Naming section of the Model Settings dialog box)
The capability to customize properties that are automatically added when creating a new entity, and options that are automatically set when creating a new property is added (a new Initialization page is added to the Model->General section of the Model Settings dialog box)
The Refresh option in the Attributes tab of the Model Settings window is implemented; it updates the list of available attributes types in the referenced assemblies
The capability to modify custom attributes for several selected entities or properties at the same time is implemented
The capability to cancel metadata reading in wizards and Database Explorer is added
The "Recreate Database Tables" check box, which allows to drop and recreate database tables, is added to the "Update To Database" wizard
New setting "Detect Table Per Type inheritances", which enables automatic detection of TPT inheritances, is added for Create Model Wizard and model
The "Include Drop" check box for including DROP commands for database objects to the generated script is added to Generate Database Script Wizard
A new shortcut menu command "Include Related", which allows making a copy of the related objects in the specified diagram, is added
A new shortcut menu command "Add To Model with Related", which allows adding tables, related to the selected one, to the model, is added to the shortcut menu of tables in Database Explorer
A new shortcut menu command "Add On Diagram With Related", which allows creating an object and all the objects related to it on a diagram, is added to the shortcut menu of classes, complex types, and enums in Model Explorer
The support for enums declared in external assemblies is implemented
New "Simple" diagram skin is added for displaying a diagram in metro style
The "Default Width" diagram property for specifying the default width for newly created diagram shapes (entities, complex types and enums) is added
The "Model Name As Files Prefix" property is implemented for the templates which generate classes for model entities
The possibility of adding custom attributes to enum members is implemented
Class Editor is improved: the capability to edit extended property settings, such as validation, presentation, and facets, is added
Type Editor is improved: the capability to edit extended property settings, such as validation, presentation, and facets, is added
The "Rewrite connection string during regeneration" check box of Model Settings is implemented to determine whether to overwrite the connection string in the project config file with the one, currently set in Entity Developer for the model, each time when regenerating code for the model
The Save and Refresh buttons for persisting and reloading changes to / from a database is added to the Retrieve Data grid
The "WCF DataMember Attribute on Navigation Properties" property is added to the DbContext and POCO templates for pointing the end (-s) where the attribute should be generated
Support for SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 and 4.0 is added
Devart.Data.Linq.Binary and System.Data.Linq.Binary types are added to the "Type Mapping Rule Editor"
The "Regenerate Storage and Mapping" option for regenerating model parts, specific to the database server, is added to the diagram shortcut menu
The user interface of Express Edition concerning availability of custom templates is improved
POCO Entity template is improved: new template setting, "Property Change Notifiers", is added
The "Close the window when the generation completes successfully" option in the Generation Process window is implemented in the standalone Entity Developer
The behaviour is changed: "Save connection string in App.Config as" check box in Model Settings dialog box is renamed to "Use connection string from App.Config as"
The behaviour is changed: now, when creating a new TPH discriminator column in Inheritance Editor, it has the string type by default
The behaviour is changed: the error is generated if the Abstract inheritance modifier is set for the class which is involved in the Table Per Type inheritance
The behaviour is changed: empty value is used in property editors instead of -1 for marking facets of class property without assigned value
The behaviour is changed: a string default value for the property can be set without quotes in the Properties window
The behaviour is changed: a default value for the "Detect Table Per Type inheritances" option in Model settings is set to False
The behaviour is changed: the possibility to exclude the generation of keys (primary, foreign) in "Update Database From Model" and "Generate Database Script From Model " wizards is added
The behaviour is changed: the possibility to add one-to-one associations with nullable foreign key properties is added
The behaviour is changed: a table storage engine is not set explicitly in the generated DDL (MySQL)
The behaviour is changed: now by default MVC Controller template generates files in the model folder, MVC View Advanced template creates files in the Views model subfolder
The behaviour is changed: the PostgreSQL limitation in 63 character for identifier names is taken into account when the SQL script is generated by Update Database From Model / Generate Database Script wizards

LinqConnect 4.1 new features:

Visual Studio 2012 is supported
Support for SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 and 4.0 is implemented
The fluent mapping is improved: support of the ID generators for primary keys is added

Entity Developer

Predefined template for generating Repositories and Unit of Work classes is added
Integration with Visual Studio refactoring for renaming model objects is implemented
The "Use Database Comments" option of Model Settings is implemented to determine whether comments for database objects, if supported by DBMS, will be used for model objects Documentation initialization and taken into account when executing model or database update operations
The "Implement IClonable" option for the generated classes based on the model entities is added to all templates
The 'Entity Base' class property, which allows specifying the ancestor class/interface for a particular entity type, is implemented
Model Refactoring feature is implemented; it speeds up creating complex types and Table Per Type inheritance from several model entities
The functionality of ignoring columns in the database in the "Update To/From Database" wizards if they were omitted once before is implemented
Warnings about objects that are not mapped are added
A SHIFT+DELETE keyboard shortcut for deleting entity, complex type, or enum from diagram only is added
An INSERT keyboard shortcut for creating a new entity, adding property to the selected entity/complex type or new member to enum is added
The possibility to view notes, added through the "Documentation" property, for all the diagram objects via hints is implemented
Hints for diagram objects are improved
The possibility of setting enum values via predefined dropdown list in the Retrieve Data window is implemented
The behaviour is changed: the "Save connection string in App.Config as" option is available in the standalone Entity Developer (the entry in App.Config must be added manually afterwards)
The behaviour is changed: only particular (not all) property characteristics are regenerated when using Update Model From Database wizard after the metadata of the corresponding column have been changed
The behaviour is changed: when preserving schema name is disabled, schema name is no more saved for Oracle package functions/procedures
The behaviour is changed: Configure Behaviour dialog is renamed to Stored Procedure Mapping
The behaviour is changed: now the 'Read Only' property is not set to true for autoincrement fields by default when creating/updating models (MySQL, SQL Server)
The behaviour is changed: the serializing property and corresponding methods are not generated when using 'Fluent Mapping'/'POCO Entity' templates and Unidirectional mode
The behaviour is changed: the Guid property is mapped to the UUID type in the database when using the Model First approach (PostgreSQL)

LinqConnect 4.0 new features:

Visual Studio 2012 Release Candidate is supported
Support for Silverlight 4 and higher and Windows Phone 7 is added
References to System.Data.Linq are removed; now LinqConnect uses only its own classes
Upgrade wizard for upgrading projects to the new version of LinqConnect automatically is added
The possibility to choose cache mode (classic mode for cases when DataContext is used as a unit of work, and self-cleaning mode for cases when DataContext is a long-lived object) is added
The possibility to map stored pocedure out parameters of the CURSOR type to IEnumerable parameters of the corresponding methods is added
Tracking of complex object graphs with chains of parent-child objects is optimized
Number of database calls required for managing objects with a many-to-many association is reduced
Delete rule performance is improved
Compilation performance is improved
Materialization performance is improved
Compiled query cache is improved

Entity Developer

The possibility to unload assemblies from the main application domain by using separate application domain is implemented
The possibility to disable such Database First Settings as type mapping rules is implemented
The design time copy/cut/paste functionality for enum members is added
The sticker notes for adding comments to diagrams are implemented
The possibility to add a stamp, specifying diagram author, company, version, copyrights, project name, and date, to a diagram is implemented
New Collapse All and Expand All menu commands for collapsing and expanding diagram shapes are added
The "Pluralize collection navigation properties" option for the possibility to turn off the pluralization of the many-end names of associations is implemented
The "sealed override" inheritance modifier for methods based on stored procedures and functions is added
The behaviour is changed: context menu commands for working with diagram are grouped to the Diagram submenu of the context menu
The behaviour is changed: the possibility to change diagram shape color via the corresponding Shape -> Color context menu command is added
The behaviour is changed: when pasting a copied entity to a new diagram, a new entity is not created, the existing entity is added to this diagram
The behaviour is changed: when cutting an entity from the diagram, the entity is not cut from the model, only from the diagram
The behaviour is changed: the warning, related to the missing property setter, is disabled
The behaviour is changed: for the association, in which the many-side entity hasn't the primary key, the code and the mapping are not generated
The behaviour is changed: the properties, that correspond autoincrement fields, are generated with a ReadOnly keyword in VB.NET

LinqConnect 3.2 new features:

Visual Studio 11 Beta is supported

Entity Developer

The copy/cut/paste functionality is added for objects of the conceptual part of a model
The possibility to drag&drop properties between classes in Model Explorer is implemented
The "HeaderTimestampVersionControlTag" generation template option is added for improving integration with version-control systems
The multiline popup editor for the Documentation.Summary property is implemented
The behaviour is changed: the Migrate option is added to the context menu of property in Model Explorer
The behaviour is changed: entities and enums on the designer surface are more resizable now

LinqConnect 3.1 new features:

Entity Developer

Capability for customizing the default Type Mapping Rules is implemented
Capability for setting diagram options either globally for all diagram documents or separately for a particular one is implemented: the Diagram Appearance and Printing options can now be set through the Options dialog box
Capability for setting such options as Environment, Diagram and Servers' to adjust the Entity Developer behavior, Model diagram behavior and Type Mapping Rules to your needs is implemented
Capability for setting and defining the class property validation rules based on different engines (Data Annotation, Enterprise Library, NHibernate Validator) is added
The validation of method parameters is added
The context menu options for unchecking changed/added/dropped tables are implemented for the root nodes in the "Update To/From Database" wizards
The diagram design is changed: an arrow (instead of a triangle) is used on the tip of an association now
The 'Numeric Primary Key As Identity' Oracle option is added: if this option is selected, the "StoreGeneratedPattern" will be set to Identity by default for Number primary keys
The 'Integer Primary Key As Identity' SQLite option is added: if this option is selected, the "StoreGeneratedPattern" will be set to Identity by default for Integer primary keys
The "Identifier Case Sensitive" check box, which enables case-sensitive processing of database object identifier names, is added to MySQL Server Options
The documentation generation for Enum members is implemented
The algorithm for forming the Navigation Properties names, when there are several FOREIGN KEY constraints between the same tables, is changed
The documentation generation for navigation properties is implemented
The "Recreate Model" option, allowing to rebuild the model from a scratch, is added to the "Update Model From Database" wizard
The "GeneratePartialClass" template property to generate a partial class, which will not be overwritten by the designer, for each class in the model is added
The behaviour is changed: the Navigation Property will not be displayed on the diagram and in Model Explorer if "Generate" is set to false for the appropriate association end
The behaviour is changed: the Validate Max Length attribute is synchronized with the Max Length attribute of Property by default now
The behaviour is changed: the Validate Required attribute is synchronized with the Nullable attribute of Property by default now
The behaviour is changed: when selecting a property in the Model Explorer, the corresponding entity on the diagram does not expand if it is collapsed
The behaviour is changed: the DATETIME2 data type is now used for columns, corresponding to System.DateTime properties, for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and later
The behaviour is changed: the 'Real' SQLite data type is now mapped to System.Double by default
The behaviour is changed: database column comments are transfered to the Summary attribute of the Documentation property now
The behaviour is changed: the TINYINT(1) data type is now used for the columns which correspond to the System.Boolean properties (MySQL)

LinqConnect 3.0 new features:

Fluent mapping is supported

Entity Developer

Fluent Mapping template is added
Support for enumerated types ("enums") is implemented
New skins to improve the apllication appearance are implemented
Selection driven highlighting is implemented
Capability for changing the shape color for entities, complex types and enums is implemented
Capability for selecting the diagram skin type is implemented
Disabling facets that are not applicable to the current field type is implemented
The 'Binary As Guid' connection string parameter is supported (MySQL)
Default behaviour changed: now the Update To Database Wizard does not drop foreign keys of a table if the 'master' one is not represented in the model
The default mapping of SQLite databases with LinqConnect models is improved: integer foreign keys of one-to-one relationships are no more marked as auto-generated
The default attribute mapping source for LinqConnect models is made static
The possibility of specifying the name of the connection string to be saved in the application configuration file is implemented
Behaviour is changed: table is not marked as "Changed" in Update Wizard if DefaultValue is set for its expression column
The default value of the Unicode facet is changed to true for PostgreSQL CITEXT columns

LinqConnect 2.50 new features:

The 'IsReference' mode of entity serialization is supported
The generation of auto-increment columns on the CreateDatabase call is implemented (MySQL and SQL Server)
Implemented eager loading in case the related entities collection is referenced in the select clause of the query
Implemented fetch mode customization for eager loading of related entities
Improved performance of ordered queries with the Skip() and Take() methods: the 'rownum' pseudo-column is now used instead of the 'row_number' function (Oracle)

Entity Developer

POCO template with XML mapping generation is added
Templates usability is improved
Template Editor is significantly improved
Ability to declare additional properties for model objects is added
Ability to specify .NET attributes for model objects is added
The possibility to export the diagram into an image file was added
The possibility to restrict adding the connection string information to the application configuration file is added
Runtime support for literals specified in the 'Default Value' entity field property for LinqConnect models is implemented
The "Preserve schema name in storage" option is added
Behaviour is changed: string entity fields are now mapped to varchar2(4000) by default (Oracle)
The 'Binary As Guid' connection string parameter is supported (MySQL)
Default behaviour changed: now the Update To Database Wizard does not drop foreign keys of a table if the 'master' one is not represented in the model

LinqConnect 2.20 new features:

Supported Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1
Implemented the Attach(object entity, object original) method of the Devart.Data.Linq.ITable interface
Implemented proper support for both text and binary representations of System.Guid (SQLite)
Implemented implicit sorting by the entity key in queries with defined LoadWith rules
Implemented workaround for comparing SQLite DateTime values as strings in LinqConnect update checks (such values are explicitly converted to the SQLite DateTime type now)
Changed behaviour: update check is now disabled by default for properties that represent MySQL FLOAT columns

Entity Developer

Added multiple database file support for SQLite (using Attach connection string parameter)
Added possibility to split model into several diagrams for better handling of large models
Supported automatic generation of sequences and triggers for Autoincrement properties in Oracle
Implemented possibility to disable automatic recognition of many-to-many associations
Changed behaviour: when adding two related entities with the corresponding properties having different types, an invalid association is created now
Changed default mapping for MySQL signed TinyInt columns: they are mapped to SByte now
Changed behaviour: when retrieving metadata for Oracle servers 9.2.0.5 and prior, the JOIN syntax of Oracle 8 is used now

LinqConnect 2.0 new features:

Supported Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 Beta
Ability to execute DML statements in batches on SubmitChanges added
Table Per Type inheritance supported
Supported ASP.NET Dynamic Data with ASP.NET Dynamic Data project templates
PLINQ support added (connection manager redesigned for thread safety)
Supported Visual Studio Debugger Visualizer with SQL syntax highlighting for the DataQuery objects
Implemented support for custom type arguments in LinqConnect compiled queries
Implemented overloads of DataContext.CreateDatabase and DeleteDatabase methods with boolean parameters specifying whether to create/delete database or not (MySQL, SQLite)
Changed behaviour: retrieving master entity from details one now generates left outer join instead of inner join

Entity Developer

Added Update Model From Database functionality
Update To Database with Storage Synchronization functionality added
Added possibility for changing the UpdateCheck property for several fields at once
Added multiselect support for properties
Improved large models handling

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