.NET 3.5 SP1 and VS 2008 SP1 include a bunch of improvements
for data development. Some of them include:
SQL 2008 Support
VS 2008 and .NET 3.5 are being updated to include support for the upcoming SQL 2008 release. Visual Studio 2008 data designers, projects and
wizards now fully supporting connecting and working against SQL 2008
databases.
ADO.NET Entity Framework and LINQ to Entities:
.NET 3.5 SP1 includes the new ADO.NET Entity Framework,
which allows developers to define a higher-level Entity Data Model over their
relational data, and then program in terms of this model. Concepts like
inheritance, complex types and relationships (including M:M support) can be modeled using it. VS 2008 SP1 now includes built-in designer support to help with this modeling:
Figure 13
The ADO.NET Entity Framework and the VS 2008 Entity
Framework Designer both support a pluggable provider model that allows them to
be used with any database (including Oracle, DB2, MySql, PostgreSQL, SQLite, VistaDB,
Informix, Sybase, and others).
Developers can then use LINQ and LINQ to Entities to query,
manipulate, and update these entity objects.
ADO.NET Data Services (formerly code-named "Astoria")
.NET 3.5 SP1 includes a flexible framework that enables the
creation of REST-based data services. Formerly code-named "Astoria", the ADO.NET Data Services framework provides support for publishing data
through a standard REST URI syntax and using standard HTTP verbs to operate on
the data resources. Developers can easily expose data models created
using the ADO.NET Entity Framework, and/or use a pluggable provider model to
expose other data models.
In addition to publishing data sources, the framework also
adds a client API for working with remote REST services. Included with
this client API is a LINQ library that allows the remote query of REST
services.
