This “week”’s code snippet simply demonstrates how to use a parameterized query with LIKE and a search string containing wildcards. The simple solution is basically to add the wildcard character (% or ?) directly to the search string.

publicstatic List<string> GetCompletionList(string prefixText = "%orch%")
        {
//TODO Add error handling
            List<string> Names = new List<string>();
using (SqlCeConnection con = new SqlCeConnection(@"Data Source=C:\projects\Chinook\Chinook40.sdf"))
            {
                con.Open();
using (SqlCeCommand cmd = new SqlCeCommand("SELECT Name FROM Artist WHERE Name LIKE @Name", con))
                {
                    cmd.Parameters.Add("@Name", SqlDbType.NVarChar, 120).Value = prefixText;
using (SqlCeDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader())
                    {
while (reader.Read())
                        {
                            Names.Add(reader[0].ToString());                            
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
return Names;
        }

After nearly 190.000 downloads, version 3.4 of my free, open source SQL Server Compact Toolbox extension for Visual Studio 2013, 2012 and 2010 is now available for download. This blog post is a visual guide to the new features included in this release, many suggested by users of the tool via the CodePlex issue tracker

Data compare

The major new feature of this release is the table based data compare feature, that will generate a script with INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE statements to make two tables contains the same data. The two tables must have compatible schemas and same names. The feature works across both SQL Server and SQL Server Compact tables.

To try out this new (beta) feature, right click on a table and select “Compare Data…”:

Select the target database:

A script with the required statements will then open in the SQL editor.

Database Information

This feature will script information about the selected database in the SQL editor, both general information about the database, including Locale ID and case sensitivity, and also list number of rows for all user tables.

Maximum column width in Edit grid

This new option allows you to set a limit on the column width in the edit grid, useful if you have some columns with very long text string, and you want them all to be visible.

After setting the option to for example 200 pixels:

Visual Studio 2013 support

Server Explorer in Visual Studio 2013 no longer supports SQL Server Compact 4.0, and other tools that depend on Server Explorer (DDEX) will no longer work with SQL Server Compact 4.0. However, you can still use the SQL Server Compact Toolbox in Visual Studio 2013, both with version 3.5 and 4.0 database files. The only requirement is that you have the relevant SQL Compact runtime MSIs installed. In addition, the Toolbox supports code generation of LINQ to SQL DataContext classes, both for Windows Phone 7.5/8 and Desktop apps. For Entity Framework, no code generation is required provided you use the Code First workflow.

Other improvements and bug fixes

Validate Connections improved
Merge Replication save properties fixed
CSV import unicode issue fixed + improved error message
milliseconds included in datetime in text results
SQLite script contained GO separators, they are no longer there
Avoided scripting spatial indexes (SQL Server scripting)

Often I see developers complain that the error messages from SQL Server Compact does not provide any information about the error (in SqlCeEcxeption.Message). This is due to to way that the SqlCeException object is shaped, as it contains a SqlCeErrors collection and other properties you must inspect in order to get “full disclosure” on the error information. Getting this complete information of course helps a lot in troubleshooting the root causes for the errors. (The exact same pattern applies to SqlException, which also has a collection of SqlCeErrors)

Remember in your error handling to catch any specialized exceptions (like SqlCeException) before the more general Exception object:

try
            {
//Data access code here
            }
catch (SqlCeException scx)
            { }
catch (Exception ex)
            { }

For getting full error information, I use the code below:

publicstaticstring ShowErrors(System.Data.SqlServerCe.SqlCeException e)
        {
            System.Data.SqlServerCe.SqlCeErrorCollection errorCollection = e.Errors;

            StringBuilder bld = new StringBuilder();
            Exception inner = e.InnerException;

if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(e.HelpLink))
            {
                bld.Append("\nCommand text: ");
                bld.Append(e.HelpLink);
            }

if (null != inner)
            {
                bld.Append("\nInner Exception: " + inner.ToString());
            }
// Enumerate the errors to a message box.
foreach (System.Data.SqlServerCe.SqlCeError err in errorCollection)
            {
                bld.Append("\n Error Code: " + err.HResult.ToString("X", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture));
                bld.Append("\n Message   : " + err.Message);
                bld.Append("\n Minor Err.: " + err.NativeError);
                bld.Append("\n Source    : " + err.Source);

// Enumerate each numeric parameter for the error.
foreach (int numPar in err.NumericErrorParameters)
                {
if (0 != numPar) bld.Append("\n Num. Par. : " + numPar);
                }

// Enumerate each string parameter for the error.
foreach (string errPar in err.ErrorParameters)
                {
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(errPar)) bld.Append("\n Err. Par. : " + errPar);
                }
            }
return bld.ToString();
        }

You may experience, that opening a connection to a SQL Server Compact database file using SqlCeConnection.Open() (or doing this via EntityFramework or LINQ to SQL) can be unexpectedly slow (up to 30 seconds, for example). In this blog post I will detail the known reasons for this to occur, and outline solutions and workarounds.

1: The database has been created on another platform

One of the most common issues is that the database file has been created and populated on another platform than the one where the app is running .Open(). For example: a database file is included with the app, a database file is downloaded from a server or similar. Different platforms are for example Windows 8 versus Windows XP, and Windows 7 versus Windows Mobile. Notice, that Windows XP, Server 2003 and Windows Mobile are compatible platforms. And Windows 8 and Windows Phone appear t be compatible in most cases also. The product team did a blog post about the issue many years ago, but the issue is otherwise poorly documented, and therefore pops up again and again. There is no solution to the issue, only workarounds.

Workarounds:
– Create the database file on the platform after app installation, using for example my scripting APIs.
– Include a database file per target platform, that is already built/opened on the target platform (in particular an issue for read-only databases, see my blog post here)
- Avoid indexes with string based keys (probably not possible in most cases)

2: The ACL (Access Control List) on the RSA folder is corrupt

This issue appears to happen only on Windows XP system and only with encrypted databases. The ACL on the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys folder are corrupted, and users are unable to access file in this central folder.

Solution: Reset the ACL to allows all users Read access, either using the UI or via the xcacls command line tool.

3: Invalid Internet Proxy configuration

This appears to occur for SQL Server Compact 4.0 on any system with an invalid proxy configuration, as a Certificate Revocation List check is run each time the engine is loaded (which happens on the first call to .Open()).

Solution: To avoid this delay, which probably affects any signed app on the system in question, you must fix the configuration or disable the check. The check can be disabled via UI or via registry settings, as described here.

Hope this helps you troubleshooting slow database opening with SQL Server Compact.

João Paulo Figueira, owner of Primeworks, http://primeworks-mobile.com/, just announced that the company is closing. In a blog posting João announced yesterday: “The business volume has decreased so steeply that it can no longer support the product development and support.”

Primeworks offers complete set of excellent tools for working with all versions of SQL Server Compact database files, both on the desktop and directly on a Windows Mobile/CE device.

Luckily, the tools will continue to be available for download, and eventually even become open source.  João states: “In the very near future, all products will be removed from our online business platform and the licensing requirements removed from the distribution installers. All products will be essentially free (copyrights retained). Next, I will devote some time to publish all the source code and convert these products into open source projects.”

I am sorry to see Primeworks leave the market, but very happy that the excellent tools will now become available for free.

This snippet again demonstrates my SQL Server Compact scripting API, some initial guidance here. For a blog post describing the opposite direction, see this. Notice, that is you are scripting a SQL Server Compact 4.0 database file, you can install the required DLL files via NuGet (ErikEJ.SqlCEScripting).

This time I will demonstrate how to migrate a complete SQL Server (LocalDB/Express/Full) database to SQL Server Compact. The requirements are simply that the current user has read access to the SQL Server database. Then all tables, constraints, indexes and data will be moved to an empty SQL Compact database, all in just 6 lines of code:

using (IRepository serverRepository = new ServerDBRepository4(@"Data Source=.;Trusted_Connection=true;Initial Catalog=Chinook"))
{
string fileName = Path.GetTempFileName();
    var generator = new Generator4(serverRepository, fileName);
    generator.ScriptDatabaseToFile(Scope.SchemaData);

    var helper = new SqlCeHelper4();
    var sqlCeConnectionString = @"Data Source=C:\temp\newdb.sdf";
    helper.CreateDatabase(sqlCeConnectionString);

using (IRepository sqlCeRepository = new DB4Repository(sqlCeConnectionString))
    {
        sqlCeRepository.ExecuteSqlFile(fileName);
    }
}

The code requires the following using statements:

using ErikEJ.SqlCeScripting;
using System.IO;

The ServerDBRepository constructor simply requires any valid SQL Server ADO.NET connection string.

The ScriptDatabaseToFile creates a script file with all content of the database, and the ExecuteSqlFile method runs the script against a SQL Server database.

Notice the use of the SqlCeHelper4 class, which creates an empty database file.

The SqlCeEngine class (in the System.Data.SqlServerCe ADO.NET provider) includes a number of useful methods for handling global database chores, like verifying the integrity of the database, and shrink the database file. It also includes the Compact method, which creates a new database file (optionally in-place) of an existing database file. During this process, you can specify a number of database creation parameters, namely the collation order, the case sensitivity or the password of the database. In code:

using (SqlCeEngine engine = 
new SqlCeEngine(@"Data Source=C:\temp\mysecretdb.sdf;Password=oldpassword"))
    { 
        engine.Compact("Data Source=;Password=newpassword");
    }

In this post I will describe a simplified approach to SQL Server Compact Private Deployment, for an overview blog post on Private Deployment with SQL Server Compact, see my blog post here.

By forcing your app to run using x86 always (Prefer 32-bit), which is the new default Platform target option  for apps targeting .NET Framework 4.5, deployment of SQL Server Compact with you app becomes simpler, but must follow different guidelines from what I have previously blogged about. (The same approach will also work with apps targeting .NET 4.0, just set the Platform target to x86 in the location shown below. And the same approach will also work with the SQL Server Compact 3.5 DLL files.)

To read more about the new default Platform target option introduced in .NET 4.5, see the MSDN documentation here, and the blog post here.

In addition, I will demonstrate how to use LINQ to SQL with SQL Server Compact 4.0, a low overhead, fast performing ORM.

For the sake of simplicity, and in order to focus attention on the private deployment aspects, I will demonstrate with a console application, but the same approach will also work for WinForms and WPF applications.

Before you get started, make sure you have the following installed:

1: Visual Studio 2010/2012/2013 Pro or higher 

2: SQL Server Compact Toolbox add-in (Install via Tools/Extensions in VS)

3: An existing SQL Server Compact database file, I will use Chinook, which you can download from here. 

4: The SQL Server Compact 4.0 SP1 runtime

(You could also use the free Visual Studio 2010/2012/2013 for Windows Desktop with the standalone SQL Server Compact Toolbox for 4.0, which also supports LINQ to SQL code generation)

With that in place, let us open Visual Studio and get started:

Create new console application

Go to File, New Project, and create a new Windows Console application. Make sure to set the target platform to 4.0 or newer.

Include the SQL Server Compact binaries in your project

Now include the SQL Server Compact 4.0 binaries and ADO.NET Provider as content in your app. Copy C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v4.0\Private\System.Data.SqlServerCe.dll to your project folder, and then copy all files and folders in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v4.0\Private\x86 also to your project folder.

In the Solution Explorer, select Show All Files, and include the new folder and the seven files just copied in the Project:

Now mark all the copied files (also the files in the Microsoft.VC9.CRT folder) and mark them as Content, Copy Always:

Finally, add a Reference to the System.Data.SqlServerCe.dll file in your project folder:

(Make sure to check the file location and the Version, should be 4.0.0.1)

Add your database file to the project

Make sure it is also Content, Copy Always – we use the”Database First” workflow here.

Generate the LINQ to SQL DataContext

Next,we will generate a LINQ to SQL DataContext class and related Table classes based on the database, so connect to the database in SQL Server Compact Toolbox, using the Add SQL Server Compact 4.0 Connection menu item:

Then right click the database and select “Add LINQ to SQL DataContext to current project”:

(I am just using ChinookContext as Context name)

Click OK, and a DataContext class file will be added to your project, and the required reference to System.Data.Linq will be added to the project.

Now let us add some test code to the Main method in order to verify that everything works so far, so the Program.cs code looks like this:

using System;
using System.Data.SqlServerCe;

namespace LinqToSqlCePrivateDeploy
{
class Program
    {
privateconststring
            dbFileName = "Chinook_SqlServerCompact_AutoIncrementPKs.sdf";

privatestaticstring dbConnectionString = 
string.Format("Data Source=|DataDirectory|{0};Max Database Size=4091", dbFileName);
staticvoid Main(string[] args)
        {
using (var connection = 
new SqlCeConnection(dbConnectionString))
            {
using (var context = new ChinookContext(connection))
                {
//To log SQL statements, use:
//context.Log = Console.Out;
foreach (var album in context.Album)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine(album.Artist.Name);
                        Console.WriteLine(album.Title);
                    }
                }
            }
            Console.Read();
        }
    }
}

We can now access the database via the generated object model, and do not have to type SQL, but can use LINQ to query the database. In addition, we can update the database (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) via methods on the DataContext.

Notice that the DataContext must be constructed with a SqlCeConnection object, in order for LINQ to SQL to work with SQL Server Compact 4.0.

Deploy the database file

The final step will be done to ensure that the database file will be located in a writeable location on the users machine when deployed/installed. We will simply do this in code in order to not depend on any install actions and issues. In addition, we can do this without storing any connection strings in app.config, making the app more self-contained. We will use the same approach that I have already used in my blog post here, which takes advantage of the DataDirectory connection string macro.

privatestaticvoid CreateIfNotExists(string fileName)
{
string path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
// Set the data directory to the users %AppData% folder            
// So the database file will be placed in:  C:\\Users\\<Username>\\AppData\\Roaming\\            
    AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetData("DataDirectory", path);

// Enure that the database file is present
if (!System.IO.File.Exists(System.IO.Path.Combine(path, fileName)))
    {
//Get path to our .exe, which also has a copy of the database file
        var exePath = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(
new Uri(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase).LocalPath);
//Copy the file from the .exe location to the %AppData% folder
        System.IO.File.Copy(
            System.IO.Path.Combine(exePath, fileName), 
            System.IO.Path.Combine(path, fileName));
    }
}

Remember to add a call to CreateIfNotExists as the first line in the Main method:

staticvoid Main(string[] args)
{
    CreateIfNotExists(dbFileName);

You can now use ClickOnce, XCopy or an Installer to deploy your app, with no other requirements than the target .NET Framework version.

What we have achieved:

- Simple, self contained deployment of a single user desktop app of any type to any .NET 4.0 or higher platform (not ARM, though)

- No need for special incantations in app.config

- RAD (Rapid App Development) “Database First” access to a well-performing, well-documented and simple ORM.

You can download the complete solution from here; http://sdrv.ms/179QBaa

After more than 210.000 downloads, version 3.6 (skipping version 3.5 to avoid confusion) of my SQL Server Compact Toolbox extension for Visual Studio 2013, 2012 and 2010 is now available for download. This blog post is a visual guide to the new features included in this release, many suggested by users of the tool via the CodePlex issue tracker

Table Builder

In order to improve the experience for Toolbox users, I have now started adding features to the Toolbox found in the Server Explorer tooling, starting with a Table Builder. This is due to the fact, that Server Explorer support in VS 2012 and VS 2013 is limited (in 2012 SQL Compact 4.0 only, and in VS 2013 none, where as Server Explorer in VS 2010 supports both 3.5 and 4.0).

To use the Table Builder, right click a database, and select Build Table:

Then specify the columns to be built, and click Script!

A CREATE TABLE script will then be displayed in the SQL editor. In the current version, it is not possible to modify an existing table, maybe next time?

If you have both VS 2012 and VS 2013, feel free to contact me for a way to re-enable Server Explorer support for SQL Server Compact 4.0 in VS 2013.

Report Viewer

You can now view the data in any table via the Microsoft Report Viewer, which also enables you to export data in Excel, Word and PDF format.

Right click any table, and select View Data as Report

You can right click the report (or use the Toolbar) to Print/Export the table data.

This featured is based on this Stackoverflow reply: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/267091/best-way-to-view-a-table-with-lots-of-columns

Generate Entity Framework 6 Entity Data Model (EDMX) in Visual Studio 2013

This feature is very similar to the existing feature for Visual Studio 2010, allowing you to do Database First development with SQL Server Compact and Entity Framework 6. The new implementation for Visual Studio 2013 takes advantage of assets from the version 6 Entity Framework designer, this includes using the included .tt files to code generate a DbContext and related POCO classes rather than a legacy ObjectContext. To use this feature, first install the EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact NuGet package in your project, and the simply right click the database you would like to generate the model for:

Then you will be presented with a very basic “Entity Data Model” dialog, which allows you to select which tables to include in the model, and to specify other relevant options:

Clicking OK will generate an EDMX file and releated .tt files etc, in the project based on the Entity Framework 6 designer way of doing this.

Other improvements and bug fixes

Scripting: Improved parsing of SELECT statements
Scripting; Proper scripting of float and real values
Scripting: Fixed some schema diff scripts bugs
UI: Improved display of database size and space available
Integration: Improved VS 2013 RTM support

Symptoms

1: The SQL Server Compact Toolbox now longer works after upgrading to Windows 8.1

2: Entity Framework based SQL Server Compact solutions no longer work after upgrading to Windows 8.1

Issue

When upgrading a machine that already has SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 and/or 4.0 installed, the DbProvider registration, which is stored in machine.config is broken, probably due to the fact, that a newer version of .NET Framework is installed (version 4.5.1) which simply overwrites the existing maching.config file. Both the SQL Server Compact Toolbox and Entity Framework depend on this registration.

Fix

The fix is to repair/re-install SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 and/or 4.0 SP1, both versions are fully supported on Windows 8.1/Windows Server 2012 R2.

You can download 3.5 SP2 from here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5783

You can download 4.0 SP1 from here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30709

In this new series, I will give an introduction to the new tooling and some of the new features in Entity Framework 6 (EF6). But lets begin with an overview of workflow and tooling option in the various Visual Studio versions, that EF6 supports.

EF6 consist of 2 major parts:

- the EF6 runtime, available via NuGet, which support Visual Studio 2010, 2012 and 2013 (version 6.0.0. of the runtime is included in the VS 2013 install, but always update to the latest released NuGet version)

- the EF Tools, which is mainly the Entity Data Model Wizard and the graphical EDMX editor and Model Browser in Solution Explorer. The EF Tools have been updated and are included with VS 2013, and you can also grab the EF6 Tools for Visual Studio 2012 here. For VS 2010, there are no updated tools.

Pawel Kadluczka (@moozzyk) from the Entity Framework team has posted an excellent, detailed blog post about changes to the tooling.

Workflows

As you may be aware, there are 4 available workflows available with Entity Framework:

Database First, where you reverse engineer an Entity Data Model (EDMX) from an existing database.

Model First, where you “draw” the data model in an empty EDMX, and the can generate database objects based on the model.

Code First, where you define data classes, and either decorate with attributes of use fluent configuration, and also define a class that inherits from DbContext.

Code Second, where you generate Code First classes based on an existing database. You can use for example the EF Power Tools to do this

You can get more information about the different workflows and how to choose one here.

SQL Compact workflows in Visual Studio

In this section I will describe how to perform each workflow in VS 2010, 2012 and 2013, as there are differences due to varying degrees of tooling support. For any of the workflows below, the first thing to do is install the Entity Framework 6 SQL Server Compact NuGet package in your project, the package name is EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact:

This package will add the following references to your project:

EntityFramework

EntityFramework.SqlServer (not needed for our scenarios)

EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact

System.Data.SqlServerCe (not really needed for EF scenarios)

- the reason why System.Data.SqlServerCe is not needed, is that EF6 relies on the DbProviderFactory registration of SQL Server Compact, either in machine.config or your app.config/web.config.

The package will also add required app/web .config settings in the current project, to register the SQL Server Compact Entity Framework provider for EF6. (Not the DbProvider registration, but I have a solution for that in my next blog post)

Visual Studio 2010

Since the EF6 Tools are not available for VS 2010, the only available workflow using Entity Framework 6 (which fully supports .NET 4.0) is Code First. There is an overview of Code First with SQL Server Compact, EF6 and VS 2010  available here on CodeProject. (You can of course continue to use the EF designer with EF 4 based projects). I also have a blog post on Code First here.
Please note that my recommend approach is simply to install the EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact package first, as this will include all other required packages in the project for you, rather than installing the EntityFramework package first as done in the CodeProject blog post.

Visual Studio 2012

VS 2012 has a DDEX (Server Explorer) provider for SQL Server Compact, which makes all workflows simple.

Database First: Connect to a database file in Server Explorer, and then add an “ADO.NET Entity Model” to your project. (Or connect to/create one during the wizard)

Model First: Add an Empty “ADO.NET Entity Model” to your project. Add entities etc. to the Model. When prompted during script generation (Generate Database from Model), connect to or create a SQL Server Compact database file.

Code Second: Install the Entity Framework Power Tools from Tools/Extensions (I believe they require the EF6 Tools to be installed to work)

Visual Studio 2013

VS 2013 has no DDEX (Server Explorer) provider for SQL Server Compact, which makes all workflows a bit more complicated.There is a VS UserVoice item to bring back the DDEX provider, if you feel like voting for it.

Database First: Install my SQL Server Compact Toolbox add-in via Tools/Extensions. Also install SQLCE 3.5 SP2 and SQLCE 4.0 SP1 if not already present. Right click the database and create an Entity Data Model from the context menu.

Model First: Install my SQL Server Compact Toolbox add-in via Tools/Extensions. Also install SQLCE 3.5 SP2 and SQLCE 4.0 SP1 if not already present. Create an empty database file. Right click the database and create an Entity Data Model from the context menu. Add entities etc. to the Model. A SQL Compact compatible script will be generated when selecting “Generate Database from Model”. I have a fix for the .tt script template to make the generated script more compatible with the Toolbox.UPDATE: This scenario appears to be broken currently, investigating.

Code Second: I am working on getting a pull request accepted for the EntityFramework Reverse POCO Code First Generator project. This project is an alternative to the EF Power Tools Reverse Engineer feature, but presently does not support SQL Server Compact. Once it has been accepted, you can generate Code Second classes from a SQL Server Compact database file with this tool.

NEXT: Easy Private Desktop Deployment with SQL Server Compact and Entity Framework 6.

In this post I will describe a simplified approach to SQL Server Compact Private Desktop Deployment with Entity Framework 6, for an overview blog post on Private Deployment with SQL Server Compact, see my blog post here.

When using Private Deployment with Entity Framework 6, due to the fact that the EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact also installs the SQL Server Compact NuGet package, we must use a slightly different approach from what I described here in order to keep thing simple. The main difference is that we must force the project to use x86 Target Platform rather than AnyCPU (or AnyCPU, Prefer 32 bit). This is due to the fact that when running Prefer 32 bit, the SQL Server Compact ADO.NET provider loads the wrong files, as the PROCESSORPLATFORM in this case remains AMD64 on 64 bit systems, but the executing .NET Framework is the x86 version.

To read more about the new default Platform target option introduced in .NET 4.5, see the MSDN documentation here, and the blog post here.

In addition, I will demonstrate how to use my SQL Server Compact Toolbox to quickly get started with a Database First workflow.

For the sake of simplicity, and in order to focus attention on the private deployment aspects, I will demonstrate with a console application, but the same approach will also work for WinForms and WPF applications. The approach will NOT work for dll output projects, like for example add-ins and similar, as it relies on configuration entries in app.config. And this blog post is about deployment, not layered architectures. 

In short, we need to do the following:

1: Create a project and set Target Platform to x86

2: Add the EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact.PrivateConfig NuGet package to the project

3: Add our database file as project content

4: Create EDMX (or Code First classes) and adjust connection string

5: Add code to properly deploy the database file during app launch

But let’s expand on each task below.

Before you get started, make sure you have the following installed:

1: Visual Studio 2013 Pro or higher.

2: The latest version of  my SQL Server Compact Toolbox add-in (Install via Tools/Extensions in VS). The Toolbox requires the SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 and 4.0 SP1 runtimes to be installed (the 3.5 requirement will be lifted in the next release of the Toolbox)

3: An existing SQL Server Compact database file, I will use Chinook

With that in place, let us open Visual Studio and get started:

Create new console application

Go to File, New Project, and create a new Windows Console application. Make sure to set the target platform to 4.0 or newer.

Now set the Target Platform to x86 (this is an important step, if you forget to do this you will get a BadImageFormat exception during runtime/debug)

Go to the project properties, and select the Build section/tab, and choose x86:

Install Entity Framework 6 from NuGet

To get the latest and greatest Entity Framework 6 bits, always install from NuGet. And thanks to the amazing package dependency resolution features of NuGet, just install the single required package, and the remaining packages will be installed as dependencies. In this case, the only thing that is missing from the EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact package (which depends on SQL Server Compact 4 and EF6) is a DbProvider registration in the app.config file, that enables you to run without the SQL Server Compact runtime installed in GAC and machine.config. To fix this “"misssing link”, I have created the http://www.nuget.org/packages/EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact.PrivateConfig/ 

package, which simply adds the missing config entries and in turn depends on all other required packages. It adds this to the app.config file:

<system.data>
<DbProviderFactories>
<removeinvariant="System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0"/>
<addname="Microsoft SQL Server Compact Data Provider 4.0"invariant="System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0"description=".NET Framework Data Provider for Microsoft SQL Server Compact"type="System.Data.SqlServerCe.SqlCeProviderFactory, System.Data.SqlServerCe, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91"/>
</DbProviderFactories>
</system.data>

In other words, simply install the EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact.PrivateConfig package. Right click the References folder in your project, and select Manage NuGet Packages. Search for the package name and install it. And all required packages and references will be installed. (I am working on getting these config entries added to the base EntityFramwork.SqlServerCompact package, in order to make things more streamlined)

Add your database file to the project

I will use Chinook, which you can install from NuGet. But of course feel free to use your own database file.

Find the Chinook SQL Server Compact database package, and install it:

Make sure to mark the database file as Content, Copy Always in the project. I will describe later in this post how to place it correctly on the end users PC.

 Create the Entity Data Model (EDMX) and adjust the connection string

Build the project.

Now in the SQL Server Compact Toolbox, connect to the database file in your project folder:

Right click the database, and select the “Add Entity Data Model (EDMX) to current project” menu item:

Click OK, and the EDMX file and various other files will be added to your project:

Build the project.

Now let us add some test code to the Main method in order to verify that everything works so far:

using (var context = new ChinookEntities())
{
foreach (var album in context.Album.ToList())
    {
        Console.WriteLine(album.Title);
    }

}
Console.ReadKey();

We can now access the database via the generated object model, and do not have to type SQL, but can use LINQ to Entities to query the database. In addition, we can update the database (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) via methods on the derived DbContext class, ChinookEntities. In app.config, the following connection string has been added:

<connectionStrings>
<addname="ChinookEntities"connectionString="metadata=res://*/Chinook.csdl|res://*/Chinook.ssdl|res://*/Chinook.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0;provider connection string=&quot;Data Source=C:\Users\erik.COMMENTOR\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Projects\ConsoleApplication4\Chinook.sdf&quot;"
providerName="System.Data.EntityClient"/>
</connectionStrings>

In order to make the connection string user and folder independent, change the data source as follows:

<connectionStrings>
<addname="ChinookEntities"connectionString="metadata=res://*/Chinook.csdl|res://*/Chinook.ssdl|res://*/Chinook.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0;provider connection string=&quot;Data Source=|DataDirectory|\Chinook.sdf&quot;"
providerName="System.Data.EntityClient"/>
</connectionStrings>

Deploy the database file

The final step will be done to ensure that the database file will be located in a writeable location on the users machine when deployed/installed. We will simply do this in code in order to not depend on any install actions and issues. We will use the same approach that I have already used in my blog post here, which takes advantage of the DataDirectory connection string macro. So add this piece of code to the Program class:

privateconststring dbFileName = "Chinook.sdf";
privatestaticvoid CreateIfNotExists(string fileName)
{
string path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
// Set the data directory to the users %AppData% folder            
// So the database file will be placed in:  C:\\Users\\<Username>\\AppData\\Roaming\\            
    AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetData("DataDirectory", path);

// Enure that the database file is present
if (!System.IO.File.Exists(System.IO.Path.Combine(path, fileName)))
    {
//Get path to our .exe, which also has a copy of the database file
        var exePath = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(
new Uri(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase).LocalPath);
//Copy the file from the .exe location to the %AppData% folder
        System.IO.File.Copy(
            System.IO.Path.Combine(exePath, fileName),
            System.IO.Path.Combine(path, fileName));
    }
}

Remember to add a call to CreateIfNotExists as the first line in the Main method:

staticvoid Main(string[] args)
{
    CreateIfNotExists(dbFileName);

You can now use ClickOnce, XCopy or an Installer to deploy your app (the files in the release folder), with no other requirements than the target .NET Framework version. Uninstall the 4.0 runtime from your PC in order to test (and/or test on another PC without SQL CE 4.0 installed)

What we have achieved:

- Simple, self contained deployment of a single user desktop app of any type to any .NET 4.0 or higher platform (not ARM, though)

- Automated creation of the required settings in app.config via NuGet packages

- RAD (Rapid App Development) “Database First” access to a well-performing, well-documented and powerful ORM.

You can download the complete solution (without packages) from here.

In my previous 2 blog posts here and here, I have briefly mentioned the new default Target Platform for new .NET 4.5/4.5.1 projects in Visual Studio 2012/2013. To be perfectly honest, it was not exactly clear why this was an issue with the SQL Server Compact ADO.NET provider, so I decided to dig a little deeper.

To read more about the new default Platform target option introduced in .NET 4.5, see the MSDN documentation here, and the blog post here.

Why is this Target platform an issue for the SQL Server Compact provider?

Let’s find out how the provider detects if it is running on a x86 or x64 (AMD64) system. In .NET 4.0, two new properties were introduced, System.Environment.Is64BitProcess and System.Environment.Is64BitOperatingSystem (for a nice overview of their implementation see this blog post. But the provider code is old, and uses a different method: It looks at the PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE environment variable, and assumes that it reflects the value of the current process bitness (possible values are x86 and AMD64 on a Intel x64 system). In fact, it first looks in the .exe folder for a valid version of sqlceme40.dll, and if not found, then in a subfolder named after the processor architecture (ie x86 or AMD64).

In order to test how an app responds, I then made a small .NET 4.5 console app to test the values of the new Environment properties and the PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE value. I added the SQL Server Compact NuGet package (Microsoft.SqlServer.Compact) to test how the engine responds using Private Deployment under the four different Target Platform options. And I uninstalled the SQL Server Compact 4.0 runtime from Add/Remove Programs, so it is no longer in the GAC.

string path = @"c:\temp\test.sdf";
Console.WriteLine("Is64BitOS: " + System.Environment.Is64BitOperatingSystem);
Console.WriteLine("Is64BitProc: " + System.Environment.Is64BitProcess);
Console.WriteLine("PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE: " + System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE"));
Console.ReadKey();
if (System.IO.File.Exists(path))
    System.IO.File.Delete(path);
using (SqlCeEngine engine = new SqlCeEngine(string.Format("Data Source={0}", path)))
{
    engine.CreateDatabase();
}

1: Output with Any CPU, Prefer 32 bit:

Is64BitOS: True
Is64BitProc: False
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE: AMD64

And getting error: Unable to load the native components of SQL Server Compact corresponding to the ADO.NET provider of version 8876.

As you can see even if it is a 32 bit process, the PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE variable has the “wrong” value, causing the SQL Server Compact ADO.NET provider System.Data.SqlServerCe.dll to try to load the dll files from the AMD64 folder in a 32 bit process.

2: Output with Any CPU, Prefer 32 bit unchecked:

Is64BitOS: True
Is64BitProc: True
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE: AMD64

- and no errors

3: Output with x64:

Is64BitOS: True
Is64BitProc: True
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE: AMD64

- and no errors

4: Output with x86:

Is64BitOS: True
Is64BitProc: False
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE: x86

- and no errors

Hopefully this blog post will prevent some form getting bitten by this “issue”, which also affects the SQLite ADO.NET provider.

In this blog post I will highlight an overlooked feature in my SQL Server Compact Toolbox (Visual Studio add-in or standalone), the ability to create interactive relationship diagrams of SQL Server databases. And in combination with the free, open source DB>Doc for SQL Server, you have a full suite of documentation tools.

In order to create a diagram showing tables, columns and relationships for your SQL Server database, install the Toolbox.

Right click the root node of the Toolbox window, and select “Create SQL Server Database Graph (DGML)”:

Select the database that you want to diagram (the tool needs SELECT permission on the system views in the database)

You can also select to diagram only a subset of the tables in the database:

You will be prompted for a location to save the DGML file, enter this, and click OK, and Visual Studio will show the generated diagram in the DGML viewer, that comes with Visual Studio 2012 Pro or higher:

The viewer is quite advanced, from the Layout menu you can choose between various layouts of the dependency graph, and other advanced features to analyse the graph, for example. From the viewer you can Share as Image or XPS.
UPDATE: With the DGML Power Tools installed, you can also share a .SVG, which you can view in any web browser.

Click on a table, and select the down arrow button to expand the table into columns, and refer to the Legend also displayed (via the Legend menu item in the viewer):

More information on working with the graphs is available on MSDN:

Browse and Rearrange Dependency Graphs

Edit and Customize Dependency Graphs

To create HTML/XML based documentation of your database columns, you can use the open source DB>Doc tool. The main idea [of this tool] is to serve as a complementary tool to database diagrams, focusing on columns in tables and their meaning (common database diagrams focus to entity relationships).

I also use this tool for the documentation feature in the Toolbox for SQL Server Compact database files, which produces output similar to this:

Happy documenting! And feel free to provide feedback at https://sqlcetoolbox.codeplex.com/WorkItem/Create

This blog post shows how you can use newsequentialid() as a function in scripts etc., not only as a column default value.

In many scenarios, unique identifiers are used a clustered, primary keys in database tables for various reasons. This blog post will not discuss the pros and cons of doing this.

Usage of GUID/uniqueidentifer and it’s implication on fragmentation, and how newsequentialid() can help improve this, has been documented in various places

A limitation of newsequentialid() is that it can only be used as a default value for a column, not as a function, in for example ad-hoc INSERT scripts. By taking advantage of SQLCLR, this situation can be changed.

using System;
using System.Data.SqlTypes;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

publicclass SqlFunctions
{
    [Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlFunction(DataAccess = DataAccessKind.Read)]
publicstatic SqlGuid newsequentialid()
    {
using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection("context connection=true"))
        {
            connection.Open();
            var sql = @"
DECLARE @NewSequentialId AS TABLE (Id UNIQUEIDENTIFIER DEFAULT(NEWSEQUENTIALID()))
INSERT INTO @NewSequentialId DEFAULT VALUES;
SELECT Id FROM @NewSequentialId;";
using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(sql, connection))
            {
object idRet = cmd.ExecuteScalar();
returnnew SqlGuid((Guid)idRet);
            }
        }
    }

}

The code above implements a SQLCLR function named newsequentialid(), To build this code, simply create a C# class library, include the code, and build. The code is inspired by this thread on SQLServerCentral: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1006731-2815-1.aspx

To make deploying the function even simpler, the script outlined below can add the assembly code to your database and register the function:

EXEC sp_configure @configname=clr_enabled, @configvalue=1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO

IFNOTEXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.assemblies asms WHERE asms.name = N'SqlFunctions'and is_user_defined = 1)
CREATE ASSEMBLY [SqlFunctions]
FROM 0x4D5A… (rest omitted, use full script)
WITH PERMISSION_SET = SAFE

IFNOTEXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[newsequentialid]') AND type in (N'FN', N'IF', N'TF', N'FS', N'FT'))
BEGIN
execute dbo.sp_executesql @statement = N'
    CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[newsequentialid]()
    RETURNS uniqueidentifier
    AS EXTERNAL NAME [SqlFunctions].[SqlFunctions].[newsequentialid];
'
END
GO

You can download the full script from here: http://sdrv.ms/1hhYDY1

Testing with 50.000 inserts, like in the CodeProject article reveals the following figures:

Newsequentialid as DEFAULT:
Run time: 1:18, pages: 1725, fragmentation: 0,7 %

Newsequentialid as function in INSERT statement, no default value on table:
Run time: 2:03, pages: 1725, fragementation: 0,7 %

To use the function as a replacement for newid(), simply use dbo.newsequentialid() instead. But please also consider using another column as clustering key in your table…

After more than 235.000 downloads, version 3.7 of my SQL Server Compact Toolbox extension for Visual Studio 2013, 2012 and 2010 is now available for download (and available via Tools/Extensions in Visual Studio). This blog post is a visual guide to the new features included in this release, many suggested by users of the tool via the CodePlex issue tracker. A major “theme” for this release has been to improve the experience for Visual Studio 2013 users, which has no Server Explorer/DDEX support for SQL Server Compact at all.

Add Column, Index and Foreign Key to table

As Server Explorer support is completely missing in VS 2013, and only available for 4.0 in VS 2012, I have added dialogs for building script to add columns, indexes and foreign keys to a table. Right click any table, and select the desired dialog:

Note that currently the Index and Foreign Key dialogs only support a single column, I am aware of this, so please vote here and/or here.

Generate Entity Framework 6 Entity Data Model with VS 2012 and SQL Compact 3.5

The code generation menu items have now been moved to a sub-menu:

In addition, as the Entity Framework Tools are now available for Visual Studio 2012 as well as Visual Studio 2013, it is now possible to generate a “database first” Entity Framework model (EDMX) based on a SQL Server Compact database in VS 2012. And I have just contributed an Entity Framework SQL Server Compact 3.5 provider (available as prerelease on NuGet), that allows you to use SQL Server Compact 3.5 with Entity Framework 6. 

Copy database file

It is now possible to copy a database file, and then for example paste it into your project, should you so desire, simply by pressing Ctrl+C on the selected database, or selecting the context menu item:

Data only export to SQL Server

The current data export feature has been enhanced to support SQL Server and IDENTITY columns by using DBCC CHECKINDENT instead of the unsupported ALTER TABLE statements currently used.

New "ALTER column" context menu item

To help you modify columns, a new context menu to script ALTER COLUMN statements has been added:

“Database designer”

I am now hosting a web based database designer based on http://code.google.com/p/wwwsqldesigner/ (which implements only the SQL Server Compact column data types). Current state is “alpha” (and there are known issues with IE 11)!

Server DGML now has table selection

When generating a database diagram for a SQL Server database, you can now select which tables to include in the graph, which can be helpful when diagramming databases with many tables. I have already blogged about this earlier.

Other improvements and bug fixes

Missing database files indicated in tree view
No longer depends on the SQL Server Compact 3.5 runtime, and no longer depends on DbProviderFactory, simply requires either 3.5 or 4.0 in GAC
Each Query opens in new window
BUG: "Upgrade to 4.0" was blocked in Visual Studio 2013
BUG: Not ideal support for Dark Theme in VS 2012/2013 (improved slightly)
BUG: EF6 EDMX code generation with VB was broken

As you may know, SQL Server Compact version 4.0 does not have support for Merge Replication and Remote Data Access (you can still use RDA, however). This was a showstopper if you wanted to use the latest version of Entity Framework, as up until now, only SQL Server Compact version 4.0 was supported with Entity Framework 5 and 6. But now a SQL Server Compact 3.5 provider for Entity Framework 6 is available, currently as pre-release on NuGet.

The new 3.5 provider is based on the exact same codebase as the 4.0 provider, and thus has all the new features (SqlCeFunctions, Migrations etc.), bug fixes and performance improvements included in the 4.0 provider. In addition, this new provider supports IDENTITY Keys, just like the 4.0 provider. (A showstopper for many with the present 3.5 provider). As it is based on the same codebase as the 4.0 provider, any future improvements and bug fixes will also be included with this provider.

This blog post will describe how you can get started with the new 3.5 provider with Entity Framework 6, and will also include some pointers on getting started with Merge Replication. I will assume that you have Visual Studio 2012 or 2013 Professional or higher installed, and also have my SQL Server Compact Toolbox add-in installed. If you are using Visual Studio 2012 and Database First, you must also have the Entity Framework 6.0.2 Tools installed, download from here. And of course you must have the SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 Desktop runtime installed.

So let us create a new console app, that uses Entity Framework 6 and SQL Server Compact 3.5, and which could potentially be a Merge Replication subscriber.

Create a new Console project:

For this walkthrough, we will use Database First, but you can of course also use Code First.

Add the EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact.Legacy NuGet package to the project (remember to allow pre-releases), by right clicking the project and selecting Manage NuGet Packages…

This will install Entity Framework 6.1-alpha1 and the 3.5 provider and add the required registration in app.config.

Build the project.

Connect/create the database that you want to use in the SQL Server Compact Toolbox, right click it, and select “Add Entity Data Model to current Project”

Just click OK:

This will add Chinook.edmx and invoke code generation that builds a DbContext derived class and POCO classes for each table in your database.

You can now add Merge Replication to your solution, you can start by installing my Merge Replication client helper library via NuGet, http://www.nuget.org/packages/ErikEJ.SqlCeMergeLib/, read more about it here: https://sqlcemergelib.codeplex.com/

In order to configure Merge Replication on your SQL Server database and web server, I have a brief blog post here, but otherwise I can highly recommend the book by Rob Tiffany.

Notice that if you want to add Merge Replication to a SQL Server 2012 database, you need SP1 and CU4 or later, and you will need a recent build (8088 or newer) of the SQL Server Comapct 3.5 runtime installed, as listed in my blog post here.

Hopefully you will now be able to get started with this combination of the latest Microsoft data access technology and  “legacy” technologies like Merge Replication and Sync Framework. If you have any questions, please ask in the MSDN forum or Stack Overflow.

As described in my blog post here, Entity Framework Tools support for SQL Server Compact 4.0 in Visual Studio 2013 is broken, because SQL Server Compact is no longer supported by Server Explorer in VS 2013. The latest release of my SQL Server Compact Toolbox, version 3.7.1, currently available in beta release from here, restores the Entity Framework Tools support for SQL Server Compact 4.0 by installing a simple DDEX provider.

Developing DDEX providers is a bit of a dark art, which has put me off even thinking about it, but a recent discussion on CodePlex drew my attention to the DDEX sample provider included with the Entity Framework source code. In particular the fact that the Entity Framework Tools does not get any information from the DDEX provider apart from the connection information, so all Tables, Columns etc. are enumerated via code in the Entity Framework provider, not the DDEX provider. Quote from the included Word document: “Thus, the information shown in the wizard GUI comes directly from the EF provider. The wizard lets users select which tables, views and stored procedures to include in the model”.

So my “simple” provider enables you to use the Entity Framework Tools, for example “Generate Model from Database”, “Generate Database from Model”, “Update Model from Database” and also the EF Power Tools Reverse engineer feature. (Soon to be included directly in the EF Tools).

Once the DDEX Provider has been installed, (which consists of placing the provider DLL on disk, and add a number of registry entries), you can add a connection to any SQL Server Compact 4.0 database from the Toolbox, and it will be added to Server Explorer:

(If you do not see the label at the bottom, but potentially a warning instead, one of the requirements for using the provider have not been fulfilled)

The requirements for the provider are:
- Visual Studio 2013 Pro or higher (it is not possible to add 3rd party DDEX providers to any Express edition, please correct me if I am wrong)
- The Simple DDEX provider must be registered (may require a VS restart after launching with version 3.7.1 the first time), you can verify via About dialog in Toolbox.
- The 4.0 DbProvider must be properly registered, use the About dialog in the Toolbox to confirm:

Finally, you can of course confirm the presence of the provider in the Server Explorer Choose Data Source dialog:

To connect via Server Explorer, select the “SQL Server Compact 4.0 (Simple by ErikEJ)” data source, click continue, and all you normally would need to enter is the path to the database file:

Notice that this UI does not let you create a new database file, but you can do that from the “Add Connection…” dialog in the Toolbox.

With that in place, you have access to the exact same Entity Framework Tools features that you had in Visual Studio 2012. Happy coding (and please let me know if your encounter any issue with this feature)

After 250.000 (!) downloads, version 3.7.1 of my SQL Server Compact Toolbox extension for Visual Studio 2013, 2012 and 2010 is now available for download (and available via Tools/Extensions in Visual Studio). This blog post is a visual guide to the few new features included in this minor release, which all centre around Server Explorer (DDEX) , including support for Visual Studio 2012 and 2013.

Simple DDEX providers for Visual Studio 2012 and 2013

I already blogged about this feature here, it has been extended to also support SQL Compact 3.5. Follow these steps to use the providers with Entity Framework Tools:

- Install this version of the toolbox and launch Visual Studio 2012/2013.
- Open the Toolbox (this will silently run the “installation” of the DDEX provider if required).
- Restart VS 2012/2013.
- Add new Toolbox connection to a new or existing SQL Server Compact 4.0 or 3.5 database file.
- Add EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact or EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact.Legacy NuGet package to project and build project.
- You can now use this connection for Generate Model from Database, Generate Database from Model and Update Model from Database, and with the Power Tools.

With this release, the DDEX support matrix looks like this:

“Microsoft” means full featured, Microsoft supplied provider
”ErikEJ” means simple, basic support, enough to enable Entity Framework Tools, provided by this version of SQL Server Compact Toolbox.

Currently, the 3.5 DDEX provider does not fully work with the Entity Framework Tools, due to a bug (my bug!) in the EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact.Legacy Entity Framework provider; I am working on getting it fixed.

Scan Solution for sdf files

This new menu item will scan the active Solution for any sdf files, and add those to the Toolbox:

Prefer DDEX

This new option allows you to always use the Toolbox supplied dialogs for connecting to a SQL Server Compact database file, which will allow you to connect to any file, and does not require an .sdf file type. (By choosing not to prefer!)

Bug fixes and enhancements

Please report any issues you encounter and provide feature suggestions and requests here.

This is a list of some of all the nice Entity Framework 6 extensions out there that expand the functionality of the Entity Framework 6 runtime. Code generator tools and Frameworks using Entity Framework are not included here, only libraries that extend DbContext or similar.

The EF team has lists of Tools and 3rd party EF providers here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/ee712907

Please let me know if I have missed anything, and I will add it to the list.

Store Functions for EntityFramework CodeFirst 

Why: This project uses the basic building blocks to build end to end experience allowing using TVFs in Linq queries and invoking stroed procedures without having to drop down to SQL.
Project: https://codefirstfunctions.codeplex.com/
NuGet: Coming soon

Interactive Pre-Generated Views for Entity Framework 6

Why: An alternative is a solution where views are created dynamically only when needed (i.e. views don't exist or are out dated) and then persisted and made available for use by other instances of the same application (be it running in parallel or the same application after a restart). This is exactly the problem Interactive Pre Generated Views project is trying to solve.
Project: https://efinteractiveviews.codeplex.com/
NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/EFInteractiveViews

Entity Framework 6 Contrib

Why: https://ef6contrib.codeplex.com/documentation
Project: https://ef6contrib.codeplex.com/
NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/EF6.Contrib/

Entity Framework Extended Library

Why: Batch Update and Delete, Future Queries, Query Result Cache, Audit Log

Nuget: http://www.nuget.org/packages/EntityFramework61.Extended (forked)
and http://www.nuget.org/packages/EntityFramework6.Extended (forked)
and https://www.nuget.org/packages/EntityFramework.Extended/
Project: https://github.com/loresoft/EntityFramework.Extended and https://github.com/AdvancedREI/EntityFramework.Extended


EntityFramework.Utilities

Why: EntityFramework.Utilities provides some batch operations for using EF that the EF team hasn't yet added for us. (CUD)
Project: https://github.com/MikaelEliasson/EntityFramework.Utilities
NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/EFUtilities/

EntityFramework.BulkInsert

Why: Bulk insert extension for EntityFramework. Insert large amount of data over 20 times faster than regular insert. Supports DB first and code first.
Project: https://efbulkinsert.codeplex.com/
NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/EntityFramework.BulkInsert-ef6

Trackable Entities

Why: Visual Studio 2012 and 2013 project templates and NuGet packages for client-side entity change-tracking and server-side persistence with Entity Framework extensions.
Project: https://trackable.codeplex.com/
NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/TrackableEntities.EF.6/