e-Book Pro Entity Framework 4.0 (Expert's Voice in .NET) download

If you're new to programming and want a lightweight intro to EF 4 with lots of screen shots that show you step by step how to use the designer, then this is the book for you. If you're a senior programmer who expects a Pro book to actually be about programming, don't buy this book, you'll be very disappointed. I had this book preordered based solely on the fact that it's a Pro book from Apress, which at one time was a top notch publisher. This is one of the two worst technical books I've ever bought (the other is Windows Azure Platform, another recent Apress product). I will definitely wait until I see the Amazon reviews before I buy another Apress book.

Very nice book! I really would recommend it

The first thing to say about this book is that it's rather thin. And it contains a LOT of screenshots. Which means it's really a very basic "introduction" book rather than a "Pro" one. But worse than that, it was obsolete even before it was published!

Unfortunately, the approach taken is very much a "step by step" guide showing each and every screenshot of what the UI should look like as you work your way through different wizards and scenarios. The trouble is that UI changed even before the book was published. The book was written to a beta version of Visual Studio 2010 despite being officially published after Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate was released. Those who want a detailed guide will get frustrated at the "treat the user like an idiot and show him every screenshot" approach taken (presumably to help pad the page count out) while those who like this style will quickly get frustrated because the screenshots don't reflect any kind of reality as too much has been changed since the beta.

Apress publish some great books, but this isn't one of them. My guess is that it's been rushed to market to cash in on the demand for information before what most consider "the bible" (Julie Lehrman's O'Reilly book) gets updated to the latest version. Clearly Julie and her publishers have more integrity, waiting until the product is "fully baked" before rushing out a book on the product. And certainly her "Version 1" book on the same subject had far more depth and detail than this slim, introductory volume does.

I regret buying this book, and would strongly urge others to avoid doing so. Wait for the O'Reilly book, or an alternative that reflects the reality of what you'll have to work with, rather than an early beta.

First of all, this book is not so HORRIBLY BAD as one can conclude from the reviews, but just BAD.

I read it all from beginning to end and got some usefulness out of it. Maybe not expert level but more than beginner for sure.

However, one thing that pissed me off were the blunders - the author apparently wanted to unleash a new book ASAP, and forgot to review and correct mistakes. This is unacceptable for professionals writing books, moreover for APRESS.
I am usually attentive to such things and write down the mistakes when I note them in books and send out to authors so they correct in next editions. But with this book I just stopped recording them.. it was too much..

I'll post some of them hereunder, for you to be informed:

Grammatical errors:
1) The Object set class (the class name in fact is ObjectSet)
2) This line establishes and manages our database connection and provides >>>of<<< the functionality of
working with entity data as objects as well as managing object state. (who's that "of"?)
3) In this chapter you have >>>a<<< seen a few LINQ-to-Entities queries (who's that "a"?)
4) first, I you need to discuss the Model Browser window (I or you?)
5) You’re not finished: you need the WriteLinecodeto show the write information. (not "write" but "right"!)
6) because you want access to the context at the form level so that you can save, delete, and delete. (save, update and delete)

Logical errors:
1) This first example selects everyone with a first name of King or a first name of Jones, (the example is about last names and not first names)
2) • SSDL: Storage Schema Definition Language, also known as the conceptual model
• CSDL: Conceptual Schema Definition Language, also known as the storage model
(mixed one another's description)
3) Although denoted by “0..1” (which means “zero or one”) this can be misinterpreted. This
simply means that one Person might have multiple Employee roles, but only one employee can be
related to a single Person. (The explanation is a disaster. 0..1 relationship never means multiple)
4) Take a look at the Schemaelement. The Namespace includes “.Store” (it includes "Model.Store" and not ".Store")
5) OK, now on to the CSDL. (author starts about MSL and not CSDL)
6) however, keep in mind that IQueryable inherits from ObjectQuery (goodness.... ObjectQuery implements IQueryable!)
7) When you added stored procedures to the EDM, the SOAP Service Description Language (SSDL)represents the stored procedures as functions. (What does SOAP Service Description Language have to do with SSDL in EF?!?! SSDL stands for Storage Schema Definition Language which has been noted throughout the book! Where did you seize the SOAP from?)

If you're looking to get started with .Net's Entity Framework, this book is a fine place to start. The first chapter lays nicely out the the history of data access with .NET and setting up the vocabulary and groundwork for the rest of the book. From there the book goes into depth about the Entity Data Modeling tools built into VS2010.

Other reviewers have noted that the book is thin and full of screenshots. This isn't necessarily a bad thing if you're looking for an introduction to .NET's Entity Framework. What is frustrating is that the screenshots were done in the pre-RTM version of VS2010 and laid out such that the text that refers to those screenshots is most often on the wrong page, and you have to flip back and forth for reference. Also, the typeface and line spacing make it hard for me to read, and there are various typos throughout.

Overall, this is a fine book but it feels like it was rushed out on a deadlne and thus has some rough edges.