Oracle Releases Provider with EF 4 Support (but not really EF 4.1 and EF4.2)

Oracle has finally released it’s version of ODP.NET that supports Entity Framework for use in production environments.

This is great news for many developers! 

And they report that this release supports EF 4.1 and EF 4.2. That should mean Code First and DbContext but thanks to Frans Bouma sending me the limitations doc (that is part of the installation ) we can see that they aren’t! Too bad.

7. ODP.NET 11.2.0.3 does not support Code First nor the DbContext APIs.

So, that means “not really EF 4.1 and EF 4.2 support” in my opinion. But they told us already that Code First & DbContext weren’t going to make it in. So it was just the momentary surprise of misunderstanding their meaning about EF4.1 & 4.2 support that deflated me a bit. 😉

Howver…I imagine Code First and DbContext are still leading edge for the types of big corporations that use Oracle. The core EF 4 support is a big deal.

I’ll follow up with Oracle for clarification.

More from Oracle (including downloads) here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/dotnet/whatsnew/index.html

Note: They’ve updated the what’s new page to say "Code First is not supported." That’s helpful. Be sure that even thought it’s not mentioned there, EF 4.1/4.2 DbContext API is not supported either.

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9 thoughts on “Oracle Releases Provider with EF 4 Support (but not really EF 4.1 and EF4.2)

  1. The only thing missing on EF for me is this kind of support for other databases.

    On version 4.2 it is complete, easy to use and map. It`s fantastic, but we still have a barrier to break.

    THanks for share these news!

  2. We need companies database developers to act quickly in the creation of the providers ‘really’ compatible with the Entity Framework 4.2.

    Meanwhile, the Devart is still an option.

  3. @jagan- there’s a link in this blog post to the Oracle page with info on the new provider. That’s probably where you can find user guide, info on Model First, etc.

  4. Hi Julie, just for you information: In their installation instructions for ODAC 11.2.03 from December 2011 Oracle claims that: "ODAC supports DbContext APIs. This note supersedes the ODP.NET 11.2.0.3 README." I tried to create a model from an existing database and added the ADO.NET DbContextGenerator to the project. After that I could build the project and query some data.

    Cheers,

    Stefan

  5. The other annoying (to me) part about these tools is that the x64 version of the odac doesn’t contain design time tools for visual studio. You have to download the 32 bit tools for that. I haven’t been able to get them to play nicely with each other, so I just ended up using the 32 bit odac. Not the end of the world, but still irritating.

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