Devart Announces Release of LinqConnect 3.0 with Fluent Mapping Support

Devart is glad to announce the release of its 3.0 version of LingConnect product, now available with Fluent Mapping function and numerous Entity Developer improvements

LinqConnect is a fast and easy-to-use ORM solution with extended LINQ to SQL functionality, support for SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. In addition to Microsoft LINQ to SQL features, LinqConnect provides its own advanced features, thus allowing LINQ to SQL developer to easily get started with LinqConnect. Among its special functions there is complex type support, advanced data fetching options, configurable compiled query caching, convenient work with entity models and many others.

Popular and loved by many users, LingConnect continues to improve in order to meet user demands and expectations. Devart is glad to announce the release of LinqConnect 3.0, remarkable for its Fluent Mapping function and improvements in Visual Model Designer (Entity Developer), which introduce more convenience and usability.

Benefits of Fluent Mapping

Fluent Mapping provides the following advantages over XML and attribute mapping:
* Unlike attribute mapping, Fluent Mapping does not modify entity classes, allowing them not to be persistence-aware.
* Application code performs mapping, so mapping is always checked for errors during compilation.
* Mapping can be easily modified at run-time. For example, different DBMS can be used for persistence depending on the application settings.
Fluent Mapping allows to employ the Code First (Code Only) design approach and completely get rid of designing models or writing XML mappings.

Entity Developer Improvements

LinqConnect 3.0 does not limit the use of the Fluent Mapping to the Code First approach. If you want to use a legacy database, or you already have an existing model, there is no need to write the mapping code manually. Entity Developer includes Fluent Mapping code generation templates, which allow you to utilize all the advantages of the Fluent Mapping together with benefits of visual model design and Model First/Database First design approaches. Design the model the way you like, and Entity Developer will generate both entity classes and the Fluent Mapping code for you.

Entity Developer for LinqConnect fully supports the enum types by providing a new Enum node in its Model Explorer window. For much easier use of this type, the application provides the drag-and-drop mechanism allowing to move enum types from the Model Explorer window on to the diagram's surface, and the Find in diagrams function that enables the user to easily locate enum types on the diagram. Properties of the Enum types as well as those of their members can be conveniently set and modified in the new Enum Type Editor, provided in this latest version.

Major improvements in the usability and user-friendliness of the application include entity shape coloring, selection-driven highlighting, application and diagram skins. The general look and feel of the application is further modernized with sets of skins for the application itself (available only in the standalone version) and for the diagram.

Pricing and Availability

New version of LinqConnect is available in following editions:

Professional edition is a fully-featured ORM solution, including Express version of dotConnect data providers, and supporting SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.

Standard edition is a perfect replacement for Microsoft LINQ to SQL. It is completely compatible with LINQ to SQL and includes all advanced LinqConnect features. It supports SQL Server database only.

Express edition is a free limited edition, which has the same features that Professional edition except for custom code generation templates, and supports the same database servers, but it is limited to 10 entities in the model.

A Single license price starts as little as $149.95. To learn more about LinqConnect 3.0 please visit the Devart site: www.devart.com/linqconnect/

Please, feel free to download express edition or fully-functional trial version of LinqConnect 3.0 from http://www.devart.com/linqconnect/download.html

Users are welcome to write any comments and suggestions about 3.0 on its support page — http://www.devart.com/linqconnect/support.html

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About Devart
Devart is a software development company with 11 years of experience on the software market and over 20 thousands of devoted users. We specialize in providing comprehensive development and management tools as well as native connectivity solutions for the most popular databases, including Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, InterBase, Firebird, and SQLite.
For additional information about Devart, visit http://www.devart.com/company/