Skip to main content

Pre-Generating Views in Entity Framework .NET 4.0

Image
By

 

UPDATED ON: 16/09/2010

If you’re using Entity Framework chances are you’ve come up against performance issues already, especially when instantiating your Object Context.

One very reliable way to increase performance is to pre-generate the Views. Depending on the size of your model and in my experience it can shave as much as 40% off the instantiation time.

There is a good overview on MSDN, however it only covers .NET 3.5.

Step 1

Go to your Model properties and select “Copy to Output Directory” for the Metadata Artifact Processing option.

ef-pre-generate

The result of this is you will end up with the .ssdl, .csdl and .msl files in your output directory which in this case is bin/Debug.

Step 2


Next you need to setup the Pre-build event to use the EDMGen.exe tool.
NB: If you use the Command on the MSDN site you will come across this error.

“The required parameter ‘mode’ is missing”

The correct command to use is: 

"%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\EdmGen.exe" /mode:ViewGeneration "/inssdl:$(TargetDir)MyModel.ssdl" "/incsdl:$(TargetDir)MyModel.csdl" "/inmsl:$(TargetDir)MyModel.msl" "/outviews:$(ProjectDir)MyModel.Views.cs" /nologo /language:CSharp

 

Step 3

The .ssdl, .csdl & .msl files will be generated on every build and output to the TargetDir, however it’s a good idea to include them in your Project.

In the Post-build event you can add a simple XCOPY like below to copy the files to the root of your project:

XCOPY "$(TargetDir)MyModel.csdl" "$(ProjectDir)" /R /Y
XCOPY "$(TargetDir)MyModel.ssdl" "$(ProjectDir)" /R /Y
XCOPY "$(TargetDir)MyModel.msl" "$(ProjectDir)" /R /Y

 

Step 4

Build the project which contains your Entity Model.

If it built successfully you should find the following files in the root of your Project folder

  • MyModel.Views.cs
  • MyModel.csdl
  • MyModel.ssdl
  • MyModel.msl

Go ahead and include all these files in your project, Show All Files > Right Click > Include In Project

Step 5

Now for MyModel.csl, MyModel.ssdl, MyModel.msl you want to include these as an embedded resource

For each of the above files select the “Embedded Resource” Build Action in the Properties window.

Step 6

Now it’s time to update your Entity Connection String to use the embedded resources.

Personally I prefer to use fully qualified names for the embedded resources.

e.g. 

res://*/MyNamespace.MyModel.MyModel.csdl 
You should end up with a Connection String looking like below. 
<connectionStrings>
    <add name="MyModel_Entities" connectionString="metadata=res://*/MyNamespace.MyModel.MyModel.csdl|res://*/MyNamespace.MyModel.MyModel.ssdl|res://*/MyNamespace.MyModel.MyModel.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string=&quot;Data Source=local;Initial Catalog=MyModelDatabase;Integrated Security=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=True&quot;" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />
  </connectionStrings>

If the path to the embedded resource is wrong you can expect to get a System.Data.MetadataException

Unable to load the specified metadata resource.

To be sure what the Resource path is, you can always use the trusty Reflector.

Finished

Enjoy your new found Entity Framework performance.
If you have any problems, don’t hesitate to let me know.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Freeing Disk Space on C:\ Windows Server 2008

By Will Beattie
  I just spent the last little while trying to clear space on our servers in order to install .NET 4.5 . Decided to post so my future self can find the information when I next have to do this. I performed all the usual tasks: Deleting any files/folders from C:\windows\temp and C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Temp Delete all EventViewer logs Save to another Disk if you want to keep them Remove any unused programs, e.g. Firefox Remove anything in C:\inetpub\logs Remove any file/folders C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles Remove any file/folders from C:\Users\%UserName%\Downloads Remove any file/folders able to be removed from C:\Users\%UserName%\Desktop Remove any file/folders able to be removed from C:\Users\%UserName%\My Documents Stop Windows Update service and remove all files/folders from C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution Deleting an Event Logs Run COMPCLN.exe Move the Virtual Memory file to another disk However this wasn’t enough & I found the most space...
Read more

CPF Contribution Rates for new Singapore Permanent Residents (SPR’s)

By Will Beattie
Recently my wife and I applied and got approved for Singapore Permanent Residency. After completing the formalities the most significant immediate change is the contribution to CPF which is Singapore’s mandatory social security savings scheme requiring contributions from employers and employees. CPF contributions start from the date you obtain SPR status, which is the date of the entry permit.   Being a relentless budgeter I needed to know exactly how much I and my employer would have to contribute so that I could adjust my budget accordingly as the employee contributions get deducted from the monthly salary. After doing some research I discovered that there is a “graduated” approach to CPF contributions for new SPR’s where the contributions gradually increase in the first and second year and then upon reaching the third year are at the full amount. Note: There is an option for employers to contribute the full amount for year 1 and year 2 and the employee can use the gra...
Read more

Serverless Architecture with AWS Lambda, API Gateway, Cloudfront, S3 and DynamoDB

By Will Beattie
  If 2015 saw the rise of Docker Containers & Micro-services then 2016 is undoubtedly going to be about Serverless architecture . Late in 2015 AWS announced a preview of a service called AWS Lambda moving from a pure IaaS provider into the PaaS world with one feel swoop. Now AWS is releasing so many new services and features a week that you may have missed this, but in my opinion it is a game changer and I’m going to try to demonstrate why. What on earth is Lambda? “AWS Lambda is a compute service that runs your code in response to events and automatically manages the underlying compute resources for you.” “When using AWS Lambda, you are responsible only for your code. AWS Lambda manages the compute fleet that offers a balance of memory, CPU, network, and other resources.” Just think about those statements for a second,  In developer terms a Lambda is simply a single function with an input and output, forget microservices this is a nanoservice.  At the time o...
Read more