Entity Framework 6 & SQL Server Compact (8) –Logging SQL statements

I previously blogged about how to enable logging of INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE statements with SQL Server Compact and Entity Framework 4. Keep in mind that there is no “SQL Profiler” equivalent for SQL Server Compact, which makes this feature a vital tool for debugging, understanding and improving queries and CUD operations.

In Entity Framework version 6.1, this has been made much simpler, thanks to the implementation of the new System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.Interception.DatabaseLogger class. In version 6.0, you could enable logging in code by using

db.Database.Log = Console.Write;

In version 6.1, it is now possible to enable logging by adding entries to your app.config file, making it possible to add logging to a deployed application.

Enabling logging is as simple as adding the following section to your app.config/web.config file in the entityFramework section.

<interceptors> 
  <interceptor type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.Interception.DatabaseLogger, EntityFramework"> 
    <parameters> 
      <parameter value="C:\Temp\LogOutput.txt"/> 
      <parameter value="true" type="System.Boolean"/> 
    </parameters> 
  </interceptor> 
</interceptors>

The first parameter is the name of the file to log to (if this is not specified, logging will be sent to Console.Out). The second parameter specifies that the file should be appended to rather than being overwritten (default).

I am sure you will find this new feature useful.

Entity Framework ”reboot” – EF7 – Get a sneak peek via TechEd US live stream

The next version of Entity Framework has just been named “EF7” (code name EF EveryWhere). Before the presentation, which will be streamed live on Channel 9 during TechEd US on Wednesday May 14 at 1:30 PM CDT (Houston, Texas), allow me to summarize what we know so far about the next version of Entity Framework.

The Entity Framework team has already published some thoughts about the new Framework here, and based on this and other sources, we can summarize the following (some or maybe most of which is me guessing, of course):

- A completely new codebase, will not be based on the 1 million+ line codebase of EF6

- Will be open source, and accept pull requests and other community feedback

- Will support Windows Phone, Windows Store, Windows Desktop/Server/Cloud, and also support Mono/Xamarin platforms

- Will be based on a provider model, so SQL and NoSQL data sources can “plug in”. Will initially support SQLite on Phone and Store apps. Will also support SQL Server and Azure Table Storage

- Will only include a productive subset of the current, huge API – Code First Mappings, DbContext, POCO classes, and less mapping schemes. So current investments in DbContext, Code First/Second and POCO will be forward reusable.

- Will not contain ObjectContext, Entity SQL, EntityConnection, EntityCommand etc. Phew.

Sounds ambitious and great to me. Can’t wait to see some code and start playing!

UPDATE: The source code is now available on Github as part of ASP.NET vNext. And Rowan Miller, Program Manager on the EF team speaks about and demonstrates EF7 in this TechEd session available online.