Question

I am confused.Please guide me anyone.

Is it mandatory to use any ORM tools(EF or Linq2SQL) when building an application in MVVM pattern?

Right now my application returns dataset using straight queries to like “select * from table”

Can I use dataset/datatable to List and then observable collection?or we need to have EF or L2S.

I am confused to kick start in MVVM

Answer 1

There’s no reason you can’t build your own Model layer, if that’s what you want to do. The nice thing about modern design patterns is that they are generally agnostic toward what you use to fill each part.

I would build specific, separated classes for all your data access code, to keep that first M separate.

An overarching principle of patterns like MVVM and MVC are to separate your various concerns. This helps in so many ways – including, specifically, to support your ability to use your own data access (Model) while using the general pattern.

Ideally, you would write your code such that if you decided to move to Entity Framework in the future, you could do so without much change in the rest of the code. Rather – without any change in the rest of the code.

You can write your data access using the Repository pattern, using your custom classes that execute your hand-written SQL and produce classes that your View and ViewModel can deal with. With the Repository being the main place where your other code interacts, if you switch to EF or anything else in the future, you know you don’t have to change any of your View or ViewModel code.