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Asked: 2026-05-12T21:55:15+00:00

I am really having a hard time here. I need to design a Desktop

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I am really having a hard time here. I need to design a “Desktop app” that will use WCF as the communications channel. Its a multi-tiered application (DB and application server are the same, the client goes through the internet cloud).

The application is a little complex (in terms of SQL and code logics) then the usual LOB applications, but the concept is the same: Read from DB, update to DB, handle concurrency etc. My problem is that now with Entity Framework out in the open, I cant decide which way to proceed: Should I use Entity Framework, Dataset or Custom Classes.

As I understand by Entity Framework, it will create the object mapping of my DB tables ALONG WITH the CRUD scripts as well. Thats all well and good for simple CRUD, but most of the times the “Select” is complex and it requires a custom SQL. I understand I can use Stored Procedures in EF (I dont like SP btw, i dont know why, I like to code my SQL in the DAL by hand, I feel more secure and comfortable that way).

With DataSet, I will use my custom SQLs and populate on the data set. With Custom classes (objects for DB tables) I will populate my custom SQLs on those custom classes (collections and lists etc). I want to use EF, but i dont feel confident in deploying an application whose SQL I have not written and cant see in the code. Am I missing something here.

Any help in this regard would be greatly appreciated.

Xeshu

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I would agree with Marc G. 100% – DataSets suck, especially in a WCF scenario (they add a lot of overhead for handling in-memory data manipulation) – don’t use those. They’re okay for beginners and two-tier desktop apps on a small scale maybe – but I wouldn’t use them in a serious, professional app.

    Basically, your question boils down to how do you transform your rows from the database into something you can remote across WCF. This means some form of mapping – either you do it yourself, using DataReaders and then shoving all the data into WCF [DataContract] classes – you can certainly do that, gives you the ultimate control, but it’s also tedious, cumbersome, and error-prone.

    Or you let some ready-made ORM handle this grunt work for you – take your pick amongst Linq-to-SQL (great, easy-to-use, flexible, but SQL Server only), EF v4 (out by March 2010 – looks very promising, very flexible) or any other ORM, really – whatever suits your needs best.

    Other serious competitors in the ORM space might include Subsonic 3.0 and NHibernate (amongst many many others).

    So to sum up:

    • forget about Datasets
    • either you have 100% control and to the mapping between SQL and your objects yourself
    • you let some capable ORM handle that (Linq-to-SQL, EF v4, Subsonic, NHibernate et al) – which one really doesn’t matter all that much, i.e. it’s also a matter of personal preference and coding style
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