Question

Suppose we have created Entities model, what is preferred way to work with it? I’m personally couldn’t make up my mind..

1. Using ModelAdapter :

   public statiс Product[] GetProducts()
   {
           using(Entities ctx = new Entities())
           {
                   return ctx.Product.ToArray();
           }
   }
   
   
   
   Product[] ps = ModelAdapter.GetProducts();
   // ...
   ModelAdapter.UpdateProduct(p);
   

   • looks neat;
   • but, context is created/released a lot sometimes, objects lose contact with context;

2. Using context in place:

   using(Entities ctx = new Entities())
   {
           Product[] ps = ctx.Product.ToArray();
   
           // ...
   
           ctx.SaveChanges();
   }
   

   • effective
   • but, code becomes messy

3. Mixed mode, compromise?

4. Extension methods:

   using(Entities ctx = new Entities())
   {
       Product[] ps = ctx.GetProducts();
       // ...
       ctx.UpdateProduct(p);
   }
   

Actually now, I’m trying approach #4, implementing utility methods as extensions to context. So I can use one context, and make many calls to this context.

Answer 1

Generally use anything that fits your needs, that is maintainable and that fits to the complexity of your application. Few points which you should think about:

• Never share context among requests, use a context per request, per action or per method depending on your needs.
• If you want to unit test your application you can find that static methods and sometimes also extension methods can be a problem. But testing application with EF is a separate problem.
• If you want to modify or insert more items in a single unit of work you can find that a context per method is not what you need
• Many developers like to use the repository pattern to separate access to EF features from the rest of the application. It has its own pros and cons.