ADO.NET Entity Framework Architecture

ADO.NET Entity Framework Architecture

The ADO.Net Entity Framework enables the users to work with the Conceptual data model, (also called as the Domain model), this helps the user to focus more on the functionality rather than to look into the technical aspects of connecting to the Relational Data model.

The architecture of the ADO.Net Entity Framework is as follows. 

When an Entity model is created in the Designer, the framework created 3 files under the hood

.csdl – Conceptual schema definition language
.ssdl - Store schema definition language
.msl - Mapping specification language

The Conceptual schema definition language (CSDL) file contains the details of the entities (Tables in relational model) and the relationship between the entries. In the conceptual model the entities are defined in domain specific terms. The file contains details in XML format.  

The Store schema definition language (SSDL) file contains the details of the actual relational database elements; the file contains details in XML format.   This file contains the details of the Tables, views, columns etc in the relational database.

The Mapping specification language (MSL) file contains the details of mapping between the CSDL and SSDL. When a query is executed using the Conceptual model the Entry Framework using the mapping details in this file to translate the Conceptual queries into queries which the target relational model can understand.

Apart from these files, there are 2 other components which help in executing the queries placed on the Conceptual model.

Object Services The Object service component in the Entity framework acts as the query engine; it performs all the INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE/SELECT operations on the objects which are requested through LINQ & Entity SQL queries.

Entity Client
The Entity Client component is the Query engine for Entity SQL queries, Entity SQL queries are queries written on the conceptual model, the Entity Client accepts these queries and in turn calls the appropriate data provider and executes these queries in the actual relational model.

Related Post
Concepts
ADO.NET Entity Framework
ADO.NET Entity Framework Architecture
Entity Data Model
LINQ To SQL Vs ADO.Net Entity Framework

Programming
ADO.Net Entity Data Model Prerequisite
Creating your First ADO.Net Entity Data Model
Selecting Data using ADO.Net Entity Framework
Selecting Data by Joining Tables using ADO.Net Entity Framework
Inserting Data using ADO.Net Entity Framework
Inserting Data with Foreign Key Reference using ADO.Net Entity Framework
Updating Data using ADO.Net Entity Framework
Updating Data with Foreign Key Reference using ADO.Net Entity Framework
Deleting Data using ADO.Net Entity Framework