Entity Framework Code-First to Provide Replacement for ASP.NET Profile Provider

A while back, I coordinated a project to add support for the SQL Table Profile Provider in ASP.NET 4 Web Applications.  We urged Microsoft to improve ASP.NET’s built-in Profile support so our workaround wouldn’t be necessary. Instead, Microsoft plans to provide a replacement for ASP.NET Profile in a forthcoming release.

In response to my feature suggestion on Connect, Microsoft says we should look for something even better using Entity Framework:

“When code-first is officially released the final piece of a full replacement of the ASP.NET Profile will have arrived. Once code-first for EF4 is released, developers will have a really easy and very approachable way to create any arbitrary class, and automatically have the .NET Framework create a table to provide storage for that class. Furthermore developer will also have full LINQ-query capabilities against code-first classes. “

The downside is that there won’t be a way to retrofit this Profile replacement to pre- ASP.NET 4 Web applications. At least there’ll still be the MVP workaround code.

It looks like it’s time for me to dig into a CTP of EF Code-First to see what’s available.   Scott Guthrie has been blogging about Code-First Development with Entity Framework 4.

It’s not clear when the EF Code-First is coming, but my guess is that it’ll be part of the VS 2010/.NET 4 service pack.