5 Essential Tools to Speed Up Your EF Core Development in 2023
Introduction
Entity Framework Core (EF Core) has become one of the most popular Object-Relational Mapper (ORM) tools for .NET development, simplifying data access and management in your applications. While EF Core already provides numerous advantages in terms of performance and ease of use, developers are always in search of tools and extensions that can further streamline their daily tasks. In this article, we recommend five essential tools that will accelerate your EF Core development process and help you deliver high-quality applications quickly and efficiently.
1. EF Core Sidekick
EF Core Sidekick is a Visual Studio extension that offers several useful features to enhance your development workflow. With reverse-engineering,
Key features:
· Generate DbContext and entity classes from an existing database
· Generate DTOs and mappers
· Scaffold Services & APIs
· Build-in Code Quality
Website: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=devmagic.efsidekick
2. DevMagic Studio
Devmagic studio is a tool that provides a comprehensive entity & model designers and code generation tool that supports both EF Core 6 & 7. This powerful tool helps you create, design, and manage your data models with ease, saving you time and effort in the API development process.
Key features:
· Free tool with powerful code editing, debugging, and publishing functionality
· Provides visual designers for enums, entities, services & APIs.
· Powerful code generation engine to create entity classes, DbContext, CRUD services and controller.
· Support for database-first, code-first workflows.
· for Lambda expressions, LINQ groups, and aggregations.
· Template-based code generation with customization options
· No vendor lock-in. The generated code is highly readable and easy to extend, easily integrated with your current project.
Website: https://www.devmagic.com/
3. DbUp
DbUp is a simple .NET library for deploying and managing database schema changes. It’s especially helpful when working with EF Core migrations, as it provides a reliable and straightforward way to apply migrations to your target database. Some of DbUp’s features include:
· Transactional updates: DbUp ensures that all of your schema changes are applied in a single transaction, minimizing the risk of data corruption.
· Script versioning: DbUp keeps track of which scripts have been executed, ensuring that each script is only executed once.
· Extensibility: Customize the migration process
Website: https://github.com/DbUp/DbUp
4. EF Core Logging
EF Core Logging is an essential tool for debugging, monitoring, and optimizing your EF Core applications. By providing detailed information about the executed SQL queries, connection information, and performance metrics, EF Core Logging allows you to identify bottlenecks and optimize your code for better performance.
Key features:
· Capture and analyze SQL queries generated by EF Core
· Monitor database connection and transaction events
· Measure query execution times and performance metrics
· Customize logging output to meet your specific requirements
Website: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/logging-events-diagnostics/
5. EF Core Extensions
EF Core Extensions is a collection of extension methods and utility classes that add new functionality and improve existing features in EF Core. This NuGet package is an invaluable addition to your arsenal as you work with EF Core in your applications.
Key features:
· Batch operations, such as BulkInsert, BulkUpdate, and BulkDelete
· Improved performance for large-scale operations
· Predicate-based operations for filtering data
· Asynchronous query support for better application responsiveness
Website: https://entityframework-extensions.net/
Conclusion
By incorporating these five essential tools into your EF Core development workflow, you can significantly speed up your development process, improve code quality, and optimize your applications for better performance. These tools help you work smarter, not harder, while leveraging the full potential of EF Core for your data access needs. Don’t miss out on the benefits that these tools can provide — try them out in your next EF Core project and experience the difference for yourself.
