Missing Entity Framework Templates and Visual Studio 2008

VS2008LogoWanting to play with the different technologies on my “Tech ToDo” and following on from my first Tech Day with NHibernate, I wanted to play with Microsoft’s Entity Framework (EF). EF is (to my understanding) a beefed up version of LINQ to SQL.

So, I happily go ahead and download the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, install and eagerly run off to add my EF data model to my project.. But I can’t, there is no item for it in the templates. The tutorial (actually an MVC one) said there should be, the readme said there should be, but there wasn’t.

Steps Attempted (to no avail)

Following a tweet from @JeremySkinner, I checked that the assemblies (System.Data.Entity*) had installed OK to the reference assemblies folder (C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5) – they had. Next please!

Following on from that, I then thought about the version of Visual Studio I am running.. Mine is actually under the DreamSpark license as I am currently studying with a MS partner, but I got it wayyyy back when 2008 was still in beta. I thought maybe that was it. So I run off to the DreamSpark web site and download a new version and key. I then did a repair install of .NET 3.5 SP1, and again, no dice. Next please!

I then think, maybe the install is just crazy. So I totally uninstall VS2008 and all related components, and reinstall from the new disk downloaded from DreamSpark. Guess what? No dice. And to top it off, I could no longer create MVC projects as it was failing with “project type is not supported by this installation”. I was actually able to resolve this by running “devenv /setup” from the VS command prompt. At this point we are back at square one.

Stumbling Across the Resolution

At this point, I am getting pretty pissed. I figure “screw it”, I will just check out LINQ to SQL instead. So I begin cobbling together a site using LINQ to SQL instead, only to get an error when I try adding my database – oh yeah, I uninstalled MS SQL Server Express 2005 earlier.. No problem, I wanted to upgrade to SQL Server Express 2008 anyway! I begin the install, and fail the pre-requisite check because I don’t have VS2008 SP1 installed..

I thought this was odd, as I was convinced this was installed as an update - oh well, I need it anyway, so I downloaded and installed that. Then I thought “does the EF need VS SP1 too?”

NOTE: It never failed in the install and never asked for it.

I then went back and did a repair install of .NET Framework SP1 and then fired up VS again.. And guess what had appeared..

image

Happy face :)

The Moral of the Story..

Always make sure you have ALL the updated kit.. It can be hard to keep track of it all when “waves” are coming out (e.g. this “SP1” wave across the .NET 3.5/2008 family of products).

I thought I would share this slight revelation since I have noticed via Google I am not alone!

Comments

  1. Anonymous2 November 2009 at 06:37

    Well.... that didn't help here.

    Moral of the Story:
    Never forget its Microsoft ! (i.e. why they didn't provide separate EF templates to be downloaded...)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rob Cooper2 November 2009 at 08:24

    Anon,

    Having all the relevant kit (i.e. SP1) installed does fix the issue. I have been completely unable to replicate since this.

    The moral of the story is actually "the installer doesn't do a proper pre-requisite check"..

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GTD: Biphasic Sleep Experiment – Day 4

Physical State/Tiredness Same as yesterday really, awoke feeling really fresh and alert first thing in the morning. I again took a nap at work at 1230-1300. There has been a fair bit of interest about the napping at work so I thought I would take a minute to talk about it here (see below). Other than that, I did awake from my afternoon nap rather tired and groggy (took me 15-20 mins to get head together) but I actually think this is related to food since I ate a rather large pizza before sleeping.. :\ I have also found that even though it is great having the brain running longer, it can equally be hard to shut off. I have started going to bed with a book at 0200 so I can start to wind down to sleep mode for 0300. Staying up to 0300 is NOT a good idea, you really need to be going to sleep “ FOR 0300 ” not “ AT 0300 ”. Napping at Work Here’s what I do: At about 1200, I do a quick scoot around the team to see if there is anything they need from me, I then tie off any loose end...
Read more

Visual Studio: Unknown Build Error (HRESULT 0x80131515)

Image
If you are receiving this really informative error message in Visual Studio and looking for a solution, I hope the following can help you. I spent wasted a fair bit of time trying to figure this out. Funny thing is, it’s actually quite common in the post-XP(i.e. Vista and Windows 7) era (I’ve had it myself several times now).. The Cause After much digging, it turns out the issue is caused by the file blocking placed on downloaded assemblies. For example, I had the following after downloading the binaries for Autofac and adding it to my project: Error    1    Unknown build error, 'Could not load file or assembly 'file:///c:\{Project}\lib\Autofac.dll' or one of its dependencies. Operation is not supported. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131515)'     {Project} To Fix The good news, is this is pretty easy to fix (as are most problems when you know the cause!). Open up the file properties dialog (right click in Explorer ...
Read more

TDD – Getting Started with Test-Driven Development

I have been expressing interest in getting up and running with TDD for quite some time, probably the best part of nearly two years in fact! (wow). I have always struggled to get going though. In my previous job I was pretty much flying solo, and even though I am in a 6-man team in my new job, we still are pretty isolated (not my choice!). Every time I have gone to the programming community and asked “how do I get started?” I pretty much got the same response wherever I went - “Just do it”. This was real frustrating because it can be so overwhelming, if you don’t know where to start, how can you start? So I started to dig deeper for as many TDD/Automated Testing sites as I could, even if it was pages and pages of stuff that I didn’t want to know, if I got one little snippet of something useful, I would be happy. I came across some great sites (links will follow). Some were very, very simple. Almost so simple that they don’t really cover the testing, they cov...
Read more