Using LLBLGen Pro strictly as a designer for EF4

First of all - I'm fine with how EF4 works. My main concern right now is the ability to scale when I get over 100+ tables. Ideally the schema needs to be kept under the same data context. If I have to break it into subject areas it won't be very good. There will be duplicate code, etc.

So. There is no solution to brake EF4 into chunks and preserve relationships. Actually, there is a kind of way that involves not using the designer and manually editing the XML. Not good.

And here I found LLBLGen Pro. I understand it is an ORM framework with a designer but I also understand that I can use their designer to generate EF4 entities.

Do I understand correctly that:

1. I can still use EF4 just like with VS designer? I mean output will be the same? I read somewhere I'm limited to using stored procs, no LINQ? Or it will be just like EF?
2. I will be able to ma开发者_高级运维nage large database and only drawback will be that if there is changes to database I will have to re-generate code from outside of Visual studio?

If that is correct - it might be great solution to the slow designer/model issue.

I can still use EF4 just like with VS designer? I mean output will be the same? I read somewhere I'm limited to using stored procs, no LINQ? Or it will be just like EF?

Where did you read it's limited to stored procs? It generates classes and an EDMX. You can choose to generate POCO's, STE's or 'EFv1 style' entities/contexts. So you can do with EF what you want after that, use Linq, entity sql etc. The classes generated are generated using templates which can be edited in the integrated template editor. Also, the classes are generated into separate files, so no more 1 big blob of code in 1 file, and organized per project, so entities in 1 project, context + edmx in another, so you have better separation of code so you can reference the entity project elsewhere without also referencing the context there.

I will be able to manage large database and only drawback will be that if there is changes to database I will have to re-generate code from outside of Visual studio?

yep. LLBLGen Pro also supports model first btw, can generate DDL SQL scripts to update your databases, so you can manage the database schemas + the entity model in 1 project. :)

LLBLGen Pro's designer has been tested with projects with over 2500 entities, so it can take fairly large databases ;)

Hope this helps

(disclaimer: I wrote LLBLGen Pro)