I think the proper way to start this post is to ask How do you do eager loading with Entity Framework? And the basic native simple answer is by using ObjectQuery<T>.Include(string) method. No matter what you tried to do, you’ll end up using this way.

So there was ideas about how enhance the eager loading in our Entity Framework base applications. You can read about some of these ideas:

• Entity Framework Include with Func & Entity Framework Include with Func next by Matthieu MEZIL
• Typed Eager Loading Using Entity Framework (& What is Eager Loading vs Deferred Loading) by Meligy
• Fetching strategy posts by Simon Segal:
• Fetching Strategies for the Entity Framework - a waste of time for now?
• Entity Framework Repository, Specifications and Fetching Strategies
• The Entity Framework and a unified Lazy and Eager loading framework
• Entity Framework, Repositories, Specifications and Fetching Strategies Part 9.0
• Lazy Loading and Fetching Strategies again, with feeling!
• Lazy Loading and the Entity Framework. How long I can go on like this?

As I said, no matter what you tried, you’ll end up using ObjectQuery<T>.Include(string).

More...

Last month (March 2009)  HOLs for Enterprise Library 4.1 released. Earlier this year there were HOLs released for Validation Application Block 4.1, now a full HOLs is released for the entire Enterprise Library.

Hands-on Labs walk you through the key usage scenarios of the application blocks in in various application contexts. You can practice the labs from start to finish or you can use the starter solutions provided to complete only the labs you want to, in the order you prefer.

• Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 3.5 (v4.1) Hands On Labs
• Unity Application Block (1.2) Hands On Labs
• Validation Application Block (4.1) Hands On Labs