Sql Server Data Tools & Entity Framework - is there any synergy here?

Posted by Benjol on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Benjol
Published on 2013-08-29T12:03:27Z Indexed on 2013/10/28 22:11 UTC
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SSDT

Coming out of a project using Linq2Sql, I suspect that the next (bigger) one might push me into the arms of Entity Framework. I've done some reading-up on the subject, but what I haven't managed to find is a coherent story about how SQL Server Data Tools and Entity Framework should/could/might be used together.

Were they conceived totally separately, and using them together is stroking the wrong way?
Are they somehow totally orthogonal and I'm missing the point?

Some reasons why I think I might want both:

SSDT is great for having 'compiled' (checked) and easily versionable sql and schema
But the SSDT 'migration/update' story is not convincing (to me): "Update anything" works ok for schema, but there's no way (AFAIK) that it can ever work for data.
On the other hand, I haven't tried the EF migration to know if it presents similar problems, but the Up/Down bits look quite handy.

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