VS 2010 and Entity Framework: accessing SQL Server 2000 databases

Question

Consider a Visual Studio 2010 project whose requirement is to model the data using Entity Framework. The datasource is a SQL Server 2000 database.

The first step is creating a new ADO.NET Entity Data Model item.

The Entity Data Model Wizard prompts for a Data Connection.

When creating a new Connection, you will need to use a provider other than SqlClient. Usually it's SQLOLEDB.

The list of data providers only has SqlClient or ".NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server".

• Is there a work-around for Visual Studio 2010 to create or use data connections to SQL Server 2000 using the Entity Framework?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, SQL Server 2000 isn't supported.

Entity Framework v2

Answer 2

We were able to use EF with sql 2000 by setting up the initial context in vs2005, then doing an upgrade to vs 2010. Terrible, but worked.

UPDATE:

I decided to write a how-to for anyone else needing to do this. We haven't seen any side effects yet, and allows the use of the VS 2010 designer.

How To Use Entity Framework 4 With Visual Studio 2010 and SQL Server 2000