dotConnect for Salesforce Marketing Cloud

dotConnect for ExactTarget History

This page lists the functionality added in each version of dotConnect for ExactTarget. To view the full changelog including bug fixes, consult the dotConnect for ExactTarget revision history.

New features in dotConnect for ExactTarget 1.9

The current build is 2.2.104 from 08-Nov-2024

The behavior is changed: turning off the "Save connection to" option in Model Settings of EF Core Model wipes out connection string literal from the generated code
Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11 Preview 2.0 is supported
The SubscriberStatusEvent table is supported
The SendCallStack property is added to the Devart.Common.DbMonitor class for possibility to turn off resource-demanding logging of CallStack
The Filter property is added to the Devart.Common.DbMonitor class for possibility to choose events being logged
The Devart.Common.DbMonitor class is improved: now values of the DateTime parameters sent to the dbMonitor tool are supplemented with milliseconds
The new command line option /disablegac that disables adding assemblies to GAC is added

Entity Developer

Command-line interface is implemented in a standalone Entity Developer
The new property Context Name is added to Model Properties in EF Core Model
The new property Target Framework is added to Model Properties in EF Core Model
The new property Collection Property Type is added to EF template "DbContext" and EF Core template "EF Core" to determine .NET type used as a property type for the Many end of associations
The new property Collection Initialization Type is added to EF template "DbContext" and EF Core template "EF Core" to determine .NET type used for initialization of the Many end of association; if it is set to None, then no initialization is generated
The new property "Nullable Reference Types" is added to C# templates of EF, EF Core models to specify whether C# 8 nullable reference types and non-nullable reference types must be generated
The new partial method is added to the OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder) method generated by DbContext template of EF model
The DbProviderFactories registration is implemented in Create Model Wizard for EF6 models and .NET Framework provider assemblies
The new property Target Framework is added to Create Model Wizard and Model Settings of EF6 models
The new options "Private setter for store generated properties" and "Constructor parameter" are added to Model Settings in EF Core for controlling visibility of setter for store generated properties
The new options "Don't show this message again" in the prompt window and "Prompt before generating code when there are model validation warnings" in the menu Options are implemented in a standalone Entity Developer to provide the ability not to stop code generation by warnings
The new extended property Do Not Generate Default Constructor is added to EF Core Model for model, classes, and complex types
The new extended property Do Not Generate Mapping is added to EF Core Model for class properties
The new property Validation Framework is implemented in the Data Transfer Object template for generating DataAnnotations attributes
The new option "Save connection to" is implemented in Model Settings of EF Core Model to provide the ability to store the connection string in "Model file", "Entity Developer storage", "Environment variable"
The new option "Enum Output" is added to the EF Core template to specify output for the generated enums
The new property Generate UnitOfWork Repository Properties (by default, True) is implemented in the Repository and Unit Of Work template of EF Core Model for accessing the collections of entities
The representation of one-to-one association with non-nullable properties on both ends is changed from 1 -> 1 to 0..1 -> 1 on a diagram in EF Core Model
The JSON (Newtonsoft.Json, Microsoft.Text.Json) and YAML (YamlDotNet) serializations are supported in EF Core (via EF Core template) and EF6 (via DbContext template)

The new template property Serialization Library is added for specifying the library used for serialization
The new template property Serialize Original Column Names is added for controlling the appearance of original column names in serialization
The new template property Serialize Navigation Properties is added for controlling the appearance of navigation properties in serialization
The new template property Serialize Null Value is added for managing the behavior of nullable properties
The new extended property Do Not Serialize is added for properties and navigation properties to exclude them from serialization
The new extended property Serialization Name is added for properties and navigation properties to set custom names in serialization

The Data Transfer Object template is improved:

The new template property Serialization Library is added for specifying library used for serialization, possible values are Data Contract, JSON (Newtonsoft.Json), JSON (Microsoft.Text.Json), YamlDotNet
The new extended property Do Not Serialize is added for properties and navigation properties to exclude them from serialization
The new extended property Serialization Name is added for properties and navigation properties to set custom names in serialization
The behavior is changed: WCF Data Contract Attributes is set to False by default now

The following properties are marked as obsolete:

the Generate Data Contracts property of the EF Core template
the Do Not Generate Data Contract Attribute extended property of navigation properties in EF Core Model
the WCF Data Contract Attributes property of the DbContext and Data Transfer Object templates
the WCF DataMember Attribute on Navigation Properties property of the DbContext and Data Transfer Object templates

The behavior is changed: the definition of auto-implemented property is put now on the single line with

C# DbContext template of Devart Entity Model when ImplementINotifyPropertyChanging=False and ImplementINotifyPropertyChanged=False and PropertyChangePartialMethods=False
C# EF Core template of Devart EF Core Model when PropertyChangeNotifiers=False and PropertyChangePartialMethods=False

The EF Core model deserialization is improved: Entity Developer shows the full list of detected errors and tries to load the model with invalid elements or ignores such elements if their deserialization is not possible
The behavior is changed: the names of system types are generated without "System." prefix now in EF Core models; for example, it is DateTime instead of System.DateTime
The behavior is changed: now the EF Core template generates an additional partial class for the context class when "File Per Class" and "Generate Partial Class" are set to True
The provider registration is improved: requirement to put provider registration entry in the config file is not obligatory anymore
Create Model Wizard is improved: now it allows installing multiple NuGet packages on the final step
Model file tree in .NET Core / .NET Standard projects is improved: all generated code files and model files are nested under the same node in Solution Explorer
The behavior is changed: read-only mapping is generated for all columns with UPDATE and without INSERT permissions in data source
The error message in console Entity Developer is improved: now the text includes the list of all available templates if the specified name of template was incorrect
The Model Refactoring functionality is supported for classes in EF Core Model
The new attribute DisplayName is implemented for model objects' extended properties which are available via template properties
The new options --ContextNamespace and --DefaultNamespace are added to the Create-Model command of Console Entity Developer
The new extended model property Base Context Type is added for specifying a parent class for the generated context in EF Core Model
The new extended properties Base Type for complex types and Base Complex Type for model are implemented in EF Core Model
The %type name% keyword is supported in the Base Type extended property of entities and complex types, and in Base Complex Type, Base Entity Type, Base Context Type extended model properties for setting generic base type in EF Core Model
The new hotkey Alt+E is implemented in Property Editor for opening Column Editor in EF Core Model
Display names of extended properties in EF Core Model are updated: Entity Base is renamed to Base Type in class properties, Entity Base is renamed to Base Entity Type in model properties, Context Base is renamed to Base Context Type in model properties
The behavior is changed in a standalone Entity Developer: by default the Target Framework model property in EF Core Model is set to .NET 5 instead of .NET Framework
The behavior is changed in Entity Developer embedded into Visual Studio: lower versions in the EF Core version property of Model Settings are not hidden any more
C# code generation is improved: the using directives are generated instead of full namespaces in the names of attributes for DataAnnotations, NHibernate Validator, and Enterprise Library validation frameworks
Code generation is improved: OnModelCreating(modelBuilder) of the base class is invoked now if the Base Context Type property of EF Core Model is initialized
The new extended property Use Generic DbContextOptions Constructor Argument is added to model properties of EF Core Model
The new extended property Do Not Generate Constructor With DbContextOptions Argument is added to model properties of EF Core Model
The model validation is improved: the errors are generated for all entities with QueryType=True in EF Core Model when EF Core version=EF Core 1 in Model Settings

Entity Framework

Entity Framework 6.4 is supported
Entity Framework 6.4.4 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.1 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.3 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.8 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.9 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.10 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.11 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.12 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.13 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.15 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.16 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.17 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.19 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.20 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.21 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.22 is supported
Entity Framework Core 3.1.25 is supported
The EF6 provider registration used with .NET Framework compliant assemblies is improved: the [DbConfigurationType(typeof(ExactTargetEntityProviderServicesConfiguration))] attribute set for DbContext descendant allows now calling the DbContext constructor, that accepts a connection string, with no need to register a custom IDbConnectionFactory implementation
The new \Entity\EFCore3\Devart.Data.ExactTarget.Entity.EFCore.dll assembly compiled with EF Core 3.1 and .NET Framework 4.6.1 is added
The translation of the DateTime.AddMinutes() method in LINQ query into SQL statement in EF Core is supported

New features in dotConnect for ExactTarget 1.8

Visual Studio 2019 is supported
Deprecated design-time Synchronous API calls are no longer used with Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2017
The new authentication type ServerToServer is implemented
The behaviour is changed: now we force using TLS 1.2 for Salesforce Marketing Cloud connection editors
The integration with Visual Studio 2019 is improved: now the installation detects both 2019 Release and 2019 Preview versions
The parsing error message returned by Salesforce Marketing Cloud is improved

Entity Developer

The ability to disable generation of the byte order mark (BOM) in the beginning of code files in a standalone Entity Developer is implemented
The "Optimize rendering for screens with different pixel densities" feature of Visual Studio 2019 is supported
The Self-Contained Entity Configuration property is added to VB.NET version of EF Core template
The Entities Configuration Output property is added to VB.NET version of EF Core template
The code generation for the class properties with Alternate Key=True by VB.NET version of EF Core template is supported in EF Core model
The behaviour is changed: a plural form of names ending with "s" now has a longer version (for example, status -> statuses)

Entity Framework

Entity Framework Core 2.2.4 is supported
Entity Framework Core 2.2.6 is supported

New features in dotConnect for ExactTarget 1.7

Visual Studio 2019 Release Candidate 4 is supported

Entity Developer

Entity Framework Core 2.1 is supported
- Query type support is added: classes now have the Query Type property, and if it is set to true, this class is generated as a query type
- Lazy loading for Entity Framework Core 2.1 is supported:
- Properties now have the Constructor Parameter property, for configuring a parameterized constructor of the class
- An additional constructor that accepts DbContextOptions as an argument is added to the DbContext class descendant in the VB.NET version of the DbContext template for EF Core.
The "Include Environment Variables" property, determining whether context configuration will be extended with environment variables when a connection string from the appsettings.json file is used, is added to the EF Core template
The "Json File Base Path" property, specifying the base path for file-based providers when a connection string from the appsettings.json file is used, is added to the EF Core template
Using an extended property of type OutputInfo is supported
Code generated for nullable properties is simplified: now T? is generated instead of System.Nullable<T>
The new Generate GeneratedCode Attributes option (by default, False) is added to the DbContext template in EF4/EF5/EF6 and the EF Core template
The new Generate Dummy Comments option (by default, False) is added to the DbContext template in EF4/EF5/EF6
The multiple select functionality in EF Core Model is improved: now it allows setting PrimaryKey, ValueGenerated, Concurrency for several properties simultaneously

Entity Framework

Entity Framework Core 2.1.1 is supported
Entity Framework Core 2.1.2 is supported
Entity Framework Core 2.1.3 is supported
Entity Framework Core 2.1.4 is supported
Entity Framework Core 2.2.1 is supported
Entity Framework Core 2.2.3 is supported
The behavior is changed: the default value of config.QueryOptions.UseCSharpNullComparisonBehavior is true now in EF Core

New features in dotConnect for ExactTarget 1.6

Visual Studio 2017 is supported
The Readonly connection string parameter is added to allow only reading source data (only SELECT statements)

Entity Developer

Entity Framework Core 2.0 is supported
The new Raw SQL Query class property and SQL method property with the corresponding editors are implemented in Entity Framework Core
The Snake case in both Model and Database naming rules is supported via the new "Add underscore" option
The new "Detect function-based column default value" option is implemented in Model Settings of EF Core model
The code generation for async method calls is added to the EF Core template
The usage of long identifiers (up to 140 symbols) for naming model objects is supported
The ModelNameAsFilesPrefix property is implemented in the RepositoryAndUnitOfWork template
The code generation for async method calls in the EF Core template is improved
Support for ASP.NET Core MVC is added to the MVC Controller template
Support for ASP.NET Core MVC is added to the Data Annotations Metadata template
The new SQL Type, Size, Precision, Scale options are added to the Parameters tab in Method Editor of EF Core Model
The new Controller Area extended class property is added to EF Core Model
The check of conditions for setting optionsBuilder.Use... in the generated OnConfiguring method by the EF Core template is improved
The process of synchronizing methods and parameters with database stored procedures in EF Core Model is improved
The behaviour is changed: IsRequired(false / true) for navigation properties is always generated in EF Core fluent mapping now

Entity Framework

Entity Framework Core 1.1.2 is supported
Entity Framework Core 1.1.3 is supported
Entity Framework Core 1.1.4 is supported
Entity Framework Core 1.1.5 is supported
Entity Framework Core 2.0 is supported
Entity Framework Core 2.0.1 is supported
Entity Framework Core 2.0.2 is supported
Entity Framework Core 2.0.3 is supported
Entity Framework 6.2 is supported

New features in dotConnect for ExactTarget 1.5

Visual Studio 2017 Release Candidate 4 is supported
The Run Once Command connection string parameter, which specifies a command to execute when the connection is opened the first time and not executed when the connection is taken from the pool, is added
The ClientIDs connection string parameter is added to specify the comma separated list of partner account ids and business units (used for the SELECT queries only)
The 'Do not install assemblies in the GAC' check box that allows disabling placing the provider assemblies to the GAC is added to the Install Wizard

Entity Developer

Entity Framework Core 1.0 RTM is supported
The possibility to set values of stored procedure parameters for getting metadata to generate automatically the corresponding complex type is implemented
The DbProviderFactory provider registration in application's *.config is supported by the Entity Developer version integrated into Visual Studio
The generation of static methods by the EntityObject template is supported via the new property Direct Call of EntityMethod
The possibility to choose whether to add new entities to a diagram or not in Update From Database Wizard is implemented
The behaviour is changed: now the DbContext template generates an additional partial class for the context class when "File Per Class" and "Generate Partial Class" are set to True
The behaviour is changed: the ObservableCollection navigation properties are initialized now in a default class constructor

Entity Framework

Entity Framework Core 1.1.0 is supported
The Scaffold-DbContext NuGet command of Package Manager Console for generating a model basing on the existing database schema is supported in EF Core
Entity Framework-related assemblies are renamed
Upgrade Wizard is improved for upgrading projects with the Entity Framework functionality

24-Dec-15 First Release of dotConnect for ExactTarget 1.0