A new NuGet package is now available in the NuGet gallery called FSRepository. This package adds a few F# source files and assembly references to your F# project so that EFCodeFirst 0.8 can be used for data access.
What is NuGet?
If you haven't heard, "NuGet is a Visual Studio extension that makes it easy to install and update open source libraries and tools in Visual Studio. When you use NuGet to install a package, it copies the library files to your solution and automatically updates your project (add references, change config files, etc). If you remove a package, NuGet reverses whatever changes it made so that no clutter is left." (http://www.nuget.org/)
What is EFCodeFirst?
I first heard about EFCodeFirst in a blog post by Steve Sanderson. In that post he states "In case you’re wondering, EFCodeFirst is the new super-elegant version of Entity Framework that persists plain .NET objects to a relational database without any configuration fuss...".
How Do I Use FSRepository 0.4?
Support for F# projects was added to NuGet by David Fowler on 1/20/2011. Because this is such a recent addition, the version of the NuGet Package Manager on Visual Studio Gallery doesn't yet have this functionality. However, you can get the latest from http://nuget.codeplex.com/ to create a version of the visual studio extension that contains this functionality (or just wait for a few days/weeks until the next version is released on Visual Studio Gallery). If neither of these options work for you, shoot me an email and we can discuss alternatives.
Once a version of NuGet Package Manager that includes support for F# projects is installed, you can install the FSRepository 0.3 package by doing the following:
1. Create or open a F# project.
2. Open the Package Manager Console window (this can be found in Visual Studio 2010 under View -> Other Windows -> Package Manager Console).
3. In the Package Manager Console, type "Install-Package FSRepository":
As long as there were no errors, your F# project should now contain the new assembly references and F# source files.
You can find the files that were used to create this NuGet package on my GitHub.
