Entity Framework Extensions Improve BulkSaveChanges

Introduction

BulkSaveChanges is already very fast. But you can make it even faster by simply turning off the "EntityFrameworkPropagation" options.

While the performance will be significantly increased, this option works with 99,9% of models. Unfortunately, we cannot turn this option on by default for backward compatibility until we make it work with all models. This option is not recommended for context that use Lazy Loading.

We are currently working on the next major version which will have even better performances!

Why turning off Entity Framework Propagation is faster

Example - Globally

EntityFrameworkManager.DefaultEntityFrameworkPropagationValue = false;

Example - By Instance

var ctx = new EntitiesContext();

ctx.Customers.AddRange(listToAdd);
ctx.Customers.RemoveRange(listToRemove);
listToModify.ForEach(x => x.DateModified = DateTime.Now);

// Easy to use
ctx.BulkSaveChanges(false);

Performance Comparisons

For SQL Server, performance improvement is around 2x faster.

For some provider like SQLite, performance improvement can be as high as 10x faster.

Unsupported Scenario

• There is too many cross-reference tables, and the library is not able to create a saving strategy. You will receive an error on the first use.
• An entity uses a temporary generated GUID when adding (not empty), but the GUID is replaced later by the GUID generated in the database. Data will be correctly inserted, but entities may still have the temporary GUID for relation not using navigation property.

Why turning off Entity Framework Propagation is faster?

Unfortunately, Entity Framework is very slow at generating commands to be executed. For some providers, it takes more time to generate these queries than executing them!

When turned off, the library no longer use the methods from Entity Framework but internal methods from our library.