And for further confirmation on this one, I reached out today to talk to the people doing Graph in SQL Server.
Shreya Verma was the lead for the Graph support. (https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Speakers/shreya-verma) I'm told she's gone. Make of that what you will 😊 Regards, Greg Dr Greg Low 1300SQLSQL (1300 775 775) office | +61 419201410 mobile SQL Down Under | Web: https://sqldownunder.com<https://sqldownunder.com/> |About me: https://greglow.me From: Dr Greg Low <g...@sqldownunder.com> Sent: Monday, 25 October 2021 8:38 PM To: ozDotNet <ozdotnet@ozdotnet.com> Subject: Re: SQL Graph databases Hi Greg, We try to get devs to avoid using EF in anger at all, let alone for use with Graph in SQL Server. It's also not just EF support that's needed when new datatypes appear, client libraries, etc have to be updated too. Anyone using EF is always well behind in ability to use current features. I currently don't see value in their current Graph implementation; I don't love the syntax (which is reminiscent of pre ANSI 92 join syntax): and I don't really feel it adds anything much that I couldn't easily do without it. To really add value, it would need to support constructs like polymorphic queries (tell me all things related to John, regardless of type), etc. Shoe-horning those into T-SQL would be quite a challenge. I haven't seen a single customer pursuing it beyond their initial tests. If you want to hear a more detailed discussion on it though, check out the podcast I did with Louis Davidson about it a few months ago. It's in the podcasts at our https://sqldownunder.com site. My prediction is that it will become yet another item of abandonware in the product. No-one is now talking about it. I wish they'd spend time building things we need instead of wasting effort like this. Regards Greg Dr Greg Low Director SQL Down Under Pty Ltd Office: 1300SQLSQL (1300775775) Mobile: +61419201410 About me: https://greglow.me ________________________________ From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com<mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com> <ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com<mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com>> on behalf of Greg Keogh <gfke...@gmail.com<mailto:gfke...@gmail.com>> Sent: Monday, October 25, 2021 6:25:31 PM To: ozDotNet <ozdotnet@ozdotnet.com<mailto:ozdotnet@ozdotnet.com>> Subject: SQL Graph databases Folks, I spent Sunday afternoon playing around with SQL Server Graph databases, and as I expected, it all works as advertised. It's pretty neat and the query syntax is comprehensible to mortals, unlike my experiments with Cosmos DB and the Gremlin API which is as cryptic as abstract algebra. So it all works, but suddenly I realised that the SQL Graph API is not surfaced at the application level for the convenience of .NET developers. Entity Framework does not expose any graph features, and it's unclear what the official plans are around that issue. I did see that someone has forked EF and added graph support, but it looks like a hobby project. Is anyone using SQL graph databases in anger? Any comments from the developer's point of view? Greg K
