EfGen.exe - a command line tool for automatic generation of Entity Framework DLL

While working with Entity Framework, I consider it a best practice to create a stand-alone dll that contains all the code Entity Framework (EF) generates to communicate with the database. I would use the Entity Framework Wizard in Visual Studio to point EF to a database, let it generate the code, and then compile it into a dll. This dll would then be referenced by my project(s) that would like to use EF to communicate with my database. I wanted a tool to automate this process of generating the EF dll, and this is where EfGen comes in. You give it a connection string, and it outputs a DLL named

efmodel.dll

by default. You can then reference this dll in your projects, and create an instance of following class to query the database:

var db = new EFContext(); // inherits DbContext; use the --context option (see below) to customize the class name

Comparison with edmgen.exe:

edmgen.exe does not allow you to select which of the following to include in the EF model: tables, views, functions
The latest version of Visual Studio and EF generates code based on T4 templates. Older versions used some custom tool. One of the differences between the code generated by the two methods is that the latest method generates a class that inherits from
```
DbContext
```
whereas the old method generated a class that inherited
```
ObjectContext
```
Edmgen.exe uses the old method, while efgen.exe uses the new method
edmgen.exe does not output a dll

Here is complete usage of the tool:

Usage: EfGen [<options>]
 e.g., EfGen -c "data source=machine-name;initial catalog=database-name;integrated security=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=True" --noViews --noFunc
 where:
  -c, --connectionString    Required. Connection String

  -o, --out                 (Default: EfModel.dll) Name of output dll

  -n, --namespace           (Default: EFModel) Namespace

  -p, --provider            (Default: System.Data.SqlClient) The provider used
                            to connect to the data store

  --context                 (Default: EFContext) Name of class that inherits
                            from DbContext. Also known as the container class

  --noTables                Exclude database tables from being included in the
                            entity framework model

  --noViews                 Exclude database views from being included in the
                            entity framework model

  --noFunc                  Exclude database functions from being included in
                            the entity framework model

  --nofk                    Do not generate foreign key properties in the
                            entity framework model

  --noXml                   Suppress generation of XML Documentation file

  --stages                  (Default: 3) An integer between 1 and 3; if stage =
                            1, then only .edmx file is generated; if stage = 2,
                            then .edmx file + .cs files are generated; if stage
                            = 3, then .edmx, .cs files are generated, and .cs
                            files are compiled into a dll

  --incFolder               (Default: $(ProgramFiles)\Microsoft Visual Studio
                            11.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\Entity
                            Framework Tools\Templates\Includes) Folder where
                            EF.Utility.CS.ttinclude is located

  --t4vs                    (Default: $(ProgramFiles)\Microsoft Visual Studio
                            11.0\Common7\IDE\Microsoft.Data.Entity.Design.dll)
                            T4VSHost for CleanupBehavior; see
                            http://bit.ly/YtRl8Y

  --efPath                  (Default:
                            $(windir)\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\EntityFram

                            ework\v4.0_5.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089) Path where
                            EntityFramework.dll is located

  --version                 Assembly version of the generated dll e.g.,
                            "1.2.3.4"

  --help                    Display this help screen.