Connecting two context models in multiple ways in asp.net code first - asp.net-mvc

Question

I'm sorry for the title but I didn't know a better way to express this in a short description.
Basically what I'm thinking, which I'm not ever sure if its possible or if there is a better way to to it, is the following:
I have a Project model, which belongs to a Company model, and a User model that should be linked to the Project in different ways.
So I was thinking of doing this:
public class Project
{
[Key]
[Required]
public Guid Id { get; set; }
[Required]
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
[Required]
[DataType(DataType.DateTime)]
public DateTime StartDate { get; set; }
[DataType(DataType.DateTime)]
public DateTime? EndDate { get; set; }
public virtual List<User> Clients { get; set; }
public virtual List<User> Employees { get; set; }
public virtual User Manager { get; set; }
public virtual List<User> ProjectLeaders { get; set; }
public virtual Company Company { get; set; }
}
So the project has to have employees, a manager, project leaders and clients, all of those vary by project and they are all users in the system.
I would also like to point out that I am using asp.net's identity membership system
The part that I'm not sure of is if this would even work out.
If it will work, how is it interpreted in the database side?
If not, could you guys point out why is this a bad idea and how it could be done properly?
Thank you very much!

Answer 1

As fer I understand you need a relation between Employee/user and project/Company.If I am not wrong.You can make one to many relation between them.
In a project or in a company can have multiple employees and at a time a employee can work for a company only.
So you can design your entities following way
So your project Entity means that It can have multiple employee
public class Project
{
[Key]
[Required]
public Guid Id { get; set; }
[Required]
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
[Required]
[DataType(DataType.DateTime)]
public DateTime StartDate { get; set; }
[DataType(DataType.DateTime)]
public DateTime? EndDate { get; set; }
public virtual List<User> Employees { get; set; }
}
And here your User Entity means that a user can work for a company at a time.
public class User
{
[Key]
[Required]
public Guid Id { get; set; }
[Required]
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
.................................
.................................
//ProjectId will be your foreign key
public int ProjectId { get; set; }
public virtual Project Project { get; set; }
}
Now Entity framework will make a one to many relation between them.
Note : and you can make many to many relation also if you want.It depends on you and your desire functionalities.

Answer 2

The best option to fix the problem was to use FluentAPI to properly connect the models.
Here is how the models should look after fix:
public class Project
{
[Key]
[Required]
public string Id{ get; set; }
[Required]
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
[Required]
[DataType(DataType.DateTime)]
public DateTime StartDate { get; set; }
[DataType(DataType.DateTime)]
public DateTime? EndDate { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<User> Clients { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<User> Employees { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<User> ProjectLeaders { get; set; }
public virtual User ProjectManager { get; set; }
}
public class User : IdentityUser
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual List<Project> ProjectsAsClient { get; set; }
public virtual List<Project> ProjectsAsEmployee { get; set; }
public virtual List<Project> ProjectsAsProjectLeader { get; set; }
public virtual Project ProjectAsManager { get; set; }
}
and on Context:
protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);
modelBuilder.Entity<User>()
.HasMany(u => u.ProjectsAsClient)
.WithMany(t => t.Clients)
.Map(x =>
{
x.MapLeftKey("UserId");
x.MapRightKey("ProjectId");
x.ToTable("ProjectClients");
});
modelBuilder.Entity<User>()
.HasMany(u => u.ProjectsAsEmployee)
.WithMany(t => t.Employees)
.Map(x =>
{
x.MapLeftKey("UserId");
x.MapRightKey("ProjectId");
x.ToTable("ProjectEmployees");
});
modelBuilder.Entity<User>()
.HasMany(u => u.ProjectsAsProjectLeader)
.WithMany(t => t.ProjectLeaders)
.Map(x =>
{
x.MapLeftKey("UserId");
x.MapRightKey("ProjectId");
x.ToTable("ProjectLeaders");
});
}