I want to map the datatable object on entity framework model,
in DB, I have
dbo.testdata
-column
-AccountNumber(varchar(19),not null)
-KeyName(varchar(50),null)
-Value(varchar(500),not null)
How do I define in the model class to map all these objects, since EF require primary key, but all the object existing in the db now are not defined as primary Key?Also, I am using Scaffolding to the model.
public int Id {get; }{set;} ? should I be defined like this ?
public int AccountNumber{get; }{set;}
public string KeyName{get; }{set;}
public string Value{get; }{set;}
Modify your database to have primary key as you also have pointed out correctly that "EF require primary key". Check for these links for more info
Entity Framework: create entity and insert data in table without primary key and Entity Framework: table without primary key
Related
I'm working on an ASP.NET MVC project, I use Entity Framework (Database First), I created a data model depend on SQL server database, I created a Table in the database and I updated the data model from the database, and when I try to add a record to the new table I created (this table doesn't have a PK) I got an error, when I search about the error I Understood that in Entity Framework need to have a PK for Entity.
So I ASK if I can set a Primary Key for an Entity without affect database, or any other solution to solve this problem.
You can use partial Class for set Key and without effect Original Model and Database
// orginal class **Entity** `YourEntity.cs`
public class YourEntity
{
public int Id { get; set; }
}
Then create a new Class must name different ordinal class ex YourEntityMeta.cs it is physical name
// must change name ordinal class `YourEntity.cs` but add **partial** keyword
[MetadataType(typeof(Metadata))]
public partial class YourEntity
{
sealed class Metadata
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
}
}
Entity Framework always needs a primary key column with name id. Add a column (id) in the database table and set "Is Identity: true" for it. Then update the database model of your project.
In my asp.net mvc 3 application, I have a generic Repository. I use the Find method of the DbSet class to find an entity by its Primary Key, like here:
private DbSet<T> _dbSet;
public T FindByID(object id)
{
return _dbSet.Find(id);
}
Is there any way I can find the entity using the Unique Key as well? I was not able to find the source code for the DbSet class. I would like to extend the DbSet class and add a new method to it for this purpose, if it's possible.
It seems like Entity Framework does not support unique keys, according to this answer:
Alternate/candidate key in ADO.NET data model
Motivation : My EF4.1 DbContext is saving Entities in the wrong order
Reason : Lack of navigation properties on my models
How I want to fix it :
I want to set up foreign key relationships in my DbContext. The catch is that my entity objects have no navigation properties (I'm using it to populate a web service and then firing DTO objects over to my application).
The classes below would be an example. In MinorClass, I want to configure my context so that it knows MajorClassID is a foreign key. The articles I've been finding on the internet on how to explicitly define Foreign Keys involve using navigational properties, which my objects dont have.
Is there a way to map this relationship?
public class MinorClass
{
public Guid ID {get;set:}
public Guid MajorClassID {get;set;} // foreign key
public string Name {get;set;}
}
public class MajorClass
{
public Guid ID {get;set;}
public string Name {get;set;}
}
Navigation property is primary construct whereas foreign key is helper (imho wrong helper). EF recognizes ordering of DB commands by relationships which are defined by navigation properties. You cannot define relation just by foreign key. You need navigation property on at least one side of the relation.
I have same type of tables
ProductCodeTable, CountrycodeTable etc
All have key, value as their fields
When I use entity frame work,
Can I have a single entity for all these tables such that I can formulate different queries to get data from different tables?
You can create a base class for all of them and create sub class for each entity
public abstract class LookUpEntity
{
[Key]
public int Key { get; set; }
[Required]
public string Value { get; set; }
}
[Table("ProductCodeTable")]
public class ProductCode : LookUpEntity
{
}
This way you can model the relationships also and later if you wanted to add specific properties to those look up entities with out affecting other entities.
You can create a view with a Union of all tables like this:
create view AllKeyTables as
SELECT 'Product' as table, Productkey as Key, nameProduct as name
FROM ProductCodeTable
UNION
SELECT 'Country' as table, CountryISO as key, CountryName as name
FROM CountrycodeTable
UNION
...
Then update EF model and check 'table' and 'key' fields as Entity Primary Key.
Next question you will do is: 'How can I make a relation between this Entity and existing Entities?' The answer is 'you can't because EF is not able to join Entities between other fields than primary key'. Then, before implement this solution, be sure that this is you are looking for.
EF supports this only if you model it as inheritance (#Eranga showed it in code-first approach). You will have single base entity and derived entity for each table so you will not avoid having different type for each table. Otherwise the answer is no.
Inheritance will put additional requirements on data in your tables. For example Ids will have to be unique among all tables. So if ProductTableCode will have record with Id 1, CountryCodeTable (and any other code table) mustn't have record with Id 1.
Also inheritance in EF can produce nasty and very poorly performing queries.
This is the basic example from hbm-style nhibernate.
http://ayende.com/blog/2327/multi-table-entities-in-nhibernate
public class Person
{
public int PersonId {get;set;}
public string Name {get;set;}
public string AddressStreetAddress {get;set;}
public string AddressZipCode {get;set;}
}
In the database, Person has an Id primary key, a name field, and an address foreign key. Address has its own primary key, a street address field and a zip code field.
The correct answer is "Don't do it.". Unfortunately I'm stuck with an entity object that exposes the Id and Name of another entity and those are used elsewhere still. At the moment, this object won't be persisted back to the database through nHibernate.
I think the way to do this is to use the address as the table of the entity and add the Person fields from the Join(). What are the consequences of doing this as an intermediate step in a change-over?
I think the way to do this is to use
the address as the table of the entity
and add the Person fields from the
Join(). What are the consequences of
doing this as an intermediate step in
a change-over?
This was a bad idea because the only Id you could map to is the Id of the address which can be shared between multiple persons.
Instead, add a private/protected property for Address to Person, map Address and reference the address using the following Fluent call.
References(Reveal.Member<Person, Address>("Address")).Column("address_id")
Then, you can use AddressStreetName and AddressZipCode to pass through to Address.StreetName and Address.Zipcode. After that, it's a simple matter of refactoring the rest of the system to be sane again.