.NET Core Entity Framework linking subtable to property - entity-framework

Question

This is an existing .NET Core 3.1 project I inherited.
I have a class referring to a database table
public class SupportContract
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public DateTime StartDate { get; set; }
public int SupportContractStatusId { get; set; }
public virtual SupportContractStatus SupportContractStatus { get; set; }
}
and a sub table with a foreign key
public class SupportContractStatus
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string SupportContractStatusName { get; set; }
}
This works fine I can get
supportContract.SupportContractStatus.SupportContractStatusName
But if I rename SupportContractStatusId to ContractStatusId in C# and the database, I get an error "SupportContractStatusId missing".
I cannot find any link between the column SupportContractStatusId and table SupportContractStatus anywhere in code nor is there any mention of the foreign key.
There is no link in the DbContext either.
Is this naming convention assumed by Entity Framework? How does the framework know of the foreign key?

Answer 1

Yes, the naming convention that EF expects by default is based on the class name, not the property name. It will look for ClassNameId or ClassName_Id. You can link the FK either through annotation or configuration.
I.e.
public int ContractStatusId { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("ContractStatusId")]
public virtual SupportContractStatus ContractStatus { get; set; }
Configuration is done through IEntityTypeConfiguration implementations or by implementing the OnModelCreating method in the DbContext and configuring the relationship within the modelBuilder. For occasional deviations from convention, the attribute approach can generally cover everything.