I am attempting to use Entity Framework with a database that does not make use of foreign keys. To make matters worse, tables that have a relationship make use of relating fields that can be null. For example the Order table has a column for ClientID that is nullable. Keeping in mind I did not create this database nor can I change it I would like to still be able to use Entity Framework (v6.1) to perform CRUD operations on the database.
The problem, as you might expect, has to do with the association between entities. I can create the associations myself manually but I cannot set the referential integrity because the properties in the entities map to columns in the database that can be NULL.
Is there a way to get around this? Perhaps a way to use the associations without having to define referential integrity? Granting that it would be up to me to make sure that any child records be deleted if a given parent is deleted..
I think this will work:
public class Order
{
//other properties
public int? ClientId {get; set;}
}
And set
modelBuilder.Entity<Order>()
.HasOptional(x=>x.Client)
.WithMany(x=>x.Orders)
.WithForeignKey(x=>x.CliendId);
Related
Having two entities defining relationship by #ManyToOne and #OneToMany, how can I get foreign key without asking from related object and just by looking at defining tables? How do I get OWNER_ID from Owned by something like owned.getOwnerId() instead of owned.getOwner().getId() and still be able to owned.getOwner()?
Map the field in your entity as a basic mapping allows you to use the foreign key directly. You can keep the object reference mapping as well, but one of the two mappings must then be marked as insertable=false, updatable=false so that JPA knows which mapping controls the field in the event they show different values.
I need some help today related to EF relationship. I have two lookup tables Country and Ethnicity. I want to have nullable foreign keys for both in one my table named Singles, so I defined a relationship in my class like
Single Relation
that generate a table like this, which is good so far
Single Relation Result
But I have other fields like Citizenship and CountryOfBirth which require a foreign key as well from Country table. So, I tried to do the same
Multiple Relation with Same Class
But things getting weird inside sql when table created.
Multiple Relation with Same Class Result
I can understand why it behaves odd but don't know how to make it work. Can you please suggest?
Thanks
You'll need to place your ForeignKey attributes on the navigational properties to point to the nullable ID field (instead of vice-versa), and then use the InverseProperty attribute to properly tell EF exactly what kind of relationship you are trying to accomplish.
This answer will be quite similar to that in this SO question.
I have one table named PLACES with one composite primary key (parent_id, version_id). It is a tree of objects, which are linked through the keys. One child has just one parent, and one parent may have many children.
How can I describe it with JPA entity?
Use a ManyToOne relation from the child to the parent.
This is for OpenJpa. Might even work.
public class Place{
#EmbeddedId
PlaceId id;
#ManyToOne(fetch=FetchType.LAZY)
#JoinColumns({
#JoinColumn(name="PARENT_ID" referencedColumnName="ID"), // ID = matching primary key
#JoinColumn(name="PARENT_VER" referencedColumnName="VER") //etc
})
public Place parent;
#OneToMany(fetch=FetchType.LAZY, mappedBy="parent")
public List<Place> childPlaces;
}
The OneToMany relation might be omitted if it's not needed. If I remember correctly, it needs to be managed, ie childs need to be inserted there too when creating child-places, by you, using java.
Btw.
I would advise against using a version column in a composite key in order to manually keep old versions of your data (for auditing or similar purposes) as that slows down and complicates all joins, and generally will make you miserable at some point in your life - As opposed to using a version column that is not part of a composite key, used for optimistic locking.
You might want to look into some kind of build in support for auditing/logging. OpenJpa has auditing support (OpenJPA Audit) and most database provide some support, either out-of-the-box or by using triggers. All alternatives are faster and better than using composite keys.
I have a method for inserting in database.
I have 1:n relationship between the tables Point (n) and Line (1). Point has foreign key idLine.
However, the class Point in Entity Framework doesn't have the idLine property.
Now, in my method I have object of type Point, as parameter and here I have a problem because I don't know to what to assign the idSection of the new Point object which is inserted in the table.
How to add the idLine property in the Point class?
I'll assume you're using EF4.0, since this is not possible in previous version (EF1.0 does not include foreigh key properties in model).
In your generation wizard you need to make sure that "Include foreign key columns in the model" checkbox is checked when you're generating data model. Otherwise foreign key columns will be omitted when generating data.
If I'm remembering correctly you cannot simply add forign keys to classes that are already generated. You would need to manually edit all the mappings (not impossible, might be little bit troublesome if you are new to EF). Or you can simply remove this class from design area and add it again (making sure appropriate checkbox is checked this time). This might be simpler if you haven't customized generated classes.
add a foreign key in your model like following :-
public int? LineId { get; set; }
public virtual LineId LineId {get; set; } // this for one to one
I'm having trouble configuring entity relationships when one entity inherits from another. I'm new to ADO Entity Framework -- perhaps someone more experienced has some tips for how this is best done. I'm using .net 4.
Database tables with fields:
Products (int ID, nvarchar Description)
FoodProducts (int ProductID, bit IsHuge)
Flavors (int ID, int FoodProductID, nvarchar Description)
There are constraints between Products and FoodProducts as well as FoodProducts and Flavors.
Using the designer I create a model from the database. The designer seems to get it right, with a 1:0..1 association between Product and FoodProduct entities, and 1:* association between Flavor and FoodProduct. No errors when I save or build.
Next I set FoodProduct entity to inherit from Product entity. Then I get errors concerning relationship between Product and FoodProduct. Ok, starting fresh, I first delete the relationship between Product and FoodProduct before setting the inheritance. But now I get errors about the relationship between FoodProduct and Flavor. So I delete and then recreate that relationship, connecting Flavor.ID to FoodProduct.ProductID. Now I get other errors.
My question is this: Should I instead be creating relationship between Flavor.FoodProductID and Product.ID? If so, I assume I then could (or should) delete the FoodProduct.ProductID property. Since my database will have many of these types of relationships, am I better off first creating the entity model and exporting the tables to SQL, or importing the database schema and then making many tweaks?
My intent is that there will be several types of products, some of which require many additional fields, some of which do not. So there may be zero or one FoodProducts records associated with each Product record. At least by my thinking, the table for each sub-type (FoodProducts) should be able to "borrow" the primary key from Products (as a FK) to uniquely identify each of its records.
You can find a screen capture here: http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9720/entityframework.jpg (I'd embed the img but haven't earned the requisite rep' yet!)
Well, I deleted the FoodProduct.ProductID field, as it should always return the same value as Product.ID anyway. Then, as you hinted, I had to manually map the Products.ID field to FoodProducts.ProductID field. Errors resolved. I'll write a little code to test functionality. Thanks for the "observations"!
Couple of observations:
FoodProducts needs a primary key (e,g identity - FoodProductID). Are you sure it should be a 1:0..1 between Food and FoodProducts? I would have thought it should be 1:0..*. For this cardinality to work you need a unique PK on this table.
When you setup inheritance for entities, the parent entity's properties are inherited. So FoodProducts will inherit ID from the Product table.
BUT, on the physical model (database), this field still needs to be mapped to a column on the FoodProducts table - which is why you need the identity field.
After you setup inheritance, you still need to map all the columns on the derived tables. My money is on you have not mapped "ID" on FoodProducts to any column.
If you screencapped your model and show the errors you are getting it would be much easier to diagnose the issue.