Multiple level of inheritance in EF Code First Configuration - entity-framework

Question

I have an abstract base class for a few entities I'm defining. One of those derived entities is actually a non-abstract base class to another entity.
Following this code:
public abstract class BaseReportEntry {
public int ReportEntryId { get; set;}
public int ReportBundleId { get; set; } //FK
public virtual ReportBundle ReportBunde { get; set; }
}
//A few different simple pocos like this one
public PerformanceReportEntry : BaseReportEntry {
public int PerformanceAbsolute { get; set; }
public double PerformanceRelative { get; set; }
}
//And one with a second level of inheritance
public ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry : PerformanceReportEntry {
public string Period { get; set; }
}
I'm using a base EntityTypeConfiguration:
public class BaseReportEntryMap<TReportEntry> : EntityTypeConfiguration<TReportEntry>
where TReportEntry : BaseReportEntry
{
public BaseReportEntryMap()
{
this.HasKey(e => e.ReportEntryId);
this.HasRequired(e => e.ReportsBundle)
.WithMany()
.HasForeignKey(e => e.ReportsBundleId);
}
}
Presumably this works fine for the one-level of inheritance but throw the following error for that one case where it has a second level:
The foreign key component 'ReportsBundleId' is not a declared property on type 'ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry'
public class ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntryMap : BaseReportEntryMap<ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry>
{
public ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntryMap ()
: base()
{
this.Property(e => e.Period).IsRequired();
this.Map(m =>
{
m.MapInheritedProperties();
m.ToTable("ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntries");
});
}
}
Here's ReportBundle class if needed
public class ReportsBundle
{
public int ReportsBundleId { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<PerformanceReportEntry> PerformanceReportEntries{ get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry> ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntries{ get; set; }
}

Answer 1

The problem is not so much the second level of inheritance but that PerformanceReportEntry (the base of ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry) is an entity while BaseReportEntry (the base of PerformanceReportEntry) is not.
Your mapping would work if PerformanceReportEntry would not be an entity - i.e. its mapping is not added to the model builder configuration and you have no DbSet for this type and it would not occur in a navigation collection in ReportsBundle.
Deriving the configuration from BaseReportEntryMap<ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry> is not possible in this case - and it is not necessary because the mapping for the base properties already happened by the BaseReportEntryMap<PerformanceReportEntry>. Therefore you can use
public class ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntryMap
: EntityTypeConfiguration<ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry>
But I have doubt that the resulting model is as you would expect it. I don't know what the PerformanceReportEntries and ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntries collections in ReportsBundle are supposed to express. Do you expect that ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntries is a collection filtered by the subtype? Do you expect that PerformanceReportEntries contains only the ReportsEntries that are PerformanceReportEntrys but not ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntrys? Do you expect that PerformanceReportEntries contains all entries including the ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntries?
Anyway, BaseReportEntry.ReportBundle is a navigation property mapped in PerformanceReportEntry (not in ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry). That means that the inverse navigation property in class ReportsBundle must refer to PerformanceReportEntry which is the PerformanceReportEntries navigation collection. ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntries will introduce a second one-to-many relationship between ReportsBundle and ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry (without a navigation property in ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry). The inverse navigation property of ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntries will NOT be BaseReportEntry.ReportBundle.
My feeling is that you should not have the ReportsBundle.ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntries collection, but I am not sure what you want to achieve exactly.
Edit
Refering to your comment that you only have these two Report types your mapping is way too complicated in my opinion. I would do the following:
Remove the BaseReportEntry class and move its properties into PerformanceReportEntry. It makes no sense to have a base class that only one single other class derives from.
Remove the ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntries from ReportsBundle, so that ReportsBundle will be:
public class ReportsBundle
{
public int ReportsBundleId { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<PerformanceReportEntry>
PerformanceReportEntries { get; set; }
}
Remove the BaseReportEntryMap and move the mapping into PerformanceReportEntryMap. Derive this map from EntityTypeConfiguration<PerformanceReportEntry>.
Correct the mapping. Currently it is wrong because you don't specify the inverse navigation property in WithMany. PerformanceReportEntryMap should look like this:
public class PerformanceReportEntryMap
: EntityTypeConfiguration<PerformanceReportEntry>
{
public PerformanceReportEntryMap()
{
this.HasKey(e => e.ReportEntryId);
this.HasRequired(e => e.ReportsBundle)
.WithMany(b => b.PerformanceReportEntries)
.HasForeignKey(e => e.ReportsBundleId);
}
}
Derive ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntryMap from EntityTypeConfiguration<ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry> and specify only mappings for properties that are declared in ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry, not again for the base properties. That already happened in PerformanceReportEntryMap. You don't need and can't specify it again because it will cause exactly the exception you had.
Use Table-Per-Hierarchy (TPH) inheritance instead of Table-Per-Concrete-Type (TPC), especially if you only have a few properties declared in ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry. TPC is more difficult to use because it has problems with database-generated identities and with polymorphic associations (which you have in your relationship between PerformanceReportEntry and ReportsBundle). The problems are explained in more details here. TPH instead offers the best performance. ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntryMap would then look like this:
public class ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntryMap
: EntityTypeConfiguration<ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntry>
{
public ByPeriodPerformanceReportEntryMap()
{
this.Property(e => e.Period).IsRequired();
}
}
No explicit configuration for TPH is necessary because it is the default inheritance mapping.