Dynamic way to Generate EntityTypeConfiguration : The type 'TResult' must be a non-nullable value type - entity-framework

Question

I was thinking to generate EntityTypeConfiguration dynamically from run time and i don't want any EF dependency in Models[That is why i avoid Data Annotation].
So I declare a custom attribute(or can be any configuration file later on)
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Property, AllowMultiple=true )]
public class PersistableMemberAttribute : Attribute
{
public bool Iskey;
public bool IsRequired;
public bool IsIgnored;
public bool IsMany;
public string HasForeignKey;
public bool PropertyIsRequired;
public bool PropertyIsOptional;
}
And here is one of my Models is look like:
public class Blog
{
[PersistableMember(Iskey=true)]
public Guid BlogId { get; set; }
[PersistableMember(PropertyIsRequired = true)]
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Url { get; set; }
[PersistableMember(IsIgnored=true)]
public int Rating { get; set; }
[PersistableMember(IsMany =true)]
public ICollection<Post> Posts { get; set; }
}
Now I am going to write a generic EntityTypeConfiguration , which will create the configuration dynamically on run time based on the attribute values :
public class GenericEntityConfiguration<T> : EntityTypeConfiguration<T> where T : class
{
public GenericEntityConfiguration()
{
var members = typeof(T).GetProperties();
if (null != members)
{
foreach (var property in members)
{
var attrb= property.GetCustomAttributes(typeof( PersistableMemberAttribute ),false).OfType<PersistableMemberAttribute>();
if (attrb != null && attrb.Count() > 0)
{
foreach (var memberAttributute in attrb)
{
if (memberAttributute.Iskey || memberAttributute.IsIgnored)
{
var entityMethod = this.GetType().GetMethod("Setkey");
entityMethod.MakeGenericMethod(property.PropertyType)
.Invoke(this, new object[] { property, memberAttributute });
}
if (memberAttributute.IsRequired)
{
var entityMethod = this.GetType().GetMethod("SetRequired");
entityMethod.MakeGenericMethod(property.PropertyType)
.Invoke(this, new object[] { property, memberAttributute });
}
if (memberAttributute.PropertyIsRequired || memberAttributute.PropertyIsOptional)
{
var entityMethod = this.GetType().GetMethod("SetPropertyConfiguration");
entityMethod.MakeGenericMethod(property.PropertyType)
.Invoke(this, new object[] { property, memberAttributute });
}
}
}
}
}
}
public void SetPropertyConfiguration<TResult>(PropertyInfo propertyInfo, PersistableMemberAttribute attribute)
{
var functorParam = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T));
var lambda = Expression.Lambda(
Expression.Property(functorParam, propertyInfo)
, functorParam);
if (attribute.PropertyIsRequired)
{
this.Property<TResult>((Expression<Func<T, TResult>>)lambda).IsRequired();
}
if (attribute.PropertyIsOptional)
{
this.Property<TResult>((Expression<Func<T, TResult>>)lambda).IsOptional();
}
}
public void Setkey<TResult>(PropertyInfo propertyInfo, PersistableMemberAttribute attribute)
{
var functorParam = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T));
var lambda = Expression.Lambda(
Expression.Property(functorParam, propertyInfo)
, functorParam);
if (attribute.Iskey)
{
this.HasKey<TResult>((Expression<Func<T,TResult>>)lambda);
}
if (attribute.IsIgnored)
{
this.Ignore<TResult>((Expression<Func<T, TResult>>)lambda);
}
}
public void SetRequired<TResult>(PropertyInfo propertyInfo, PersistableMemberAttribute attribute) where TResult : class
{
var functorParam = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T));
var lambda = Expression.Lambda(
Expression.Property(functorParam, propertyInfo)
, functorParam);
if (attribute.IsRequired)
{
this.HasRequired<TResult>((Expression<Func<T, TResult>>)lambda);
}
}
}
But i got the compilation error of
Error 1 The type 'TResult' must be a non-nullable value type in order to use it as parameter 'T' in the generic type or method 'System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration.Configuration.StructuralTypeConfiguration.Property(System.Linq.Expressions.Expression>)' D:\R&D\UpdateStorePOC\UpdateStorePOC\Data\GenericEntityConfiguration.cs 63 17 UpdateStorePOC
which for these two statements:
this.Property<TResult>((Expression<Func<T, TResult>>)lambda).IsRequired();
this.Property<TResult>((Expression<Func<T, TResult>>)lambda).IsOptional();
that means that I need to put a constraint on my method to restrict it to a value type. In C#, this is done with the ‘struct’ keyword.
public void SetPropertyConfiguration<TResult>(PropertyInfo propertyInfo, PersistableMemberAttribute attribute) Where TResult : struct
But Its not the solution since my property type can be a class e.g string or int, bool double, etc . So it is not at all clear that I can send them into this method. Please help me to solve this issue whether there is any other way to do it.

Answer 1

I don't want any EF dependency in models.
With fluent mapping you're almost there and you won't come any closer. Your attributes, even though intended to be moved to a configuration file, don't make your model any more free of any EF footprint.1 Worse, they only add a second mapping layer (if you like) between your model and EF's mapping. I only see drawbacks:
You still have to maintain meta data for your model, probably not any less than regular fluent mapping and (probably) in awkward manually edited XML without compile-time checking.
You will keep expanding your code to cover cases that EF's mapping covers but yours doesn't yet.2 So it's a waste of energy: in the end you'll basically have rewritten EF's mapping methods.
You'll have to keep your fingers crossed when you want to upgrade EF.
With bugs/problems you're on your own: hard to get support from the community.
So my answer to your question help me to solve this issue would be: use fluent mapping out of the box. Keep it simple.
1 For example, you would still have to use the virtual modifier to enable proxies for lazy loading.
2 Like support for inheritance, unmapped foreign keys, max length, db data type, ... this could go on for a while.