Linking MVC4 Models By ID - entity-framework

Woke up yesterday wondering what all the fuss with MVC was about. So I found out and wow it's nice and stuff like that.
I'm used to using one related Linq to Sql DataContext DB in ASP.NET projects.
//Some ASP.NET Page Codebehind
DataContext dbEntire = new DataContext()
With MVC4 with the Entity framework you make the model and it creates a DB for you.
//Models/Article/Article.cs
public class ArticleDBContext: DbContext
{
public DbSet<Article> Articles { get; set; }
}
public class Article
{
public int ID {get;set;}
public string Title{ get; set; }
public int AuthorID { get; set; }
public string Body { get; set; }
public int CategoryID { get; set; }
public DateTime Submitted{ get; set; }
public DateTime LastModified { get; set; }
}
Author and Category are seperate Models.
But how do you set up all the database relations.. One to many, etc. etc. ?

public class ArticleDBContext: DbContext
{
public DbSet<Article> Articles { get; set; }
public DbSet<Category> Categories { get; set; }
}
public class Article
{
public int ID {get;set;}
public string Title{ get; set; }
public int AuthorID { get; set; }
public string Body { get; set; }
public int CategoryID { get; set; }
public virtual Category Category { get; set; }
public DateTime Submitted{ get; set; }
public DateTime LastModified { get; set; }
}
public class Category
{
public int ID {get;set;}
public string Name{ get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Article> Articles { get; set; }
}
Go through some tutorials on Entity Framework Code First.
EF Code First and MVC
EF getting started

Related

EF one to many relation

I use EF's code first approach. I have the following three classes:
public class Inquiry
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Title { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public virtual ApplicationUser CreatedBy { get; set; }
public virtual Contractor Contractor { get; set; }
public IList<ApplicationUser> InquiryUsers { get; set; }
public IList<InquiryComment> Comments { get; set; }
public IList<HydroTechEmail> Emails { get; set; }
public InquiryState State { get; set; }
public List<string> Attachments { get; set; }
public DateTime? TimeOfCreation { get; set; }
public DateTime? TimeOfModification { get; set; }
}
public class HydroTechEmail
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Subject { get; set; }
public string Content { get; set; }
public string FromDisplayName { get; set; }
public string FromAddress { get; set; }
public List<string> ToDisplayName { get; set; }
public List<string> ToAddress { get; set; }
public HydroTechEmailState State { get; set; }
public DateTime? ReceivedTime { get; set; }
public virtual List<HydroTechEmailAttachment> Attachments { get; set; }
public virtual ApplicationUser ApplicationUser { get; set; }
}
public class ApplicationUser
{
public Guid Id {get;set;}
public string Firstname {get;set;}
public string Lastname {get;set;}
}
I thought EF will generate some intermediate classes for relation Inquiry -> Many Emails and Inquiry -> Many Application Users. Instead it created a foreign keys in ApplicationUser and HydroTechEmail classes to Inquiry class. How should I create this one to many relations?
The strange is that for Comments it created an intermediate table named InquiryComments.
Entity Framework will only generate intermediate tables for many-to-many relationships.
For one-to-many relationships, no intermediate tables will be created because it is not necessary.

Why do all of my model classes get added to the first Configuration.cs file that gets created when I'm using multiple Data Context classes?

Entity Framework 6 Code First Migrations with Multiple Data Contexts
NOTE: This is my first post on Stack Overflow so please let me know if I need to provide more detail.
FYI: I have read the article:
Entity Framework 6 Code First Migrations with Multiple Data Contexts
And I'm trying to do something similar. My question/problem revolves around the CreateTable methods generated in the Configuration.cs file.
I have 29 model classes, and I'm trying to set up 4 different Data Contexts.
In my first Data Context, RulingRequestContext, I have 11 of my 29 model classes:
public class RulingRequestContext : BaseContext<RulingRequestContext>
{
public DbSet<RulingRequest> RulingRequests { get; set; }
public DbSet<Agency> Agencies { get; set; }
public DbSet<RulingRequestGroup> RulingRequestGroups { get; set; }
public DbSet<RulingRequestOverallOutcome> RulingRequestOverallOutcomes { get; set; }
public DbSet<RulingRequestType> RulingRequestTypes { get; set; }
public DbSet<RulingRequestResult> RulingRequestResults { get; set; }
public DbSet<Issue> Issues { get; set; }
public DbSet<Decision> Decisions { get; set; }
public DbSet<RulingRequestRoutingInformation> RulingRequestRoutingInformations { get; set; }
public DbSet<Staff> Staffs { get; set; }
public DbSet<StatusOfRulingRequest> StatusOfRulingRequests { get; set; }
Using Package Manager, here are 3 steps I'm following:
NOTE: These are the generic instructions:
(1) enable-migrations -ContextTypeName <DbContext-Name-with-Namespaces> -MigrationsDirectory:<Migrations-Directory-Name>
(2) Add-Migration -configuration <DbContext-Migrations-Configuration-Class-with-Namespaces> <Migrations-Name>
(3) Update-Database -configuration <DbContext-Migrations-Configuration-Class-with-Namespaces> -Verbose
Step 2 is where I have my question. After I run Step 2, I get: a folder, called RulingRequestContextMigrations with 2 files:
201502212023508_Initial.cs and Configuration.cs.
When I look at Configuration.cs. file, the function, public override void Up(), has a CreateTable function for all 29 of my model classes.
I thought that only the 11 listed in my RulingRequestContext class would be created.
Here is a snapshot of my RulingRequest model class.
public class RulingRequest
{
public RulingRequest()
{
this.RulingRequestResults = new HashSet<RulingRequestResult>();
this.RulingRequestRoutingInformations = new HashSet<RulingRequestRoutingInformation>();
}
[DisplayName("Ruling Request ID")]
public int RulingRequestID { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Employee ID Number")]
public string EmployeeIDNumber { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Case Group")]
public string RulingRequestGroupID { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Type")]
public Nullable<int> RulingRequestTypeID { get; set; }
[DisplayName("First Name")]
public string FirstName { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Last Name")]
public string LastName { get; set; }
public string MI { get; set; }
public string Suffix { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Address 2")]
public string Address2 { get; set; }
public string City { get; set; }
public string State { get; set; }
public Nullable<int> Zip { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Home Phone")]
public string HomePhone { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Work Phone")]
public string WorkPhone { get; set; }
public string Email { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Agency")]
public string AgencyNumber { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Date Received")]
public Nullable<System.DateTime> DateReceived { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Grievance Initiation Date")]
public Nullable<System.DateTime> GrievanceInitiationDate { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Decision Date")]
public Nullable<System.DateTime> DecisionDate { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Re-Activation Date")]
public Nullable<System.DateTime> ReActivationDate { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Overall Outcome")]
public Nullable<int> RulingRequestOverallOutcomeID { get; set; }
[ScaffoldColumn(false)]
public string CreatedBy { get; set; }
[ScaffoldColumn(false)]
public Nullable<System.DateTime> CreatedDatetime { get; set; }
[ScaffoldColumn(false)]
public string UpdatedBy { get; set; }
[ScaffoldColumn(false)]
public Nullable<System.DateTime> UpdatedDatetime { get; set; }
public virtual Agency Agency { get; set; }
public virtual RulingRequestGroup RulingRequestGroup { get; set; }
public virtual RulingRequestOverallOutcome RulingRequestOverallOutcome { get; set; }
public virtual RulingRequestType RulingRequestType { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<RulingRequestResult> RulingRequestResults { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<RulingRequestRoutingInformation> RulingRequestRoutingInformations { get; set; }
}
All 4 of my Data Context classes have a model class that uses Agency and has:
public virtual Agency Agency { get; set; }
QUESTIONS:
(1) Are all 29 of my model classes being added to the RulingRequest's Configuration.cs because of the relationships/virtual properties? For example since all 4 of my Data Context classes have: public virtual Agency Agency { get; set; } all of those model classes are being added to the Configuration.cs file for my RulingRequestContext.cs class.
(2) Assuming my initial Data Context class (RulingRequestContext) and it's Configuration.cs class are working as they are supposed to, should I comment out all of the CreateTable code in the 3 other Configuration.cs classes?
(3) Or should I comment out the CreateTable code for all of the model classes that don't appear as DBSet properties in my RulingRequestContext? And then do the same for my 3 other DataContext classes?
Thanks for your time reading this! Please let me know if there's anything I can do or not do to make my posts better in the future!
Yes, it is grabbing the related entities. Your link talks about commenting out the tables from the other contexts "Before running update command, commented out the generated code for Users tables as shown above. Since Users table is already created by first DbContext migrations."

Entity framework issue- The principal end of this association must be explicitly configured

Hi I am using CodeFirst approach to create database but I am getting below error
The principal end of this association must be explicitly configured using either the relationship fluent API or data annotations.
The entities are following
public abstract class EntityBase
{
[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public int ID { get; set; }
public DateTime CreationDate { get; set; }
public DateTime ModifiedDate { get; set; }
public int CreatedByUserId { get; set; }
public int ModifiedByUserId { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("CreatedByUserId")]
public virtual User CreatedBy { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("ModifiedByUserId")]
public virtual User ModifiedBy { get; set; }
public bool IsActive { get; set; }
}
public class User : EntityBase
{
public string UserName { get; set; }
public string DisplayName { get; set; }
public string Password { get; set; }
}
Please help me.
Thanks
Vinod

ADO.NET EF what is the purpose of using List<> in the entities

Right now I'm learning ADO.NET Entity Framework and there's one thing that I can't explain to myself. Here is a source code from a tutorial I've been using recently:
public class Blog
{
public int BlogId { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Url { get; set; }
public User UserId { get; set; }
public virtual List<Post> Posts { get; set; }
}
public class Post
{
public int PostId { get; set; }
public string Title { get; set; }
public string Content { get; set; }
public int BlogId { get; set; }
public virtual Blog Blog { get; set; }
}
public class User
{
public int UserId { get; set; }
public string Username { get; set; }
public string DisplayName { get; set; }
}
First I thought that the using of List<> is the way to implement Foreign Key-like behaviour but now knowing that's not the case why we need and for what purpose we use List<> in our entites?
To show that Blog have a lot of Posts, when you will build your project in DB will be the relation 1xBlog--->NxPost where N=unlimited. This will show that each Blog can have unlimited amount of Posts

MVC 4 code first database initializer doesn't work

I had to stop at the same stages following different MVC 4 code first technique tutorials, because database initialization failed.
Using the connection
<add name="DefaultConnection" connectionString="Data Source=(LocalDb)\v11.0;Initial Catalog=aspnet-DbTestApp-20130205173443;Integrated Security=SSPI;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|\aspnet-DbTestApp-20130205173443.mdf" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
I can't even create or manage the database, which I want to be generated from my models
public class Category
{
public int Id { get; set; }
[Required]
[MinLength(4)]
[MaxLength(64)]
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual IEnumerable<Article> Articles { get; set; }
}
public class Article
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int CategoryId { get; set; }
public virtual Category Category { get; set; }
[Required]
[MinLength(4)]
[MaxLength(64)]
public string Title { get; set; }
[Required]
[MinLength(16)]
[MaxLength(1024)]
[DataType(DataType.MultilineText)]
public string Content { get; set; }
[Required]
[Display(Name = "Post Anonymous?")]
public bool IsAnonymous { get; set; }
public int AuthorId { get; set; }
public virtual Author Author { get; set; }
public virtual IEnumerable<Comment> Comments { get; set; }
}
public class Author
{
public int Id { get; set; }
[MinLength(3)]
[MaxLength(64)]
public string AuthorName { get; set; }
public virtual IEnumerable<Article> Articles { get; set; }
public virtual IEnumerable<Category> Categories { get; set; }
}
public class Comment
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int ArticleId { get; set; }
public virtual Article Article { get; set; }
[Required]
[MinLength(3)]
[MaxLength(64)]
public string Author { get; set; }
[MaxLength(64)]
public string Title { get; set; }
[Required]
[MinLength(4)]
[MaxLength(512)]
public string Content { get; set; }
}
using the context below
public class BlogContext : DbContext
{
public DbSet<Category> Categories { get; set; }
public DbSet<Article> Articles { get; set; }
public DbSet<Author> Authors { get; set; }
public DbSet<Comment> Comments { get; set; }
public BlogContext()
: base("DefaultConnection")
{
Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
}
}
I also set the initializer in Global.asax Application_Start() method:
Database.SetInitializer(new DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges<BlogContext>());
The problem comes when I'm trying to call
var articles = db.Articles.Include(a => a.Category).Include(a => a.Author);
inside my BlogController's Index() method to return a view with the list of stored articles. That happens every time calling a DB related methods, the error message is:
Model compatibility cannot be checked because the database does not contain model metadata. Model compatibility can only be checked for databases created using Code First or Code First Migrations.
In the tutorials I found nothing about problems like that and the solutions I read couldn't solve the problem.
Any ideas?
Thanks
DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges requires there to be a previous model already in place before it will compare the two. To start up the database you'll need to use the DropCreateDatabaseAlways initializer.