EF Core 6 - Multiple Tables Based Off 1 Entity - c#

I've seen very old answers relating to this (and conflicting answers), but I am wondering if it's possible to use 1 base entity to create multiple tables in EF Core.
My specific scenario is this: I have about 110 tables, and I need to preserve the data after they are "deleted".
However, because there are a number of 1-to-1 relationships, I cannot set a delete flag to mark the table as "deleted". I would like to have an "Archive" table for each entity, and on Delete in my repository I would find the entity from the original table, add it to the archive table, then delete it from the original table.
However it seems like EF Core creates tables based solely on the classes the models are themselves and not by the tables that are defined.
Is there any way to get around this without needing to create a separate "archive" model for my 110 existing model classes?

Related

EF Core automatically deleting records on Add Operation

I receive a large JSON having different recordsets in the form of arrays in a Xamarin-Forms application. The recordsets are linked with each other through reference Ids. Basically the data is coming from a relational database and I have to map the data into the device's local SQLite. I am using EFCore for that. I am able to successfully set up the Models and their FKs using OnModelCreating override. I have verified it by logging the table creation scripts. Now the issue is, when I AddRange a list of some records, EF Core automatically deletes some of the records. I don't know why and how.
Here is the screenshot in debugging:
The data is a huge graph of different relational records. Earlier I was trying to Add the whole graph by saving only the grandparent record. But there are several children who reference the same record more than once. For example, a UserType is referenced by many users. So EF throws Identity tracking issues. Then I decided to not save using the graph, instead save table by table. And now I am facing this issue. To be specific, there is a total of 11 tables involved in my saving. I am able to save 5 tables that have independent data e.g. UserTypes, EntityTypes, ContactTypes, etc. When I came to the 6th table which references some records of 5 saved tables, I am getting this issue.
Update:
I solved the problem. The issue was in a relationship that was wrongly defined. A WorkOrder can have one Customer only, but a Customer can be linked to many WorkOrders. I was taking it as One-to-One but was ignoring the other way. I updated the one-to-one to one-to-many in Customer entity and everything started working great!
By the way, this we can say the beauty and perfection of EF Core that it can never allow you to persist data against the rules you have defined. Though automatic deleting was a little confusing but ultimately that was my mistake.

Entity Framework 6.0 SQL-first synch with database without .edmx?

I have a database with some tables for school related project and I have a model with EF 6.0 SQL-first approach. I need to update the database with a new table & update an existing table with a new column. The twist is: I don’t have any *.edmx file.
How can I update the model without it? If it is impossible, then how can I generate *.edmx without interrupting the existing model?
Entities are essentially POCOs, so you really just need to update your schema and update the entity classes to match. For new entities if the project is not using an edmx then it should either be using classes extending EntityTypeConfiguration or setting things up with the modelBuilder on the OnModelCreating event in the DbContext.
EF can resolve most general mappings using convention, so adding a column to a table usually just means adding the property to the entity. Mapping only comes into play when you want to change a columns naming, handle type casting differences, or use identity/computed columns. For new entities it can also use convention, but commonly there would be config used for the Table name, PK name, and things like Identity columns, plus navigation properties for related entities.

EF Code First - Duplicate Table With The Same Schema

EF 6 Code First: How is it possible to have duplicate table of the same schema.
Like History table that serves as a replica for the original table. For example:
Several Important Notes to Consider:
No foreign key: I know it can be done by inheritance and some other such methods which generate foreign key to the original table. But I mean completely different duplicated table.
No Copy Past the Entity: Coping from the Employee entity to Employee_History entity is an option but in case the original entity is big, complected and has lots of inheritances, it might be really mess. Not to mention that every change to the original table should be reflected to the history table manually by copy.
DataAnnotation is preferable.

Entity Framework - Inserting entity with multiple models and databases

I have my domain split into multiple Entity Framework models. I have some shared entities that span multiple models (named Lookup), however, these are replaced with "using" references using the methods described in Working With Large Models In Entity Framework. However, what makes my case slightly more unique is that I'm also separating these models into multiple databases (one per model).
I'm having a problem inserting one of my shared entities into my common DB. It's failing with the error:
The member with identity
'Harmony.Members.FK_ResidentialAddress_ResidenceTypeLookup'
does not exist in the metadata
collection.
That foreign key that it's referring to does not exist on the "common DB". But I'm also not working with the entity on the other side of the relationship (named ResidentialAddress); nor do I even have the context that would contain the other entity initialized (named MembersDb). However, both models are compiled into the same assembly.
There are no navigation properties going from Lookup to ResidentialAddress. Though there is a navigation property in the other direction (which I won't be persisting - only using in memory).
My MetadataWorkspace for the EntityConnection of the CommonDb context was explicitly initialized with only the SSDL/CSDL/MSL for the data required for that database. I have confirmed there is no references to the foreign key mentioned in that set of schema data.
var metaAssembly = typeof(CommonDb).Assembly;
var schemaResources = new string[]
{
String.Format("res://{0}/Common.ssdl", metaAssembly.FullName),
String.Format("res://{0}/Common.csdl", metaAssembly.FullName),
String.Format("res://{0}/Common.mdl", metaAssembly.FullName),
}
MetadataWorkspace metadata = new MetadataWorkspace(schemaResources, new []{ metaAssembly });
EntityConnection connection = new EntityConnection(metadata, myDatabaseConnection);
POSSIBLE CLUE: It does work when I go into the generated classes and remove all of the EdmRelationshipAttribute attributes along with their paired EdmRelationshipNavigationPropertyAttribute from the related models (MembersDb).
Key questions:
So why is it that Entity Framework is trying to do something with the relationship that is for an entity that is neither in scope and nor will it be affected by the insertion of the record!?
I am happy to have the generated code remove the attributes mentioned above, but I still want the navigation properties to remain. How would I go about altering the CSDL to achieve that?
NOTE: Persistence of the "child" models is not a priority, nor is the integrity of their now cross-DB foreign keys. These databases are persisted using SQL CE but they were originally generated from a single master SQL Server database.
If each part of your model is written to a separate database, then perhaps the edmx files should not know about each other (about entities or relationship to entities that do not belong to them).
How about trying one of the following approaches:
(To end up with same entities classes for each part, but make EF oblivious of connections between them.)
Remove the "usings" from edmx + cancel auto generation and create classes yourself.
Remove the "usings" from edmx + modify t4 template to read more than one edmx when creating the classes.
Copy edmx files aside so you have two sets of edmxs.
3.a. Use set #1 for auto generation of entities.
3.b. Modify set #2 by removing the "usings" and use for generation of repository classes (objectsets).
Let me know if one of these works.
Good luck,
Danny.

Do I need to include all fields in my entity framework model

Quick question for everyone:
Do I need to include all the database table fields on my EF model?
For example; I've created a sub-model that only deals with tblPayment and associated tables. Now, I need to write a LINQ query to get some information about items. I would typically get this by joining tblPayment to tblInvoice to tblInvoiceItem to finally tblOrderItem.
I'm wondering if when I add in those other tables, do I need to include all the fields for tblInvoice and tblInvoiceItem? Ideally; I'd just like to keep the fields I'd need to join on, as that would limit the possibility of my sub-model breaking if other fields on those tables are modified/deleted.
Can I do this?
No, you don't need to include them all.
However, the GUI mapping tool, when reverse-engineering an existing DB into an EF model, will always include all columns, and there's no way to tell it not to.
Therefore, to exclude columns, you must do one of the following
Manually edit the EDMX yourself. Simply deleting the columns in the GUI designer may work, but only removes the columns from CSDL, not SSDL. The EF may or may not let you do that, depending upon the column's SSDL mapping.
Generate the model from a different DB, which has a similar schema except that it lacks those fields.
Code-first or model-first (EF 4 only).
Yes, you can remove other fields from the entities.
You can not only remove fields from entities, your entities can be combinations of different tables.
Entity Framework

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