Answers

• allan Posts: 63,783Questions: 1Answers: 10,511 Site admin

  October 2019 Answer ✓

  Honestly, I'm not sure. If Editor can access the properties of the class via reflection then yes it would work. Its not something I've attempted though. Be interested to know how it works out if you try it.

  Regards,
  Allan
• pcjackson Posts: 18Questions: 6Answers: 0

  October 2019 edited October 2019

  It seems to have trouble with navigation properties.

  (Thanks for the help! I'm not accepting your post as an answer in case I actually manage to figure this out eventually.)
• pcjackson Posts: 18Questions: 6Answers: 0

  October 2019 edited October 2019

  Sorry for the double post. I believe I've figured out a very good way to do this. Caution, this is a code dump post.

  So, EF6 uses a template file (*.tt) to generate the code. The code responsible for generating the object looks like this:

  <#=codeStringGenerator.EntityClassOpening(entity)#>
  {
  <#
      var propertiesWithDefaultValues = typeMapper.GetPropertiesWithDefaultValues(entity);
      var collectionNavigationProperties = typeMapper.GetCollectionNavigationProperties(entity);
      var complexProperties = typeMapper.GetComplexProperties(entity);
  
      if (propertiesWithDefaultValues.Any() || collectionNavigationProperties.Any() || complexProperties.Any())
      {
  #>
      [System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis.SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Usage", "CA2214:DoNotCallOverridableMethodsInConstructors")]
      public <#=code.Escape(entity)#>()
      {
  <#
          foreach (var edmProperty in propertiesWithDefaultValues)
          {
  #>
          this.<#=code.Escape(edmProperty)#> = <#=typeMapper.CreateLiteral(edmProperty.DefaultValue)#>;
  <#
          }
  
          foreach (var navigationProperty in collectionNavigationProperties)
          {
  #>
          this.<#=code.Escape(navigationProperty)#> = new HashSet<<#=typeMapper.GetTypeName(navigationProperty.ToEndMember.GetEntityType())#>>();
  <#
          }
  
          foreach (var complexProperty in complexProperties)
          {
  #>
          this.<#=code.Escape(complexProperty)#> = new <#=typeMapper.GetTypeName(complexProperty.TypeUsage)#>();
  <#
          }
  #>
      }
  
  <#
      }
  
      var simpleProperties = typeMapper.GetSimpleProperties(entity);
      if (simpleProperties.Any())
      {
          foreach (var edmProperty in simpleProperties)
          {
  #>
      <#=codeStringGenerator.Property(edmProperty)#>
  <#
          }
      }
  
      if (complexProperties.Any())
      {
  #>
  
  <#
          foreach(var complexProperty in complexProperties)
          {
  #>
      <#=codeStringGenerator.Property(complexProperty)#>
  <#
          }
      }
  
      var navigationProperties = typeMapper.GetNavigationProperties(entity);
      if (navigationProperties.Any())
      {
  #>
  
  <#
          foreach (var navigationProperty in navigationProperties)
          {
              if (navigationProperty.ToEndMember.RelationshipMultiplicity == RelationshipMultiplicity.Many)
              {
  #>
      [System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis.SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Usage", "CA2227:CollectionPropertiesShouldBeReadOnly")]
  <#
              }
  #>
      <#=codeStringGenerator.NavigationProperty(navigationProperty)#>
  <#
          }
      }
  #>
  }
  

  Where EntityClassOpening is:

      public string EntityClassOpening(EntityType entity)
      {
          return string.Format(
              CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
              "{0} {1}partial class {2}{3}",
              Accessibility.ForType(entity),
              _code.SpaceAfter(_code.AbstractOption(entity)),
              _code.Escape(entity),
              _code.StringBefore(" : ", _typeMapper.GetTypeName(entity.BaseType)));
      }
  

  So what I did is I created a second generator for just a stripped down version of the object without complex properties or navigation properties. It looks like:

  <#=codeStringGenerator.SimpleEntityClassOpening(entity)#>
  {
  <#
      if (propertiesWithDefaultValues.Any())
      {
  #>
      [System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis.SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Usage", "CA2214:DoNotCallOverridableMethodsInConstructors")]
      public <#=code.Escape(entity)#>()
      {
  <#
          foreach (var edmProperty in propertiesWithDefaultValues)
          {
  #>
          this.<#=code.Escape(edmProperty)#> = <#=typeMapper.CreateLiteral(edmProperty.DefaultValue)#>;
  <#
          }
  #>
      }
  
  <#
      }
  
      if (simpleProperties.Any())
      {
          foreach (var edmProperty in simpleProperties)
          {
  #>
      <#=codeStringGenerator.Property(edmProperty)#>
  <#
          }
      }
  #>
  }
  

  Where SimpleEntityClassOpening is:

      public string SimpleEntityClassOpening(EntityType entity)
      {
          return string.Format(
              CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
              "{0} {1}partial class Simple{2}{3}",
              Accessibility.ForType(entity),
              _code.SpaceAfter(_code.AbstractOption(entity)),
              _code.Escape(entity),
              _code.StringBefore(" : ", _typeMapper.GetTypeName(entity.BaseType)));
      }
  

  This might cause naming conflicts if you're fond of the word simple in your table names. You can of course change this to whatever you desire.

  Using these "Simple" models, it seems like the .NET library works just fine, at least for retrieving data.
• allan Posts: 63,783Questions: 1Answers: 10,511 Site admin

  October 2019 Answer ✓

  Awesome - thanks!

  Allan
• pcjackson Posts: 18Questions: 6Answers: 0

  November 2019 edited November 2019

  Hello, people of the future. I ran into an issue with DateTime fields with the above code. Per this post you have to ensure that they become string fields instead.

  So to make this happen using the EF6 generator, you need to add this method to CodeStringGenerator and call it instead of Property in the foreach loop.

      public string SimpleProperty(EdmProperty edmProperty)
      {
          string typename = _typeMapper.GetTypeName(edmProperty.TypeUsage);
          if (string.Equals(typename, "System.DateTime") ||
              string.Equals(typename, "Nullable<System.DateTime>"))
          {
              typename = "string";
          }
  
          return string.Format(
              CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
              "{0} {1} {2} {{ {3}get; {4}set; }}",
              Accessibility.ForProperty(edmProperty),
              typename,
              _code.Escape(edmProperty),
              _code.SpaceAfter(Accessibility.ForGetter(edmProperty)),
              _code.SpaceAfter(Accessibility.ForSetter(edmProperty)));
      }
  

  This is kind of hacky and hard-coded. But hopefully the types we're playing with are more or less stable, so it won't be a problem.