Putting Studio for Entity Framework to use A Brief Guide Dom Sinclair Table of Contents Foreword ....................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Getting Started: The Data Model ................................................................................................................................. 7 Getting Started: Referencing the data model ............................................................................................................ 10 Getting Started: The C1DataSource Component ....................................................................................................... 11 Getting Started: Binding controls to the C1DataSource ............................................................................................ 17 Querying, Editing and Adding data with the C1DataSource ........................................................................................... 25 Querying Data without writing code .......................................................................................................................... 25 Saving Changes made to the data ............................................................................................................................... 28 Using the S.E.F. for a real world example ....................................................................................................................... 31 Database first or Code first? ....................................................................................................................................... 32 The Data Model ........................................................................................................................................................... 32 The Entity Model Connection String ........................................................................................................................... 36 Entity Framework Connection Strings .................................................................................................................... 36 Creating a dynamic connection string for the SEF .................................................................................................. 37 Extending the Data Model .......................................................................................................................................... 41 Building the first User Interface .................................................................................................................................. 45 Validating, Saving and the whole business of Transactions ....................................................................................... 53 Basic Validation ....................................................................................................................................................... 53 Saving the data ........................................................................................................................................................ 56 Figure 1: The Add New Item Dialog ................................................................................................................................. 7 Figure 2: Add Data Model Wizard; Stage 1 ...................................................................................................................... 8 Figure 3: Add Data Model Wizard; Stage 2 ...................................................................................................................... 8 Figure 4: Add Data Model Wizard; Stage 3 ...................................................................................................................... 9 Figure 5: The completed Entity Data Model .................................................................................................................... 9 Figure 6: Solution Explorer showing the solution after the data model project has been added ................................. 10 Figure 7: Solution Explorer showing the reference to the data model added to the SefTrial project .......................... 11 Figure 8: C1 Studio for Entity Framework as it appears in the Visual Studio Toolbox ................................................... 11 Figure 9: Setting the Specific Version Property ............................................................................................................. 12 Figure 10: The properties window for the C1DataSource .............................................................................................. 13 Figure 11: The EntityViewSouce Collections Editor of the C1DataSource ...................................................................... 13 2 Figure 12: Changing the DataMember and DataSource properties of the C1FlexGrid .................................................. 14 Figure 13: The drop down you'll see in the DataMember property of the grid showing The Products table accessible from Categories............................................................................................................................................................... 14 Figure 14: The SefTrial showing the Category and Products tables............................................................................... 15 Figure 15: The Entity Framework attempting to resolve the relationship between Categories and Products. ............ 16 Figure 16: The special ControlHandler property added by the C1DataSource ............................................................... 16 Figure 17: Resolving the relationship between Categories and Products with the C1DataSource. .............................. 17 Figure 18: The DataBindings section in a standard Text Box's Properties dialog. .......................................................... 18 Figure 19: The Formatting and Advanced Binding Dialog. ............................................................................................. 19 Figure 20: Setting the Data Source Update Mode. ........................................................................................................ 20 Figure 21: Setting the Text property of a standard TextBox to a Data Source in the properties window. .................... 21 Figure 22: The properties window for a C1 TextBox showing their additional properties that make Data Binding a little easier. ..................................................................................................................................................................... 21 Figure 23: The SefTrial showing the addition of text boxes to display Category data................................................... 22 Figure 24: The Edit Items Dialog of the C1 InputPanel .................................................................................................. 23 Figure 25: The project settings showing the application tab ......................................................................................... 23 Figure 26: The C1 Input Panel displaying the Categories table...................................................................................... 24 Figure 27: The FilterDescriptor Properties Collection Editor ......................................................................................... 26 Figure 28: The available options for the Operator property of the Filter Descriptor .................................................... 26 Figure 29: The SortDescriptor Properties Collection Editor ........................................................................................... 27 Figure 30: The database diagram of the database section to be modelled .................................................................. 33 Figure 31: The Entity Data Model as created by Visual Studio. ..................................................................................... 34 Figure 32: The Microsoft Data Connection Dialog configured to only allow SqlClient connections. ............................ 39 Figure 33: The relationship between Sites and Extinguisher Locations. ....................................................................... 41 Figure 34: A typical problem that might occur where the same information appears in the field that the SEF uses to resolve relations between tables. ................................................................................................................................... 42 Figure 35: The FlexGid configured to enter Extinguisher locations. .............................................................................. 46 Figure 36: Fields in the Extinguisher Locations Table. .................................................................................................... 47 3 Foreword In September of 2010 I decided to treat myself to a little light reading for my annual break. The book in question was on the Entity Framework, a subject I’d read a few articles on and one which I felt I ought to learn a little more about. The book was a revelation, convincing me that in the future any new data centric applications that I was going to build or seriously upgrade should make use of it. A couple of months later I suggested to friend that he read the book I was in the process of re-reading for the third time. I’m glad to