This is probably just because my knowledge with the EF Code First fluent API is lacking, but I'm stumped.
I want to model the following:
- A Groups collection with Id and Name
- A Users collection with Id and Name
- Each user is assigned to exactly one primary group
- Each user may have zero or many secondary groups
The table structure I'm going for would look like:
Groups
Users
SecondaryGroupAssignments
I've been beating my head against a wall trying to model this with EF Code First, but I can't get it to accept both relationships between User and Group. Sorry for not posting any .NET code (I'm happy to), but it's probably all wrong anyway.
Is there a way to make EF model this? I'm assuming I have to do some sort of configuration with the Fluent API. Maybe a better question is: is there any good, definitive reference for the Fluent API?
Thanks!
Try this (untested):
public class Group
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<User> PrimaryUsers { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<User> SecondaryUsers { get; set; }
}
public class User
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public int PrimaryGroupId { get; set; }
public virtual Group PrimaryGroup { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Group> SecondaryGroups { get; set; }
}
public class Context : DbContext
{
public DbSet<User> Users { get; set; }
public DbSet<Group> Groups { get; set; }
protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);
modelBuilder.Entity<User>()
.HasRequired(u => u.PrimaryGroup)
.WithMany(g => g.PrimaryUsers)
.HasForeignKey(u => u.PrimaryGroupId)
.WillCascadeOnDelete(false);
modelBuilder.Entity<User>()
.HasMany(u => u.SecondaryGroups)
.WithMany(g => g.SecondaryUsers)
.Map(m => m.MapLeftKey("UserId")
.MapRightKey("GroupId")
.ToTable("SecondaryGroupAssignments"));
}
}
Based on Ladislav's excellent answer, here's how to do it without using any mappings - just attributes applied to the Model classes themselves:
public class Group
{
public int Id { get; set; }
[MaxLength(300)]
public string Name { get; set; }
public ICollection<User> Users { get; set; }
}
public class User
{
public int Id { get; set; }
[MaxLength(300)]
public string Name { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("PrimaryGroup")]
public int PrimaryGroupId { get; set; }
[Required]
public Group PrimaryGroup { get; set; }
[InverseProperty("Users")]
public ICollection<Group> SecondaryGroups { get; set; }
}
Notes
If you want, you can add the virtual keyword to the 2 ICollection
s and the Group
. This allows lazy-loading. Performance-wise, I don't recommend it, but it is possible.
I included MaxLength
attributes with an arbitrary (but safe) length of 300
, because putting strings out in EF without a MaxLength gets you low-performance NVarChar(MAX)
columns. Totally irrelevant to what's being asked but better to post good code.
I recommend against class names "User" and "Group" for your EF classes. They're going to complicate any SQL you attempt to run later, having to type [User] and [Group] to access them, and complicate using these classes in MVC Controllers where your class User
will conflict with the Context
property User
that gives you access to the Asp.Net Identity library.