Entity Framework Code First Fluent Api: Adding Ind

Question

I'm running EF 4.2 CF and want to create indexes on certain columns in my POCO objects.

As an example lets say we have this employee class:

public class Employee
{
  public int EmployeeID { get; set; }
  public string EmployeeCode { get; set; }
  public string FirstName { get; set; }
  public string LastName { get; set; }
  public DateTime HireDate { get; set; }
}

We often do searches for employees by their EmployeeCode and since there are a lot of employees it would be nice to have that indexed for performance reasons.

Can we do this with fluent api somehow? or perhaps data annotations?

I know it is possible to execute sql commands something like this:

context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("CREATE INDEX IX_NAME ON ...");

I would very much like to avoid raw SQL like that.

i know this does not exist but looking for something along those lines:

class EmployeeConfiguration : EntityTypeConfiguration<Employee>
    {
        internal EmployeeConfiguration()
        {
            this.HasIndex(e => e.EmployeeCode)
                .HasIndex(e => e.FirstName)
                .HasIndex(e => e.LastName);
        }
    }

or maybe using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations the POCO could look like this (again i know this does not exist):

public class Employee
{
  public int EmployeeID { get; set; }
  [Indexed]
  public string EmployeeCode { get; set; }
  [Indexed]
  public string FirstName { get; set; }
  [Indexed]
  public string LastName { get; set; }
  public DateTime HireDate { get; set; }
}

Anyone have any ideas on how to do this, or if there are any plans to implement a way to do this, the code first way?

UPDATE: As mentioned in the answer by Robba, this feature is implemented in EF version 6.1

Answer 1

After Migrations was introduced in EF 4.3 you can now add indexes when modifying or creating a table. Here is an excerpt from the EF 4.3 Code-Based Migrations Walkthrough from the ADO.NET team blog

namespace MigrationsCodeDemo.Migrations
{
    using System.Data.Entity.Migrations;

    public partial class AddPostClass : DbMigration
    {
        public override void Up()
        {
            CreateTable(
                "Posts",
                c => new
                    {
                        PostId = c.Int(nullable: false, identity: true),
                        Title = c.String(maxLength: 200),
                        Content = c.String(),
                        BlogId = c.Int(nullable: false),
                    })
                .PrimaryKey(t => t.PostId)
                .ForeignKey("Blogs", t => t.BlogId, cascadeDelete: true)
                .Index(t => t.BlogId)
                .Index(p => p.Title, unique: true);

            AddColumn("Blogs", "Rating", c => c.Int(nullable: false, defaultValue: 3));
        }

        public override void Down()
        {
            DropIndex("Posts", new[] { "BlogId" });
            DropForeignKey("Posts", "BlogId", "Blogs");
            DropColumn("Blogs", "Rating");
            DropTable("Posts");
        }
    }
}

This is a nice strongly typed way to add the indexes, which was what i was looking for when i first posted the question.

Answer 2

jwsadler's extension of Data Annotations was a nice fit for us. We use Annotations to influence the treatment of a class or property and Fluent API for global changes.

Our annotations cover indexes (unique and not unique) plus default values of getdate() and (1). The code sample shows how we applied it to our situation. All of our classes inherit from one base class. This implementation makes a lot of assumptions because we have a pretty simple model. We're using Entity Framework 6.0.1. Lots of comments have been included.

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Data.Entity;
using System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure;

namespace YourNameSpace
{
    public enum SqlOption
    {
        Active = 1,
        GetDate = 2,
        Index = 3,
        Unique = 4,
    }

    [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Property, Inherited = false, AllowMultiple = true)]
    public class SqlAttribute : Attribute
    {
        public SqlAttribute(SqlOption selectedOption = SqlOption.Index)
        {
            this.Option = selectedOption;
        }

        public SqlOption Option {get; set;}
    }

    // See enum above, usage examples: [Sql(SqlOption.Unique)] [Sql(SqlOption.Index)] [Sql(SqlOption.GetDate)]
    public class SqlInitializer<T> : IDatabaseInitializer<T> where T : DbContext
    {
        // Create templates for the DDL we want generate
        const string INDEX_TEMPLATE = "CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX IX_{columnName} ON [dbo].[{tableName}] ([{columnName}]);";
        const string UNIQUE_TEMPLATE = "CREATE UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED INDEX UQ_{columnName} ON [dbo].[{tableName}] ([{columnName}]);";
        const string GETDATE_TEMPLATE = "ALTER TABLE [dbo].[{tableName}] ADD DEFAULT (getdate()) FOR [{columnName}];";
        const string ACTIVE_TEMPLATE = "ALTER TABLE [dbo].[{tableName}] ADD DEFAULT (1) FOR [{columnName}];";

        // Called by Database.SetInitializer(new IndexInitializer< MyDBContext>()); in MyDBContext.cs
        public void InitializeDatabase(T context)
        {
            // To be used for the SQL DDL that I generate
            string sql = string.Empty;

            // All of my classes are derived from my base class, Entity
            var baseClass = typeof(Entity);

            // Get a list of classes in my model derived from my base class
            var modelClasses = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies().ToList().
                SelectMany(s => s.GetTypes()).Where(baseClass.IsAssignableFrom);

            // For debugging only - examine the SQL DDL that Entity Framework is generating
            // Manipulating this is discouraged.
            var generatedDDSQL = ((IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext.CreateDatabaseScript();

            // Define which Annotation Attribute we care about (this class!)
            var annotationAttribute = typeof(SqlAttribute);

            // Generate a list of concrete classes in my model derived from
            // Entity class since we follow Table Per Concrete Class (TPC).
            var concreteClasses = from modelClass in modelClasses
                                  where !modelClass.IsAbstract
                                  select modelClass;

            // Iterate through my model's concrete classes (will be mapped to tables)
            foreach (var concreteClass in concreteClasses)
            {
                // Calculate the table name - could get the table name from list of DbContext's properties
                // to be more correct (but this is sufficient in my case)
                var tableName = concreteClass.Name + "s";

                // Get concrete class's properties that have this annotation
                var propertiesWithAnnotations = concreteClass.GetProperties().Where(prop => Attribute.IsDefined(prop, annotationAttribute));

                foreach (var annotatedProperty in propertiesWithAnnotations)
                {
                    var columnName = annotatedProperty.Name;
                    var annotationProperties = annotatedProperty.GetCustomAttributes(annotationAttribute, true).ToList();

                    foreach (SqlAttribute annotationProperty in annotationProperties)
                    {
                        // Generate the appropriate SQL DLL based on the attribute selected
                        switch (annotationProperty.Option)
                        {
                            case SqlOption.Active: // Default value of true plus an index (for my case)
                                sql += ACTIVE_TEMPLATE.Replace("{tableName}", tableName).Replace("{columnName}", columnName);
                                sql += INDEX_TEMPLATE.Replace("{tableName}", tableName).Replace("{columnName}", columnName);
                                break;
                            case SqlOption.GetDate: // GetDate plus an index (for my case)
                                sql += GETDATE_TEMPLATE.Replace("{tableName}", tableName).Replace("{columnName}", columnName);
                                sql += INDEX_TEMPLATE.Replace("{tableName}", tableName).Replace("{columnName}", columnName);
                                break;
                            case SqlOption.Index: // Default for empty annotations for example [Sql()]
                                sql += INDEX_TEMPLATE.Replace("{tableName}", tableName).Replace("{columnName}", columnName);
                                break;
                            case SqlOption.Unique:
                                sql += UNIQUE_TEMPLATE.Replace("{tableName}", tableName).Replace("{columnName}", columnName);
                                break;
                        } // switch
                    } // foreach annotationProperty
                } // foreach annotatedProperty
            } // foreach concreteClass

            // Would have been better not to go through all the work of generating the SQL
            // if we weren't going to use it, but putting it here makes it easier to follow.
            if (context.Database.CreateIfNotExists())
                context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand(sql);

        } // InitializeDatabase
    } // SqlInitializer
} // Namespace

Here's our context:

using System;
using System.Data.Entity;
using System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration.Conventions;

namespace YourNameSpace
{
    public class MyDBContext : DbContext
    {
       protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
        {
            // Only including my concrete classes here as we're following Table Per Concrete Class (TPC)
            public virtual DbSet<Attendance> Attendances { get; set; }
            public virtual DbSet<Course> Courses { get; set; }
            public virtual DbSet<Location> Locations { get; set; }
            public virtual DbSet<PaymentMethod> PaymentMethods { get; set; }
            public virtual DbSet<Purchase> Purchases { get; set; }
            public virtual DbSet<Student> Students { get; set; }
            public virtual DbSet<Teacher> Teachers { get; set; }

            // Process the SQL Annotations
            Database.SetInitializer(new SqlInitializer<MyDBContext>());
            base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);

            // Change all datetime columns to datetime2
            modelBuilder.Properties<DateTime>().Configure(c => c.HasColumnType("datetime2"));

            // Turn off cascading deletes
            modelBuilder.Conventions.Remove<OneToManyCascadeDeleteConvention>();
        }
    }
}