I am trying to migrate an existing project across to code-first.

I have followed the steps from the documentation

- Change Template to CodeFirst and Save

- Add nuget code-first package

- Create new Model.cs file copy pocos to file

- Delete old EDMX

- Change Connection String

When I then build the project nothing happens. No ibmmx is generated

in the output

I can't see devforce trying to generate the metadata

I am kind of stuck here.  Any suggestions would be appreciated

thanks

Murray

 

If the package is installed but the problem persists, turn up the verbosity of the MSBuild output to "normal" or higher (via the VS Tools menu) to see if anything shows up during the build.

 

the project seems to be installed

I already posted the result from the normal msbuild. Looking through the verbose setting is hard to spot anything. Can you post what should be showing in the build. Or something I can search for in the output.

thanks

Murray

 

Do you also have DF2010 installed?  If so, double check that all IdeaBlade assembly references are pointing to version 7.0.3.  If you have a version of DF2010 prior to 6.1.9 that will cause problems too, as side-by-side installations of both products are only supported with 6.1.9 and above.

In the detailed log for the model project build there is no mention of EntityModelMetadataDeploy

 

If that's not causing the problem, can you zip up the project in question and either upload here or send to our IdeaBladeSupportTrack email address?

There were no Ideablade* files in teh MSBuild directories

 

I notice that the ProvideEntityAspect attribute is specified on both the base and derived classes, which is one problem.  There are also some constructs in use, such as PathFor and PropertyMetadata, which aren't defined for Code First entities.

 

Once you fix the build problems the metadata files should generate.

As you say what I seem to be running into is the functionality that is not present in code-first that is there for the edm use.

It would be nice if these differences were documented somewhere. Do you know where such a resource is?

I will work through the rest of the build errors. I guess I was hoping some of these would disappear once the ibmmx process occurred. But it seems that was wrong.

These are both generated by devforce in the EDM version. Do you have any code that I could add to a base class that replicates this functionality?

PropertyMetadata and pathfor I use extensively for verifiers. ( as per your documenation)

 

In the EDMX-generated code, you'll see the PathFor method generated for every entity class like so:

 

 public static string PathFor(System.Linq.Expressions.Expression<System.Func<Employee, object>> expr) {
   return IbCore.PropertyPath.For<Employee>(expr);
 }

 

You have several options for how you handle this:  one would be to directly call the IdeaBlade.Core.PropertyPath method instead of using PathFor; another would be to include this helper method in your entity class definitions; and another might be to include this in a base or helper class as a generic method: 

 

public static string PathFor<T>(System.Linq.Expressions.Expression<System.Func<T, object>> expr) {
  return PropertyPath.For<T>(expr);
}

 

The PropertyMetadata is a bit different.  In EDMX-based models PropertyMetadata is a nested class within each entity holding the static data property definitions for the entity.  In a Code First model, all metadata is dynamically loaded from the ibmmx file, and is available in the EntityMetadataStore.  

 

So again you should decide how best to architect this in your solution.  You can access metadata for an entity like so:

 

  public static EntityMetadata PropertyMetadata {
    get { return EntityMetadataStore.Instance.GetEntityMetadata(typeof(Employee)); }
  }

 

Entity properties are available from the EntityMetadata in several ways, for example:

   Employee.PropertyMetadata.EntityProperties

   Employee.PropertyMetadata.DataProperties

   Employee.PropertyMetadata.NavigationProperties

   ... and others

 

So you might have a simple helper method like the following:

  public static EntityProperty GetPropertyMetadata(string prop) {
    return PropertyMetadata.EntityProperties[prop];
  }

 

More information on the metadata available is here - http://drc.ideablade.com/devforce-2012/bin/view/Documentation/model-examine - http://drc.ideablade.com/devforce-2012/bin/view/Documentation/model-examine .

 

 

  

 

 

 

I am still struggling with this.

I am trying to implement a cross type verifier.

<quote>

and that code you provided does not work for the PathFor in this example ( copied from your documentation). Do you have any examples of verifiers working in code-first implementations?

Still struggling with the PropertyMetadata though

I can access the PropertyMetadata by adding your previous code

to the Lithology Class.

However I an unsure as to how to access the property name that the addtrigger code needs.

thanks for you help

Which means I am having issues with things like cloning.

I currently use

 

A back door of a sort is to take advantage of the fact that Code First entities do have an injected EntityAspect, which you normally don't want to expose directly, but instead use something like an "EntityFacts" class as described here - http://drc.ideablade.com/devforce-2012/bin/view/Documentation/code-first-entityaspect#HEntityFacts - http://drc.ideablade.com/devforce-2012/bin/view/Documentation/code-first-entityaspect#HEntityFacts .  Anyway, EntityAspect.CloneCore() will clone the entity.  There's one problem here, though, in that this clone will have an incorrect EntityState which you'll need to reset.  Here's a rough way to do it:

 

  var clone = EntityAspect.Wrap(anEntity).CloneCore().Entity as IEntity;
  clone.EntityAspect.EntityState = EntityState.Detached;