Edmx File On Visual Studio

admin

An EDMX (Entity Data Model XML) file is an XML file describing the relationship between different models of the Entity Framework. It also provides the graphical representation of these relationships. The EDMX file is the most important part of the Entity Framework through which we do different operations like insert, delete, update and read. One can install the PowerTools that has Reverse Engineering graphical interface that can be pointed at an existing database and select the tables to build the EF Model with a Visual Stuido project. Yes, for Visual Studio 2019 community edition that ADO.NET Entity Model template is not showing from the wizard.

  1. Edmx File On Visual Studio Download
  2. Edmx File In Visual Studio 2019
  3. Update Edmx File Visual Studio 2019

This Visual Studio 2019 extension is the easiest way to add a consistently correct Entity Framework model to your project with support for EF6, EFCore2, EFCore3 and EFCore5.

It's an opinionated code generator, adding a new file type (.efmodel) that allows for fast, easy and, most importantly, visual design of persistent classes. Inheritance, unidirectional and bidirectional associations are all supported. Enumerations are also included in the visual model, as is the ability to add text blocks to explain potentially arcane parts of your design.

While giving you complete control over how the code is generated you'll be able to create, out of the box, sophisticated, consistent and correct Entity Framework code that can be regenerated when your model changes. And, since the code is written using partial classes, any additions you make to your generated code are retained across subsequent generations. The designer doesn't need to be present to use the code that's generated - it generates standard C#, using the code-first, fluent API - so the tool doesn't become a dependency to your project.

If you are used to the EF visual modeling that comes with Visual Studio, you'll be pretty much at home. The goal was to duplicate at least those features and, in addition, add all the little things that should have been there. Things like:

  • importing entities from C# source, or existing DbContext definitions (including their entities) from compiled EF6 or EFCore assemblies
  • multiple views of your model to highlight important aspects of your design
  • the ability to show and hide parts of the model
  • easy customization of generated output by editing or even replacing the T4 templates
  • entities by default generated as partial classes so the generated code can be easily extended
  • class and enumeration nodes that can be colored to visually group the model
  • different concerns being generated into different subdirectories (entities, enums, dbcontext)
  • string length, index flags, required attributes and other properties being available in the designer

and many other nice-to-have bits.

Note: This tool does not reverse engineer from the database (i.e., 'database-first'). Microsoft has provided tools for that, and there are other, well-maintained opensourced projects that provide that functionality as well.

For comprehensive documentation, please visit the project's documentation site.

ChangeLog

3.0.6

  • [NEW] Added ability to copy current diagram to clipboard
  • DbContext fix for configuring associations with backing fields
  • Code generation fix for associations with backing fields

Train simulator old version free download. 3.0.5

  • Fix where parsing EF version numbers should be culture-neutral (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/282)
  • Fixed circular logic flaw in identity properties for database views (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/275)
  • Corrected tracking property access modes from the default to overrides in entity attributes

3.0.4

  • [NEW] Added context menu choice to visually align node elements on diagrams.
  • Fix for detecting correct EF version when anything with 'Latest' in it is configured (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/266)
  • Fix to generate correct initial value code for decimal properties (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/268)
  • Fix for constructor code generation in 1-N unidirectional associations (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/263)
  • Removed addition of default objects in constructors for required associations for all EF versions (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/271)

3.0.3

  • [NEW] Added VS UML icon for model file in solution explorer (thanks to https://github.com/dcastenholz for the change)
  • [NEW] Classes with custom interfaces can now display an indicator with a tooltip indicating the interface type(s). This glyph is enabled/disabled at model level.
  • [NEW] Added ability to specify that an association should be automatically included in any queries that use it (EFCore5 only). The association connector will appear bolder if at least one end is auto-included.
  • [NEW] Updated association tooltip to indicate which, if any, end is auto-included
  • Fix to ensure database collation overrides don't get applied to the wrong column types
  • Fix to allow 1.1 association to owned types in EFCore5 (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/252)
  • Fix to calculate EF version number correctly when 'Latest' was specified in designer (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/254)
  • Fix to generate correct DeleteBehavior enum values in EFCore < v3 (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/257)
  • Removed INotifyPropertyChanged option from designer. Implementers wanting this interface can add it to a partial class file as any other interface, as there's really nothing special about it.
  • Generated code now honors the ExcludeFromMigration setting for a class

3.0.2

  • [NEW] Added setting on designer surface to set visibility defaults for entity default constructors, and overrides for that setting on the entities
  • [NEW] Added public bool ModelAttribute.IsForeignKeyProperty for use by developers doing custom code generation from the model
  • [NEW] Added option for turning off DbSet and table name pluralization (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/246)
  • [NEW] Added option for how to name foreign key shadow properties - either with or without underscores (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/250)
  • [NEW] Added option to generate DbContextFactory class, for use in context pooling. Asking for DbContext factory method generation disables generating OnCreating method, since they don't play well together.
  • Changed property editor for custom attributes to be multiline, to ease editing (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/251)
  • Fixes for code generation of new EFCore5 database collation options
  • Fixed condition where sometimes generated code in entity default constructors would create infinitely recursive calls
  • Stopped escaping standard XML comment tags in summary and description fields (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/248)
  • Due to the new seeding needs in EFCore5, setters for identity properties are now public even if set to be auto-generated

3.0.1

  • [NEW] Added [Description] attribute (to classes, properties, enums and enum values where summary was non-blank) to facilitate tooling use
  • Fixed an issue where EFCore5 code was generating cascade delete commands in the wrong place (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/243)
  • Editing class properties and enum values as text now retains properties that aren't available in the text syntax (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/242)

3.0

  • [NEW] Now supports EFCore5.X
    • [NEW] Added System.Net.IPAddress and System.Net.NetworkInformation.PhysicalAddress to the list of available property types
    • [NEW] Added ability to specify both default database collation and a collation override at the property level
    • [NEW] Many-to-many bidirectional associations are now allowed
    • [NEW] Any property type can now be used as an identity
    • [NEW] Can now customize backing field names for non-AutoProperty properties
    • [NEW] Properties with backing fields (i.e., non-AutoProperty properties) can now choose how EF will read/write those values (see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/modeling/backing-field).
    • [NEW] Added support for keyless entity types created by defining queries
    • [NEW] Added support for keyless entity types coming from database views
  • Enhancements and Fixes
    • [NEW] Added ability to globally add and remove exposed foreign key properties to all modeled entities (via menu command) (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/223)
    • [NEW] Added ability to choose to place newly imported model elements on the diagram where they were dropped. Caution: this can be EXTREMELY slow for large imports. (see https://github.com/msawczyn/EFDesigner/issues/225)
    • [NEW] Added composition and aggregation indicators to association connectors
    • Default code generation type is now the latest version of EFCore (currently, 5.0)
    • Fixed inability to paste enumerations using diagram copy/paste
    • Changing an identity property's type now changes the type of any defined foreign-key properties pointing to that identity property
    • Title text color didn't always change when class/enum fill color changed in the diagram
    • Selecting tabs or spaces for indentation in generated code has been moved to a property on the designer surface.
    • Added ModelRoot.IsEFCore5Plus convenience property. It can be used in custom T4 edits
  • Possibly breaking changes
    • T4 template structure has been changed drastically to simplify managing code generation for the various EF versions.If customized T4 templates have been added to a project, they'll still work, but enhancements will continue to be made only to the new, moreobject-oriented, T4 structure. Updating the model's .tt file to use the new template structure is quite simple; details will be in the documentationat https://msawczyn.github.io/EFDesigner/Customizing.html

A big thanks to for providing free development tools to support this project.

-->

This video and step-by-step walkthrough provide an introduction to Database First development using Entity Framework. Database First allows you to reverse engineer a model from an existing database. The model is stored in an EDMX file (.edmx extension) and can be viewed and edited in the Entity Framework Designer. The classes that you interact with in your application are automatically generated from the EDMX file.

Watch the video

This video provides an introduction to Database First development using Entity Framework. Database First allows you to reverse engineer a model from an existing database. The model is stored in an EDMX file (.edmx extension) and can be viewed and edited in the Entity Framework Designer. The classes that you interact with in your application are automatically generated from the EDMX file.

Presented By: Rowan Miller

Video: WMV | MP4 | WMV (ZIP)

Pre-Requisites

You will need to have at least Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Studio 2012 installed to complete this walkthrough.

If you are using Visual Studio 2010, you will also need to have NuGet installed.

1. Create an Existing Database

Typically when you are targeting an existing database it will already be created, but for this walkthrough we need to create a database to access.

The database server that is installed with Visual Studio is different depending on the version of Visual Studio you have installed:

  • If you are using Visual Studio 2010 you'll be creating a SQL Express database.
  • If you are using Visual Studio 2012 then you'll be creating a LocalDB database.

Let's go ahead and generate the database.

  • Open Visual Studio

  • View -> Server Explorer

  • Right click on Data Connections -> Add Connection…

  • If you haven’t connected to a database from Server Explorer before you’ll need to select Microsoft SQL Server as the data source

  • Connect to either LocalDB or SQL Express, depending on which one you have installed, and enter DatabaseFirst.Blogging as the database name

  • Select OK and you will be asked if you want to create a new database, select Yes

  • The new database will now appear in Server Explorer, right-click on it and select New Query

  • Copy the following SQL into the new query, then right-click on the query and select Execute

2. Create the Application

To keep things simple we’re going to build a basic console application that uses the Database First to perform data access:

  • Open Visual Studio
  • File -> New -> Project…
  • Select Windows from the left menu and Console Application
  • Enter DatabaseFirstSample as the name
  • Select OK

3. Reverse Engineer Model

We’re going to make use of Entity Framework Designer, which is included as part of Visual Studio, to create our model.

  • Project -> Add New Item…

  • Select Data from the left menu and then ADO.NET Entity Data Model

  • Enter BloggingModel as the name and click OK

  • This launches the Entity Data Model Wizard

  • Select Generate from Database and click Next

  • Select the connection to the database you created in the first section, enter BloggingContext as the name of the connection string and click Next

  • Click the checkbox next to ‘Tables’ to import all tables and click ‘Finish’

Once the reverse engineer process completes the new model is added to your project and opened up for you to view in the Entity Framework Designer. An App.config file has also been added to your project with the connection details for the database.

Additional Steps in Visual Studio 2010

If you are working in Visual Studio 2010 there are some additional steps you need to follow to upgrade to the latest version of Entity Framework. Upgrading is important because it gives you access to an improved API surface, that is much easier to use, as well as the latest bug fixes.

First up, we need to get the latest version of Entity Framework from NuGet.

  • Project –> Manage NuGet Packages…If you don’t have the Manage NuGet Packages… option you should install the latest version of NuGet
  • Select the Online tab
  • Select the EntityFramework package
  • Click Install

Next, we need to swap our model to generate code that makes use of the DbContext API, which was introduced in later versions of Entity Framework.

  • Right-click on an empty spot of your model in the EF Designer and select Add Code Generation Item…

  • Select Online Templates from the left menu and search for DbContext

  • Blackweb optical gaming mouse. Select the EF 5.x DbContext Generator for C#, enter BloggingModel as the name and click Add

Edmx File On Visual Studio Download

4. Reading & Writing Data

Now that we have a model it’s time to use it to access some data. The classes we are going to use to access data are being automatically generated for you based on the EDMX file.

Studio

Edmx File In Visual Studio 2019

This screen shot is from Visual Studio 2012, if you are using Visual Studio 2010 the BloggingModel.tt and BloggingModel.Context.tt files will be directly under your project rather than nested under the EDMX file.

Implement the Main method in Program.cs as shown below. This code creates a new instance of our context and then uses it to insert a new Blog. Then it uses a LINQ query to retrieve all Blogs from the database ordered alphabetically by Title.

You can now run the application and test it out.

5. Dealing with Database Changes

Update Edmx File Visual Studio 2019

Edmx

Now it’s time to make some changes to our database schema, when we make these changes we also need to update our model to reflect those changes.

The first step is to make some changes to the database schema. We’re going to add a Users table to the schema.

  • Right-click on the DatabaseFirst.Blogging database in Server Explorer and select New Query
  • Copy the following SQL into the new query, then right-click on the query and select Execute

Now that the schema is updated, it’s time to update the model with those changes.

  • Right-click on an empty spot of your model in the EF Designer and select ‘Update Model from Database…’, this will launch the Update Wizard

  • On the Add tab of the Update Wizard check the box next to Tables, this indicates that we want to add any new tables from the schema.The Refresh tab shows any existing tables in the model that will be checked for changes during the update. The Delete tabs show any tables that have been removed from the schema and will also be removed from the model as part of the update. The information on these two tabs is automatically detected and is provided for informational purposes only, you cannot change any settings.

  • Click Finish on the Update Wizard

The model is now updated to include a new User entity that maps to the Users table we added to the database.

Summary

In this walkthrough we looked at Database First development, which allowed us to create a model in the EF Designer based on an existing database. We then used that model to read and write some data from the database. Finally, we updated the model to reflect changes we made to the database schema.