Data model creation

Modified on 2010/08/30 20:01 by IT — Categorized as: Uncategorized

To build Linq queries we need a data model as a set of classes describing the structure of the database tables and relations between the tables. Building such a model can be done in the following ways:

Using T4 Templates.
Using the special utility for generating classes for BLToolkit from Andrew Smirnov.
Using MyGeneration template from Andy77.
Using Linq to SQL data model designer.
Writing data model classes manually.

Let’s see how a data model class representing Category table from Microsoft’s Northwind database should look:

[TableName("Categories")]
public class Category
{
    [PrimaryKey, Identity] public int    CategoryID;
                           public string CategoryName;
    [Nullable]             public string Description;
    [Nullable]             public Binary Picture;

    [Association(ThisKey="CategoryID", OtherKey="CategoryID")]
    public List<Product> Products;
}