How to: Add an entity to a model
Applies to: Visual Studio Visual Studio for Mac
Note
This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here
To create an entity, add an entity control from the Visual Studio Toolbox onto the Business Data Connectivity (BDC) designer.
To add an entity to the model
Create a BDC project, or open an existing BDC project. For more information, see Create a business data connectivity model.
In the Toolbox, from the BusinessDataCatalog group, add an Entity control onto the designer.
The new entity appears on the designer. Visual Studio adds an
<Entity>
element to the XML of the BDC model file in your project. For more information about the attributes of an Entity element, see Entity.On the designer, open the shortcut menu for the entity, choose Add, and then choose Identifier.
A new identifier appears on the entity.
Note
You can change the name of the entity and the identifier in the Properties window.
Define the fields of the entity in a class. You can either add a new class to the project or use an existing class created by using other tools such as the Object Relational Designer (O/R Designer). The following example shows an entity class named Contact.
public partial class Contact { public int ContactID { get; set; } public string FirstName { get; set; } public string LastName { get; set; } public string EmailAddress { get; set; } public string Phone { get; set; } public int EmailPromotion { get; set; } public bool NameStyle { get; set; } public string PasswordHash { get; set; } public string PasswordSalt { get; set; } }
Partial Public Class Contact Private _ContactID As Integer Public Property ContactID() As Integer Get Return _ContactID End Get Set(ByVal value As Integer) _ContactID = value End Set End Property Private _FirstName As String Public Property FirstName() As String Get Return _FirstName End Get Set(ByVal value As String) _FirstName = value End Set End Property Private _LastName As String Public Property LastName() As String Get Return _LastName End Get Set(ByVal value As String) _LastName = value End Set End Property Private _EmailAddress As String Public Property EmailAddress() As String Get Return _EmailAddress End Get Set(ByVal value As String) _EmailAddress = value End Set End Property Private _Phone As String Public Property Phone() As String Get Return _Phone End Get Set(ByVal value As String) _Phone = value End Set End Property Private _EmailPromotion As Integer Public Property EmailPromotion() As Integer Get Return _EmailPromotion End Get Set(ByVal value As Integer) _EmailPromotion = value End Set End Property Private _NameStyle As Boolean Public Property NameStyle() As Boolean Get Return _NameStyle End Get Set(ByVal value As Boolean) _NameStyle = value End Set End Property Private _PasswordHash As String Public Property PasswordHash() As String Get Return _PasswordHash End Get Set(ByVal value As String) _PasswordHash = value End Set End Property Private _PasswordSalt As String Public Property PasswordSalt() As String Get Return _PasswordSalt End Get Set(ByVal value As String) _PasswordSalt = value End Set End Property End Class