This page of the Model Settings dialog box is intended for Entity Framework model properties customization. In fact, this tab is a more convenient representation of the basic model properties and Entity Developer behavior settings towards the specific model. To edit the full list of model properties, call the model Properties docking window.
Entity Framework Version
Specify the version of Entity Framework that will be used for your model. One of the following versions can be selected: 3.5, 4.x, 5 and 6.
This option has certain differences in the standalone application and in the Visual Studio add-in.
If you use Entity Developer as a standalone application, all versions are available in the Entity Framework Version drop-down list, and you should carefully select the appropriate version depending on the application that will use your model in the future.
In the Visual Studio add-in, the behavior is slightly different. The value of this drop-down list is closely connected with the value set in the Target framework option of your Visual Studio project. Implementation of the following dependencies allows you to avoid certain problems during deployment.
If the Target framework is set to 4.0, the Entity Framework 5 value of the Entity Framework Version drop-down list is hidden.
If the Target framework is set to 3.5, the values Entity Framework 4.x, Entity Framework 5 and Entity Framework 6 of the Entity Framework Version drop-down list are hidden.
Note that in standalone Entity Developer you specify Target Framework here, in the same window. In Visual Studio add-in, it is determined from your Visual Studio project settings.
The Entity Framework 4.x value implies EF 4.0, 4.1, EF 4.1.1, EF 4.2, EF 4.3, EF 4.3.1, and EF 5 with limited functionality (which is actually EnityFramework.dll version 4.4).
The Entity Framework 5 value means the full-featured version of EF 5 for .NET Framework 4.5 that includes support of enums, spatial data types and table-valued functions.
Target Framework
(Available only in standalone Entity Developer. In Visual Studio add-in, the target framework is determined from Visual Studio project settings.) Determines the version of .NET framework, for which this model and generated code is intended.
Entity Container
The Entity Container containing all instances of entities for the Entity Data Model.
Namespace
The namespace of the conceptual model. Model classes will be put into this namespace when generating code.
Metadata Artifact Processing
Specifies whether to put model and mapping files (.csdl, .ssdl, and .msl files) into the output folder or embed them into an output assembly. Acceptable values are: DoNotGenerateMappingFiles, EmbedInOutputAssembly, CopyToOutputDirectory.
Access
Set the accessibility level of the DataContext class here. Acceptable values are: Public or Internal.
Include foreign key columns in the model
Specify whether to include foreign key columns in the model. Not available for Entity Framework 1.
Detect function-based column default value
Defines whether columns having a function-based default value are interpreted as Identity.
View Generation
If selected, code for pre-generating views will be added, thus decreasing the first query execution time. Otherwise, the dynamic view generation will be performed when query is executed. That may have a serious negative impact on performance, when the first query is executed on a large model.
|
If the generated code is too large, you may encounter problems when working with it in Visual Studio. |
Validate On Build
Select this check box to validate the model on build.
Lazy Loading Enabled
Select this check box to turn on Lazy Loading in your projects.
Preserve schema name in storage
If checked, preserves the name of the schema for model objects when they are added from the database.
Detect Many-To-Many associations
Select this check box to turn on the detection of many-to-many associations in your projects. If this check box is not selected, a class with two one-to-many associations will be generated for an intermediate table instead of a many-to-many association.
Detect Table Per Type inheritances
Specifies whether inheritances of this type should be detected in the model automatically.
Use database comments
Determines whether comments for database objects, if supported by DBMS, will be used for model objects Documentation initialization and taken into account when executing model or database update operations.
Save connection settings in App.Config (Web.Config) as
Specifies whether the connection string should be saved in App.Config (or Web.Config) and allows specifying its name. If the check box is deselected, the connection string is specified explicitly in the model class constructor.
