Define the key for this EntityType

Question

I get this error on this line of code -

    ReportRunnerEntities reportDB = new ReportRunnerEntities();

    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        **var types = reportDB.ReportTypes.ToList();**
        return View(types);
    }

The tables in the databse have primary keys defined and identities set.

My models are -

namespace ReportRunner.Models
{
    public partial class ReportRunnerEntities : DbContext
    {
        public DbSet<Reports> Report { get; set; }
        public DbSet<ReportTypes> ReportTypes { get; set; }
        public DbSet<Users> Users { get; set; }
    }
}

namespace ReportRunner.Models
{
    public partial class ReportTypes
    {
        public int ReportTypeId { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string Description { get; set; }
        public List<Reports> Reports { get; set; }
    }
}

namespace ReportRunner.Models
{
    public class Reports
    {
        public int ReportId { get; set; } 
        public int ReportTypeId { get; set; }
        public int UserId { get; set; } 
        public string Title { get; set; }
        public ReportTypes ReportType { get; set; }
    }

}

namespace ReportRunner.Models
{
    public partial class Users
    {
        public int UserId { get; set; } //ArtistId
        public string Name { get; set; }
    }
}

and here is my connection string -

I suspect that it's never reaching the database. As I said the keys are set in the database.

Am I missing something?

And where do you say EF that ReportTypeId, ReportId and UserId are primary keys? — Ladislav Mrnka, Mar 06 '11 at 10:14

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

There are a couple things I see that should change:

ReportTypes should be ReportType
public List Reports { get; set; } should be public ICollection Reports { get; set; }

If you are defining a connection string in your web.config, you need to tell EF what one it is using the constructor in your ReportRunnerEntities class like this:

namespace ReportRunner.Models
{
    public partial class ReportRunnerEntities : DbContext
    {
        public ReportRunnerEntities : base("name=NameOfConnectionInWebConfig")
        {}
        public DbSet<Reports> Report { get; set; }
        public DbSet<ReportTypes> ReportTypes { get; set; }
        public DbSet<Users> Users { get; set; }
    }
}

You can read more on that here : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2011/01/27/using-dbcontext-in-ef-feature-ctp5-part-2-connections-and-models.aspx

Just on a side note, if you are planning on using .NET MVC and EF Code First as your stack, I would start using the Repository and Unit of Work pattern. Here is a good post on how to set that up: Entity Framework 4 CTP 4 / CTP 5 Generic Repository Pattern and Unit Testable

Define the key for this EntityType

1 Answers1