Add an entity to a model

Article
01/12/2024

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

Add an entity to a model

To add an entity to the model

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Add an entity to a model

To add an entity to the model

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