Configuring Entity Framework on a Database Undefined Foreign Key Relationships

Question

For a variety of reasons the database that I'm working on (SQL Server 2005) doesn't have any relationships defined. Every table has a primary key. And most tables have at least one foreign key, however we've never configured the constraints.

Can anyone tell me the steps that I should take to inform Entity Framework of the underlying relationships between tables? Is there a particular document that describes this process?

Answer 1

You will need to manually create the associations between the tables in your EF model.

In the Entity Framework designer surface, you basically right-click on your table and from the context menu, you need to choose the "Add -> Association" option. In the dialog box that pops up, you can establish the association between your two tables - even without foreign key relationship in the underlying database.

Marc