entity framework 5 MaxLength

Question

I was using EF4 and a piece of code I found to get the MaxLength value from an entity like this:

public static int? GetMaxLength(string entityTypeName, string columnName)
        {
            int? result = null;
            using (fooEntities context = new fooEntities())
            {
                Type entType = Type.GetType(entityTypeName);
                var q = from meta in context.MetadataWorkspace.GetItems(DataSpace.CSpace)
                                  .Where(m => m.BuiltInTypeKind == BuiltInTypeKind.EntityType)
                        from p in (meta as EntityType).Properties
                        .Where(p => p.Name == columnName
                                    && p.TypeUsage.EdmType.Name == "String")
                        select p;

                var queryResult = q.Where(p =>
                {
                    bool match = p.DeclaringType.Name == entityTypeName;
                    if (!match && entType != null)
                    {
                        match = entType.Name == p.DeclaringType.Name;
                    }

                    return match;

                }).Select(sel => sel.TypeUsage.Facets["MaxLength"].Value);
                if (queryResult.Any())
                {
                    result = Convert.ToInt32(queryResult.First());
                }

                return result;
            }
        }

However, I upgraded to EF5 and I know get this error message:

...fooEntities'  does not contain a definition for 'MetadataWorkspace' and no
extension method 'MetadataWorkspace' accepting a first argument of type
'...fooEntities' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly
 reference?)

What's the best way to get that meta data from EF5?

Answer 1

This is a very handy piece of code. I refactored it a bit and it's so useful I thought I would post it here.

public static int? GetMaxLength<T>(Expression<Func<T, string>> column)
    {
        int? result = null;
        using (var context = new EfContext())
        {
            var entType = typeof(T);
            var columnName = ((MemberExpression) column.Body).Member.Name;

            var objectContext = ((IObjectContextAdapter) context).ObjectContext;
            var test = objectContext.MetadataWorkspace.GetItems(DataSpace.CSpace);

            if(test == null)
                return null;

            var q = test
                .Where(m => m.BuiltInTypeKind == BuiltInTypeKind.EntityType)
                .SelectMany(meta => ((EntityType) meta).Properties
                .Where(p => p.Name == columnName && p.TypeUsage.EdmType.Name == "String"));

            var queryResult = q.Where(p =>
                                          {
                                              var match = p.DeclaringType.Name == entType.Name;
                                              if (!match)
                                                  match = entType.Name == p.DeclaringType.Name;

                                              return match;

                                          })
                .Select(sel => sel.TypeUsage.Facets["MaxLength"].Value)
                .ToList();

            if (queryResult.Any())
                result = Convert.ToInt32(queryResult.First());

            return result;
        }
    }

And you can call it like:

GetMaxLength<Customer>(x => x.CustomerName);

This is assuming you've got a DbSet defined in your DbContext of type Customer, which has a property of CustomerName with a defined MaxLength.

This is very helpful for things like creating Model attributes that set a textbox's maxlength to the max length of the field in the database, always ensuring the two are the same.

Answer 2

I refactored mccow002's example into a copy-paste-ready Extension method class:

using System.Data.Entity;
using System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure;
using System.Data.Metadata.Edm;

public static class DbContextExtensions
{

    // get MaxLength as an extension method to the DbContext
    public static int? GetMaxLength<T>(this DbContext context, Expression<Func<T, string>> column)
    {
        return (int?)context.GetFacets<T>(column)["MaxLength"].Value;
    }

    // get MaxLength as an extension method to the Facets (I think the extension belongs here)
    public static int? GetMaxLength(this ReadOnlyMetadataCollection<Facet> facets)
    {
        return (int?)facets["MaxLength"].Value;            
    }

    // just for fun: get all the facet values as a Dictionary 
    public static Dictionary<string,object> AsDictionary(this ReadOnlyMetadataCollection<Facet> facets) {
        return facets.ToDictionary(o=>o.Name,o=>o.Value);
    }


    public static ReadOnlyMetadataCollection<Facet> GetFacets<T>(this DbContext context, Expression<Func<T, string>> column)
    {
        ReadOnlyMetadataCollection<Facet> result = null;

        var entType = typeof(T);
        var columnName = ((MemberExpression)column.Body).Member.Name;

        var objectContext = ((IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext;
        var test = objectContext.MetadataWorkspace.GetItems(DataSpace.CSpace);

        if (test == null)
            return null;

        var q = test
            .Where(m => m.BuiltInTypeKind == BuiltInTypeKind.EntityType)
            .SelectMany(meta => ((EntityType)meta).Properties
            .Where(p => p.Name == columnName && p.TypeUsage.EdmType.Name == "String"));

        var queryResult = q.Where(p =>
        {
            var match = p.DeclaringType.Name == entType.Name;
            if (!match)
                match = entType.Name == p.DeclaringType.Name;

            return match;

        })
            .Select(sel => sel)
            .FirstOrDefault();

        result = queryResult.TypeUsage.Facets;

        return result;

    }

}