Relationships in Entity Framework Code First

Question

yesterday I created database in Management Studio and now I want to create it in program using EF Code First.

Here is link to my database: http://s11.postimg.org/6sv6cucgj/1462037_646961388683482_1557326399_n.jpg

And what I did:

public class GameModel
{
    [Key]
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }
    public DateTime CreationTime { get; set; }
    public DateTime StartTime { get; set; }
    public DateTime EndTime { get; set; }
    public string TotalTime { get; set; }
    public DateTime RouteStartTime { get; set; }
    public DateTime RouteEndTime { get; set; }
    public int MaxPlayersPerTeam { get; set; }

    public int CityId { get; set; }
    public int CreatorId { get; set; }
    [InverseProperty("Id")]
    [ForeignKey("CreatorId")]
    //public int TeamId { get; set; }
    //[ForeignKey("TeamId")]

    public virtual UserModel Creator { get; set; }
    public virtual CityModel City { get; set; }
    //public virtual TeamModel WinnerTeam { get; set; }


}
public class RegionModel
{
    [Key]
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }

    public virtual ICollection<CityModel> Cities { get; set; }
}
public class CityModel
{
    [Key]
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }

    public int RegionId { get; set; }

    public virtual RegionModel Region { get; set; }

    public virtual ICollection<UserModel> Users { get; set; }
    public virtual ICollection<GameModel> Games { get; set; }
}
public class UserModel
{
    [Key]
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public string Login { get; set; }
    public string Password { get; set; }
    public string Email { get; set; }
    public DateTime RegistrationDate { get; set; }
    public string FacebookId { get; set; }

    public int CityId { get; set; }

    public virtual CityModel City { get; set; }

    public virtual IEnumerable<GameModel> Games { get; set; }
}

For now I wanted to create 4 tables but I have some problems... I want to make CreatorId in GameModel, but it doesn't work... When i wrote UserId instead of CreatorId it was working ( without [InverseProperty("Id")] and [ForeignKey("CreatorId")]).

This is what i get:

The view 'The property 'Id' cannot be configured as a navigation property. The property must be a valid entity type and the property should have a non-abstract getter and setter. For collection properties the type must implement ICollection where T is a valid entity type.' or its master was not found or no view engine supports the searched locations.

edit: I changed it like this:

    public int CityId { get; set; }
    public int CreatorId { get; set; }

    [ForeignKey("CityId")]
    public virtual CityModel City { get; set; }
    [ForeignKey("CreatorId")]
    public virtual UserModel Creator { get; set; }

And there is another problem.

The view 'Introducing FOREIGN KEY constraint 'FK_dbo.UserModels_dbo.CityModels_CityId' on table 'UserModels' may cause cycles or multiple cascade paths. Specify ON DELETE NO ACTION or ON UPDATE NO ACTION, or modify other FOREIGN KEY constraints. Could not create constraint. See previous errors.' or its master was not found or no view engine supports the searched locations.

And I have no idea how to solve it.

Answer 1

The InversePropertyAttribute specifies, which navigation property should be used for that relation.

A navigation property must be of an entity type (the types declared in your model, GameModel for example) or some type implementing ICollection<T>, where T has to be an entity type. UserModel.Id is an int, which clearly doesn't satisfy that condition.

So, the inverse property of GameModel.Creator could be UserModel.Games if you changed the type to ICollection<GameModel>, or had to be left unspecified. If you don't specify an inverse property, EF will try to work everything out on its own (in this case it would properly recognize GameModel.Creator as a navigation property, but UserModel.Games would most likely throw an exception, as it is neither an entity type, nor does it implement ICollection<T> with T being an entity type, nor is it a primitive type from a database point of view). However, EF's work-everything-out-by-itself-magic doesn't cope too well with multiple relations between the same entity types, which is when the InversePropertyAttribute is needed.

A quick example that demonstrates the problem:

class SomePrettyImportantStuff {
    [Key]
    public int ID { get; set; }

    public int OtherId1 { get; set; }

    public int OtherId2 { get; set; }

    [ForeignKey("OtherId1")]
    public virtual OtherImportantStuff Nav1 { get; set; }

    [ForeignKey("OtherId2")]
    public virtual OtherImportantStuff Nav2 { get; set; }
}

class OtherImportantStuff {
    [Key]
    public int ID { get; set; }

    public virtual ICollection<SomePrettyImportantStuff> SoldStuff { get; set; }

    public virtual ICollection<SomePrettyImportantStuff> BoughtStuff { get; set; }
}

Here, EF knows that it has to generate 2 FKs from SomePrettyImportantStuff to OtherImportantStuff with the names Id1 and Id2, but it has no way to tell which of the IDs refers to the entity where it was sold from and which is the one it was bought from.

Edit: How to fix the cyclic reference problem

To fix that problem, your context class should override OnModelCreating and configure the foreign keys which shouldn't cascade on delete accordingly, like this:

protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder builder)
{
    builder.Entity<CityModel>().HasMany(c => c.Users).WithRequired(u => u.City)
           .HasForeignKey(u => u.CityId).WillCascadeOnDelete(value: false);

    // Add other non-cascading FK declarations here

    base.OnModelCreating(builder);
}