ADO EF - Errors Mapping Associations between Derived Types in TPH

Question

Background

I am writing a data access library using the ADO Entity Framework in Visual Studio 2008 SP1 using the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. I am trying to create associat

Answer 1

Possible Workaround

1. Create a separate column for each association between derived types and make each of these columns nullable
2. Create a foreign key between each of these new columns and the primary key table.
3. Map each association in your Entity Model to a specific, unique column and foreign key so that each column and foreign key is only used once.

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Problems

This is quite an undesirable solution because it explodes out the number of columns you need.

• More Columns - Adding a column for each association between derived types results in an explosion on the number of columns.
• Empty Columns In the case of TPH, it means you'll have a lot of empty columns in your table.
• SQL JOIN - Switching from TPH to TPT to avoid the number of empty columns results in the necessity for EF to use a JOIN which will have to occur extremely frequently (almost every time you deal with any of the derived types).
• Refactoring If you add a derived type in the future, you not only have to update your Entity model (*.edmx) and the it's mapping but you will also have to change the database schema by adding additional columns!

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Example

For the Link/Node example above, the resulting database schema would look like this:

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Code

SQL:

USE [GraphExample2]
GO
/****** Object:  Table [dbo].[Node]    Script Date: 02/26/2009 15:45:53 ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Node](
    [NodeID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [NodeTypeDiscriminator] [int] NOT NULL,
    [Name] [varchar](255) NOT NULL,
    [Description] [varchar](1023) NULL,
 CONSTRAINT [PK_Node] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [NodeID] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO
/****** Object:  Table [dbo].[Link]    Script Date: 02/26/2009 15:45:53 ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Link](
    [LinkID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [LinkTypeDiscriminator] [int] NOT NULL,
    [LeaderID] [int] NULL,
    [FollowerID] [int] NULL,
    [PersonID] [int] NULL,
    [LocationID] [int] NULL,
    [Name] [varchar](255) NULL,
    [Description] [varchar](1023) NULL,
 CONSTRAINT [PK_Link] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [LinkID] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO
/****** Object:  ForeignKey [FK_Link_Node_Follower]    Script Date: 02/26/2009 15:45:53 ******/
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Link]  WITH CHECK ADD  CONSTRAINT [FK_Link_Node_Follower] FOREIGN KEY([FollowerID])
REFERENCES [dbo].[Node] ([NodeID])
GO
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Link] CHECK CONSTRAINT [FK_Link_Node_Follower]
GO
/****** Object:  ForeignKey [FK_Link_Node_Leader]    Script Date: 02/26/2009 15:45:53 ******/
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Link]  WITH CHECK ADD  CONSTRAINT [FK_Link_Node_Leader] FOREIGN KEY([LeaderID])
REFERENCES [dbo].[Node] ([NodeID])
GO
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Link] CHECK CONSTRAINT [FK_Link_Node_Leader]
GO
/****** Object:  ForeignKey [FK_Link_Node_Location]    Script Date: 02/26/2009 15:45:53 ******/
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Link]  WITH CHECK ADD  CONSTRAINT [FK_Link_Node_Location] FOREIGN KEY([LocationID])
REFERENCES [dbo].[Node] ([NodeID])
GO
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Link] CHECK CONSTRAINT [FK_Link_Node_Location]
GO
/****** Object:  ForeignKey [FK_Link_Node_Person]    Script Date: 02/26/2009 15:45:53 ******/
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Link]  WITH CHECK ADD  CONSTRAINT [FK_Link_Node_Person] FOREIGN KEY([PersonID])
REFERENCES [dbo].[Node] ([NodeID])
GO
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Link] CHECK CONSTRAINT [FK_Link_Node_Person]
GO

EDMX: