Binding custom property in Entity Framework

Question

I have an employee entity in my EF model. I then added a class to the project to add a custom property

public partial class Employee
{
    public string Name
    {
        get { return string.Format("{0} {1}", this.FirstName, this.LastName); }
    }
}

On a aspx form (inside a FormView), I want to bind a DropDownList to the employee collection:

                <asp:Label runat="server" AssociatedControlID="ddlManagerId"
                    Text="ManagerId" />
                <asp:DropDownList ID="ddlManagerId" runat="server" 
                    DataSourceID="edsManagerId" 
                    DataValueField="Id" 
                    DataTextField="Name" 
                    AppendDataBoundItems="true"
                    SelectedValue='<%# Bind("ManagerId") %>'>
                    <asp:ListItem Text="-- Select --" Value="0" />
                </asp:DropDownList>
                <asp:EntityDataSource ID="edsManagerId" runat="server" 
                    ConnectionString="name=Entities" 
                    DefaultContainerName="Entities" 
                    EntitySetName="Employees" 
                    EntityTypeFilter="Employee"
                    EnableFlattening="true">
                </asp:EntityDataSource>

Unfortunately, when I fire up the page, I get an error:

DataBinding: 'System.Web.UI.WebControls.EntityDataSourceWrapper' does not contain a property with the name 'Name'.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Alfero Chingono · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-01 14:29:19Z

1

After much searching I discovered that that the EntityDataSource does not support custom properties in the partial classes. It only returns the entity that is in the model.

answered Mar 1, 2011 at 14:29

Alfero Chingono

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1 Comment

PeterX Over a year ago

I just found this answer here EnableFlattening="False" solution / more info on Flattening

PeterX · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-06 02:24:32Z

1

As per this article:

The issue is that we’re using the EntityDataSourceWrapper and not our actual entity. The solution? Stop using the wrapper! Disable flattening, like this:

<asp:EntityDataSource ... EnableFlattening="False" ... </asp:EntityDataSource>

More information on Flattening is here.

answered Jan 6, 2015 at 2:24

PeterX

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Comments

Steven K. · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-22 20:53:50Z

0

Could you verify that both your partial Employee classes are in the same namespace?

answered Dec 22, 2010 at 20:53

Steven K.

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1 Comment

Alfero Chingono Over a year ago

Yes, they are... I just checked.

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