Modeling many-to-one (M:1) entity relationships Part I

June 22, 2008 13:06 by garrymc

Designing a domain model can be a tough job and if you're lucky enough to start from scratch then it becomes even tougher once you apply it to the physical database model. Over the next few posts I' like to discuss the issues we encounter when modeling this relationship type, examine the way its 'normally' done and then present an alternative that I believe presents a more domain model centric view of the world. The series will be broken up into the following sections, with this being the first. To keep up to date with this and other blog's you might consider registering with the RSS feed.

Part I: The Problem

Part II: Suggested Solution

Part III: BusinessKey as a value type

The main issue when designing a domain model is that they don't have these oddities called foreign keys, as the relationships are known by association. However, once you turn your domain model into a database schema we have to start adding all these extra keys, which get worse when you have a M:M (many-to-many) relationship! In this post I'd like to discuss how we normally model the M:1 (many-to-one) relationship and its pitfalls. More...

Digg It!DZone It!StumbleUponTechnoratiRedditDel.icio.usNewsVineFurlBlinkList
kick it on DotNetKicks.com

Currently rated 2.5 by 2 people

  • Currently 2.5/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Create a full entity class diagram with a T4 template

March 26, 2008 05:42 by garrymc

I've just released another sample for the Database Explorer API, this time using the built in features of Visual Studio 2008 (should work with VS 2005 with a download of the SDK). Visual Studio 2008 comes with a built in code generator known as T4. While the built in editing experience leaves a bit to be desired the free T4 editor by Clarius Consulting goes a long way to making it workable. If you download the editor, it indicates that the time bomb expires in Jan 1, 2008; this however isn't the case as they're still working on the next release.

This sample creates a fairly decent (not perfect by any means) set of entities which you can then easily drop on to a class designer and get a good feel for how your domain model looks. It has support for all but the recursive relationship type, which could be added as the API does support this. This sample is provided to show how much you can do with both T4 and the API in only a small amout of code. I've included a screen shot from the Adventure Works sample, which as you can see supports many relationship types. The sample download includes the results run against the AdventureWorks sample database.

To download the new sample visit the projects CodePlex page.

Remember to provide as much feed back on the samples and API as you can. Enjoy!

Entity Model

Digg It!DZone It!StumbleUponTechnoratiRedditDel.icio.usNewsVineFurlBlinkList
kick it on DotNetKicks.com

Currently rated 2.9 by 15 people

  • Currently 2.933334/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Learning DSL tools with Videos!

March 21, 2008 08:35 by garrymc

I'm in the process of getting up to speed with DSL tools, and while there's a whole lot of info out there, at the end of a long day I'd prefer to watch a video on a new subject rather than pour over the written docs, but trying to locate all the video's can be difficult, and even more if you want to view them in the right order. Well this is my effort to make things a little easier. Unless otherwise stated these videos's relate to Visual Studio 2008 edition of DSL tools, as I discover more DSL video's I'll add them to the list. If you know of a good one I've missed, leave a comment and I'll get it added. More...

Digg It!DZone It!StumbleUponTechnoratiRedditDel.icio.usNewsVineFurlBlinkList
kick it on DotNetKicks.com

Currently rated 2.6 by 5 people

  • Currently 2.6/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Database Explorer API beta released

March 17, 2008 17:10 by garrymc

For anyone that's read my blog entries you've seen me make mention to a framework that I've been working on. Well today marks the release of the first beta of part of that framework. The Database Explorer API, is a database schema API that is designed to make accessing database schema information easy and intuitive. More...

Digg It!DZone It!StumbleUponTechnoratiRedditDel.icio.usNewsVineFurlBlinkList
kick it on DotNetKicks.com

Currently rated 3.0 by 7 people

  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5