Entity Framework Simple Generic GetByID but has differents PK Name

entity-framework-4

Solution

Here is example of base repository class for repositories build for entity with single property key. The `GetByKey` method is independent on key name or type.

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Metadata.Edm;
using System.Data.Objects;
using System.Linq;

namespace EntityKeyTest
{
    // Base repository class for entity with simple key
    public abstract class RepositoryBase<TEntity, TKey> where TEntity : class
    {
        private readonly string _entitySetName;
        private readonly string _keyName;

        protected ObjectContext Context { get; private set; }
        protected ObjectSet<TEntity> ObjectSet { get; private set; }

        protected RepositoryBase(ObjectContext context)
        {
            if (context == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("context");
            }

            Context = context;
            ObjectSet = context.CreateObjectSet<TEntity>();
            // Get entity set for current entity type
            var entitySet = ObjectSet.EntitySet;
            // Build full name of entity set for current entity type
            _entitySetName = context.DefaultContainerName + "." + entitySet.Name;
            // Get name of the entity's key property
            _keyName = entitySet.ElementType.KeyMembers.Single().Name;
        }

        public virtual TEntity GetByKey(TKey key)
        {
            // Build entity key
            var entityKey = new EntityKey(_entitySetName, _keyName, key);
            // Query first current state manager and if entity is not found query database!!!
            return (TEntity)Context.GetObjectByKey(entityKey);
        }
        // Rest of repository implementation
    }
}

There is one trickler when using this code. If you don't use generated class derived from `ObjectContext` and you use `ObjectContext` directly you must manually set `DefaultContainerName` used by your model.

Edit:

This method is for classic EF. I can think about version for Code-first if needed.

Problem

Original source