Entity Framework is an object-relational mapping framework that can be used to work with data as objects. While you can run the ADO.NET Entity Data Model wizard in Visual Studio to handle generating the Entity Model, this approach, the model-first approach, can put you at a disadvantage if there are changes in your data source or if you want more control over how the entities operate. In this article you will complete the code-first approach to accessing NetSuite data using the CData ADO.NET Provider.
- Open Visual Studio and create a new Windows Form Application. This article uses a C# project with .NET 4.5.
- Run the command 'Install-Package EntityFramework' in the Package Manger Console in Visual Studio to install the latest release of Entity Framework.
- Modify the App.config file in the project to add a reference to the NetSuite Entity Framework 6 assembly and the connection string.
The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid NetSuite user credentials. In addition, the AccountId must be set to the Id of a company account that can be used by the specified User. The RoleId can be optionally specified to log in the user with limited permissions.
See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for more information on connecting to NetSuite.
<configuration>
...
<connectionStrings>
<add name="NetSuiteContext" connectionString="Offline=False;Account Id=XABC123456;Password=password;User=user;Role Id=3;Version=2018_1;" providerName="System.Data.CData.NetSuite" />
</connectionStrings>
<entityFramework>
<providers>
...
<provider invariantName="System.Data.CData.NetSuite" type="System.Data.CData.NetSuite.NetSuiteProviderServices, System.Data.CData.NetSuite.Entities.EF6" />
</providers>
<entityFramework>
</configuration>
- Add a reference to System.Data.CData.NetSuite.Entities.EF6.dll, located in the lib -> 4.0 subfolder in the installation directory.
- Build the project at this point to ensure everything is working correctly. Once that's done, you can start coding using Entity Framework.
- Add a new .cs file to the project and add a class to it. This will be your database context, and it will extend the
DbContext
class. In the example, this class is named NetSuiteContext
. The following code example overrides the OnModelCreating
method to make the following changes:
- Remove
PluralizingTableNameConvention
from the ModelBuilder Conventions. - Remove requests to the
MigrationHistory
table.
using System.Data.Entity;
using System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure;
using System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration.Conventions;
class NetSuiteContext : DbContext {
public NetSuiteContext() { }
protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
Database.SetInitializer<NetSuiteContext>(null);
modelBuilder.Conventions.Remove<PluralizingTableNameConvention>();
}
}
- Create another .cs file and name it after the NetSuite entity you are retrieving, for example, SalesOrder. In this file, define both the Entity and the Entity Configuration, which will resemble the example below:
using System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;
[System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema.Table("SalesOrder")]
public class SalesOrder {
[System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Key]
public System.String CustomerName { get; set; }
public System.String SalesOrderTotal { get; set; }
}
- Now that you have created an entity, add the entity to your context class:
public DbSet<SalesOrder> SalesOrder { set; get; }
- With the context and entity finished, you are now ready to query the data in a separate class. For example:
NetSuiteContext context = new NetSuiteContext();
context.Configuration.UseDatabaseNullSemantics = true;
var query = from line in context.SalesOrder select line;
Free Trial & More Information
Now that you have seen a basic example of connecting to and working with your NetSuite data from Entity Framework applications, visit the NetSuite ADO.NET Provider page to read more information about the CData NetSuite ADO.NET Provider. Start building code-first, Entity Framework applications using live NetSuite Data. As always, the world-class CData support team is available and ready to answer any questions you might have.
I'm an educator-turned-technology evangelist, with a short stint as a software developer. In all of the work I've done, data has been critical, and as businesses, industries, and services grow, I can't help but notice the growth in the breadth and depth of data usage. A common interface to data frees enterprises from the burden of connecting to their data and frees them to focus on their own business. By leveraging CData drivers to access common SQL interfaces to more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources, developers can build solid, data-driven products and analysts and data scientists can quickly and easily build insights that drive business.
While giving presentations, writing articles, engaging in webinars, and producing tutorial videos I get the opportunity to see first-hand the difference that standard connectivity makes, with regards to both the underlying data sources and the tools and apps consuming the data. Talk to me about partnering with CData to connect to your own organization's data, embedding connectivity into your data-driven solutions or building custom connectors for a new data source.