ASP.NET MVC Tutorial with EF6 Model First Approach

In this ASP.NET MVC Tutorial, we are going to create a basic ASP.NET MVC application with Entity Framework 6 using Model First Approach. In our previous Tutorials on ASP.NET MVC, we created applications using EF 6 with Code First Approrach as well as Database First Approach. Also, we discussed all Entity Framework related concepts in detail in another Entity Framework Tutorial. We can follow below links to both of these Entity Framework Tutorials:

• MVC Application using Database First Approach
• MVC Application using Code First Approach
• MUST Have Entity Framework Interview Questions/FAQs

In the Model First approach, we create entities, relationships, and inheritance hierarchies directly on the design surface of EDMX and then generate database from our model.Image may be NSFW.
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So, Let’s start by creating a new ASP.NET MVC Application and adding new ADO.NET Entity Data Model as below. Right click on our DAL(Data Access Layer) folder, choose “Add” and then “ADO.NET Entity Data Model”.Image may be NSFW.
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Choose Empty EF Designer model from Entity Data Model Wizard popup. Image may be NSFW.
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Once we click on finish, we will get below screen:

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We can create entities, association and inheritance between them on an empty designer by right clicking on designer surface. Choose “Add New” and then “Entity”.Image may be NSFW.
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EF 6 Navigation Property

Navigation property in Entity Framework 6 is a used to represent Foreign Key relationships between the entities just like Foreign Key relationship in database.  Add Entity details as given in below screenshot, we are creating an Entity with name Category:Image may be NSFW.
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Further, we can add other properties of category as below:

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Finally the category entity will look as below with Properties as CategoryId and CategoryName. For Navigation Properties i.e. used for Foreign Key relationship, we will see after creating all related entities. :
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Similarly, we can do this for Product entity.

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Add association of Product with Category entity. It is done as :Image may be NSFW.
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So, a One-to-Many association is developed between Category to Product. A single Category can have many Products associated, For example, Electronics Category will contain many electronic products like Mobile, Camera etc.Image may be NSFW.
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Configuring Model Properties

Just click on the “Entity Data Model Designer” surface and open the properties window: Image may be NSFW.
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Here we can modify the marked properties if we wish or keep the default.

Now, we need to generate database from model. Do it as:Image may be NSFW.
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Giving the Connection Properties of our database. Being a basic example, we are using Windows Authentication but for a professional project, we will provide proper properties and related authentication mode.

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Put valid database details and click on “Test Connection”.Image may be NSFW.
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If this message appears, means your server is able to recognize and connect the database, otherwise there is any issue in the data we entered.

After completing all steps, we will get following screen.Image may be NSFW.
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This query generate the database for our app. It can be executed by the options as shown in below screen:Image may be NSFW.
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We can check our database and will find following schema:Image may be NSFW.
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Now create “CategoriesController” as shown in below image:Image may be NSFW.
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Run the application and access “/category”, we will get following screen:

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Create some categories, the category listing will appear as below:Image may be NSFW.
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Similarly we can add product controller.Image may be NSFW.
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It will automatically generate the code for CRUD operations through scaffolding technique.

When we access “/Products”, following screen will appear:

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Click on create new link, following screen will appear:Image may be NSFW.
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We can find all categories will appear in category drop down.Image may be NSFW.
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After creation of products, we get the list of product as follows:Image may be NSFW.
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Hopefully, this basic example for ASP.NET MVC Application with Model First Approach using two related entities i.e. Category & Product will be helpful in practically understanding the concept.

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