C#•10mo ago

Best way to model different options in EF Core

I have a class that's used to define the integration parameters for a particular process. Now, I have integration options A,B,C, etc each of which correspond to different tables with different IDs I need to populate on my class. ex

c#
public class myclass {
    public string MyParam1 { get; set; }
    public string MyParam2 { get; set; }
    public string MyParam3 { get; set; }

    // Integration A
    public Guid PackageId { get; set; }
    public Guid LocationId { get; set; }
    public Guid ScreenElementId { get; set; }
    // Integration B
    public Guid PackageId { get; set; }
    public Guid LocationId { get; set; }
    public Guid ScreenElementId { get; set; }
    // etc
}

c#
public class myclass {
    public string MyParam1 { get; set; }
    public string MyParam2 { get; set; }
    public string MyParam3 { get; set; }

    // Integration A
    public Guid PackageId { get; set; }
    public Guid LocationId { get; set; }
    public Guid ScreenElementId { get; set; }
    // Integration B
    public Guid PackageId { get; set; }
    public Guid LocationId { get; set; }
    public Guid ScreenElementId { get; set; }
    // etc
}

Now, only 1 integration is supported for each instance of myclass. I could in theory define each available integration's FK references in this table, but there must be a better way to do this?

c#
public class myclass {
    public string MyParam1 { get; set; }
    public string MyParam2 { get; set; }
    public string MyParam3 { get; set; }

    // Integration
    public IntegrationType Integration { get; set; } // A,B,C,etc
    public Guid IntegrationId { get; set; } // But wouldn't this just then be a table with all references, like in the previous example?
}

c#
public class myclass {
    public string MyParam1 { get; set; }
    public string MyParam2 { get; set; }
    public string MyParam3 { get; set; }

    // Integration
    public IntegrationType Integration { get; set; } // A,B,C,etc
    public Guid IntegrationId { get; set; } // But wouldn't this just then be a table with all references, like in the previous example?
}

3 Replies

Omnissiah•10mo ago

either you use you discriminator and a flat type witih all the FKs, or you make myClass three types each with its own FK probably the two simplest roads

engineertdogOP•10mo ago

I was thinking of keeping the bottom half, but modified a little.

c#
public class myclass {
    public string MyParam1 { get; set; }
    public string MyParam2 { get; set; }
    public string MyParam3 { get; set; }

    // Integration
    public IntegrationType Integration { get; set; } // A,B,C,etc
    public Guid? IntegrationAId { get; set; }
    public Guid? IntegrationBId { get; set; }
    public Guid? IntegrationCId { get; set; }
}

c#
public class myclass {
    public string MyParam1 { get; set; }
    public string MyParam2 { get; set; }
    public string MyParam3 { get; set; }

    // Integration
    public IntegrationType Integration { get; set; } // A,B,C,etc
    public Guid? IntegrationAId { get; set; }
    public Guid? IntegrationBId { get; set; }
    public Guid? IntegrationCId { get; set; }
}

I don't expect to have that many integrations, but with the other params required, it doesn't make sense to have a version of the class for each type. Makes more sense to use a type to determine the integration and reference the proper FK

Omnissiah•10mo ago

wait, do all integrations have the same fields?

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Best way to model different options in EF Core