Entity Framework Tutorial Basics (in): Multiple diagrams

Multiple diagrams in Entity Framework 5.0

Visual Studio provides a facility to split the design time visual representation of the Entity Data Model. This means can has multiple diagrams for one Entity Data Model.

You can create a new diagram in multiple ways:

1. Add a new diagram and drag and drop entities from Model Browser
2. Move entities from the existing diagram to a new diagram

1. Add a new diagram and drag and drop entities from Model Browser:

You can add a new diagram by right clicking on the diagrams node of the the Model browser and selecting ' Add New Diagram ':

You can rename the diagram, for Example:studentdiagram to include all student related entities:

Now, you can drag and drop Student and studentaddress entities to this new diagram:

2. Move entities from existing diagram to new diagram:

You can also move entities from an existing diagram to a new diagram. For example, if want to move Teacher and Course entities to a new diagram, then select those entities in an existing D Iagram and right click and select "Move to New Diagram" from the context menu:

It would create a new diagram and move Teacher and Course entities to a new diagram as shown below:

So, in the this-is-a-can create a new diagram from an existing diagram.

You can also include the related entities of a particular entity. For example, right click on Student entity→select ' Include related '. Standard and Course entities would also be included, because Student have their reference property:

This would include standard and Course entity as shown below.

Additionally, you can also move properties up or down by right clicking on the property→select move Property→select up /down etc. as shown below:

Difference between delete and remove entity:

You can remove the entity from the diagram by right clicking on entity and selecting ' Remove from Diagram '.

Remove from Diagram would only remove the entity from the Diagram whereas ' delete from Model ' would Delete the entity from T He EDM. So you won ' is able to use this entity at all.

Entity Framework Tutorial Basics (in): Multiple diagrams