Reverse engineering is what we call the process that takes a given database and turns it into a model driven “thing”.
You just need to give a valid connection string to it;
in this case a use the MusicStoreDb from a MicrosoftSample:
You start by Analyzing the database:
And then you “Go!” – be aware of that this process will empty the package you started from and fill it with the stuff from the reverse engineer process:
Giving us this in the modlr tree:
And I will drag these classes out on a diagram to get this:
And that is enough information to run the model against the exact same database as we reversed it from:
Giving us a way to use the trusty AutoForms and EcoSpaceDebugger to look at the changeble data :
In this particular database the RecordId, ArtistId and sofort are of type int in the database and are designed with “Is Identity==true” in SqlExpress. Also the “Identity Increment” is set in SqlExpress.
The Reverse algorithm gave us a model with int Attributes for the ID – we want ECO to be able to use that Key scheme instead of the standard ECO_ID :
The PrimaryKey setting we got from the reversing process and the PrimaryKeyMapper I set to ”AutoInc” – an Eco-supplied primary key mapper with that name that handles the normal AutoIncrease behavior of databases. (You can create your own named mappers in ECO for visualStudio).
And for the Attribute we must also say that it is DbAssigned; that forces ECO to omit setting the primary key on first save, and also forces ECO to read the saved row back from the database to get the actual assigned key (which we need to use as a foreign key in related objects) :
This is actually enough to be able to create new objects from the ecospace debugger and have them inserted in the database (or from code or wecpof or what have you). If you follow along in this brief and try to save a new Album you will notice 2 SQLServer exceptions – Both Genre and Artist foreign keys are marked NOT NULL in the DB – handle this by assigning an Artist and a Genre to the new Album with AutoForms drag and drop.