Question

I don’t seem to figure it out how to use enum values in an ASP.NET MVC 3 model (using code first approach) so that they are stored in a database and are preserved.

My model code looks like:

public class TestNews
{
    public int Id { get; set; }

    [Required]
    public DateTime Date { get; set; }

    [Required]
    //[EnumDataType(typeof(TestNewsType))]?
    public TestNewsType Type { get; set; }

    [Required]
    public string Title { get; set; }
}

public enum TestNewsType : short
{
    Draft = 0,
    PublishedPublicly = 1,
    PublishedInternally = 2,
    Removed = 3
}

After the database gets recreated it contains the table TestNews, but it contains only the columns:

• Id
• Date
• Title

How to make it also store the Type in the database? And also should the EnumDataType annotation be used?

I would later like to use it in a controller action like:

    public ActionResult Latest(int count=5)
    {
        var model = db.TestNews
            .Where(n => n.Type == TestNewsType.PublishedPublicly)
            .OrderByDescending(n => n.Date)
            .Take(count)
            .ToList();
        return PartialView(model);
    }

Answer 1

The June CTP of Entity Framework introduced Enum support.

As an alternative to using the CTP, at the MSDN blogs is an article on how to fake enums with Entity Framework.