Question

I got a Hierarchical table with following structure

As you can see, ParentGroupUserID refers to the same table. Now when I use EF POCO t4 template to generate class for it, it comes up with following structure.

    public partial class GroupUser
{
    #region Primitive Properties

    public virtual int GroupUserID
    {
        get;
        set;
    }

    public virtual int GroupID
    {
        get;
        set;
    }

    public virtual string UserName
    {
        get;
        set;
    }

    #endregion
    #region Navigation Properties

    public virtual ICollection<GroupUser> GroupUser1
    {
        get
        {
            if (_groupUser1 == null)
            {
                var newCollection = new FixupCollection<GroupUser>();
                newCollection.CollectionChanged += FixupGroupUser1;
                _groupUser1 = newCollection;
            }
            return _groupUser1;
        }
        set
        {
            if (!ReferenceEquals(_groupUser1, value))
            {
                var previousValue = _groupUser1 as FixupCollection<GroupUser>;
                if (previousValue != null)
                {
                    previousValue.CollectionChanged -= FixupGroupUser1;
                }
                _groupUser1 = value;
                var newValue = value as FixupCollection<GroupUser>;
                if (newValue != null)
                {
                    newValue.CollectionChanged += FixupGroupUser1;
                }
            }
        }
    }
    private ICollection<GroupUser> _groupUser1;

    public virtual GroupUser GroupUser2
    {
        get { return _groupUser2; }
        set
        {
            if (!ReferenceEquals(_groupUser2, value))
            {
                var previousValue = _groupUser2;
                _groupUser2 = value;
                FixupGroupUser2(previousValue);
            }
        }
    }
    private GroupUser _groupUser2;

    public virtual ICollection<Franchise> Franchises
    {
        get
        {
            if (_franchises == null)
            {
                var newCollection = new FixupCollection<Franchise>();
                newCollection.CollectionChanged += FixupFranchises;
                _franchises = newCollection;
            }
            return _franchises;
        }
        set
        {
            if (!ReferenceEquals(_franchises, value))
            {
                var previousValue = _franchises as FixupCollection<Franchise>;
                if (previousValue != null)
                {
                    previousValue.CollectionChanged -= FixupFranchises;
                }
                _franchises = value;
                var newValue = value as FixupCollection<Franchise>;
                if (newValue != null)
                {
                    newValue.CollectionChanged += FixupFranchises;
                }
            }
        }
    }
    private ICollection<Franchise> _franchises;

    #endregion
    #region Association Fixup

    private void FixupGroupUser2(GroupUser previousValue)
    {
        if (previousValue != null && previousValue.GroupUser1.Contains(this))
        {
            previousValue.GroupUser1.Remove(this);
        }

        if (GroupUser2 != null)
        {
            if (!GroupUser2.GroupUser1.Contains(this))
            {
                GroupUser2.GroupUser1.Add(this);
            }
        }
    }

    private void FixupGroupUser1(object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.NewItems != null)
        {
            foreach (GroupUser item in e.NewItems)
            {
                item.GroupUser2 = this;
            }
        }

        if (e.OldItems != null)
        {
            foreach (GroupUser item in e.OldItems)
            {
                if (ReferenceEquals(item.GroupUser2, this))
                {
                    item.GroupUser2 = null;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    private void FixupFranchises(object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.NewItems != null)
        {
            foreach (Franchise item in e.NewItems)
            {
                if (!item.GroupUsers.Contains(this))
                {
                    item.GroupUsers.Add(this);
                }
            }
        }

        if (e.OldItems != null)
        {
            foreach (Franchise item in e.OldItems)
            {
                if (item.GroupUsers.Contains(this))
                {
                    item.GroupUsers.Remove(this);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    #endregion
}

If you see in the above code, I don’t like the notion of naming my public properties GroupUser1 (which is a collection) and GroupUser2 (single object). Can anyone help me understand this naming pattern with POCO generation and is there a way I can rename it (without modifying the t4 template).

Answer 1

That is not naming pattern of POCO generation. These names are in your entity model. Change names in entity model (EDMX file – designer) and they will be changed in generated code as well.