Question

I have a class that gets arranged into a hierarchy, such as this:

class Item
{
    [Key]
    public int ID {get;set;}
    public string PropA {get;set;}
    public string PropB {get;set;}

    public Virtual ICollection<Item> Children {get;set;}
}

This works great, and EF creates a Item_ID key to identify the parent. I am exporting this data via my MVC app and need to access this key however.

How can I access the Parent ID, from an Item?

I tried [InverseProperty] tag, but it seemed like it wanted to create yet another key — How can I get it to use the existing Item_ID field that is already in my database and working properly with my Children navigation property?

Thanks!

Okay, I had to change the name of my database column frmo Item_ID to Parent_ID manually, then everything worked. I have the following:

[InverseProperty("Parent")]
public virtual ICollection<Item> Children { get; set; }

[InverseProperty("Contents")]
public virtual Item Parent { get; set; }

Answer 1

I think you would have to add a

public virtual Item Parent {get;set;}