Question

I have a Member entity with a complex type called Address with a complex type called UsState which has the following properties: Id, Name and Iso.

I need to map the Member Address’s UsState to its DB table column. The problem is that members table only contains State (VARCHAR) column, so in order to perform the right mapping, I did this:

modelBuilder.Entity<Member>().Property(p => p.BillingAddress.State.Name).HasColumnName("State");
modelBuilder.Entity<Member>().Ignore(p => p.BillingAddress.State.Id);
modelBuilder.Entity<Member>().Ignore(p => p.BillingAddress.State.Iso);

But it appears that Ignore only accepts base property lambdas, so I received this:

The expression 'p => p.BillingAddress.State.IsoCode' is not a valid property expression. The expression should represent a property: C#: 't => t.MyProperty'  VB.Net: 'Function(t) t.MyProperty'.

How can I resolve this issue? (preferably using Ignore method)

Answer 1

Create a sublcass of UsState

public class UsStateSpecific : UsState
{
}

Then change the type of the State property in BillingAddress‘s type to UsStateSpecific.

public class Address 
{
...
public UsStateSpecific State
...
}

Now ignore all desired properties from complex type (or entity) UsStateSpecific. This will not affect your other UsState properties in other types.

modelBuilder.ComplexType<UsStateSpecific>().Ignore(p => p.Id);   
modelBuilder.ComplexType<UsStateSpecific>().Ignore(p => p.Iso);