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Asked: 2026-06-06T01:20:05+00:00

I have an entity (Org) in my Entity Framework that has a foreign key

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I have an entity (Org) in my Entity Framework that has a foreign key with a table that is in another database (BusinessUnit). We need the foreign key to get the description of the BusinessUnit linked with the Org. In the past (old project without Entity Framework) we were using a stored procedure to return all the information about this entity, including the BusinessUnit description, using a join. So now my problem is how to display the same information than before using Entity Framework.

I’ve tried, once I load my Org entity from database, to make a loop accessing to BusinessUnit to get the description for each Org, but this is too slow. My other idea was use a store procedure, but I need an extra field on my entity and Entity Frameworks gives me an 3004 error: No mapping specified for my property. I was thinking to use a complex type, but I’m not sure if it’s what I need keeping in mind I have to add just a field to my entity. In that case, could I use the complex type just for “select” operations and keep my original entity for the rest of CRUD operations?

How should I proceed?

Thanks.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    EF is not able to execute queries across multiple databases. If you need to perform such query you must either use database view and map the view as a new entity (it will be readonly – making it updatable requires mapping insert, update and delete stored procedures) or divide your data querying into two separate parts to load data from both databases. Divided querying can either use two contexts or you can get data from the second database using stored procedure.

    The reason why you got the error is that you added the property in EDMX. EDMX can contain only properties mapped to your first database. EDMX generates entity code as partial classes If you need property manually populated from the second database you have to create your partial part (partial class) for entity and add the property in code.

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