Question

I just came across WCF today and started learning it. However, once I tried to combine it with the EntityFramework it stopped working. I created a entity model for my database dtcinvoicerdb, turned off code generation and wrote the Entity/ObjectContext classes myself. The service is supposed to fetch all the Employees from the database.

Everything works fine, the project compiles and the WcfTestClient opens up, but when I try to Invoke the GetEmployees() operation I get the following exception:

Mapping and metadata information could not be found for EntityType 'DtcInvoicerDbModel.Employee'.

I know there’s a lot of code below, but it’s all pretty basic so bear with me.

entity image and model properties http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/1397/wcf.png

/Entities/DtcInvoicerDbContext.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

using System.Data.Objects;

using DtcInvoicerDbModel;

namespace DtcInvoicerServiceLibrary
{
    public class DtcInvoicerDbContext:ObjectContext
    {
        public DtcInvoicerDbContext():base("name=DtcInvoicerDbEntities", "DtcInvoicerDbEntities")
        {
        }

        #region public ObjectSet<Employee> Employees;
        private ObjectSet<Employee> _Employees;
        public ObjectSet<Employee> Employees
        {
            get
            {
                return (_Employees == null) ? (_Employees = base.CreateObjectSet<Employee>("Employees")) : _Employees;
            }
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

/Entities/Employee.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

using System.Data.Objects.DataClasses;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;

namespace DtcInvoicerDbModel
{
    [DataContract]
    public class Employee
    {
        [DataMember]
        public int ID { get; set; }
        [DataMember]
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        [DataMember]
        public string LastName { get; set; }
        [DataMember]
        public string Username { get; set; }
        [DataMember]
        public string Password { get; set; }
        [DataMember]
        public DateTime EmployeeSince { get; set; }
    }
}

/IDtcInvoicerServicer.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

using System.ServiceModel;

using DtcInvoicerDbModel;

namespace DtcInvoicerServiceLibrary
{
    [ServiceContract]
    public interface IDtcInvoicerService
    {
        [OperationContract]
        List<Employee> GetEmployees();
    }
}

/DtcInvoicerService.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

using System.ServiceModel;

using DtcInvoicerDbModel;

namespace DtcInvoicerServiceLibrary
{
    [ServiceBehavior(InstanceContextMode=InstanceContextMode.Single, IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults=true)]
    public class DtcInvoicerService:IDtcInvoicerService
    {
        private DtcInvoicerDbContext db = new DtcInvoicerDbContext();

        public List<Employee> GetEmployees()
        {
            return db.Employees.Where(x => x.ID > 0).ToList();
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

I know this doesn’t answer your question, but with your service, have you considered using WCF Data Services instead? Your service is returning your entities to your client — WCF Data Services can provide that for you and also give your client the ability to use LINQ queries to filter and/or project your results.

You could add a WCF Data Service item (InvoicerService.svc) to your project and set up the service class like so:

public class InvoicerService : DataService<DtcInvoicerDbEntities>
{
    public static void InitializeService(DataServiceConfiguration config)
    {
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("Employees", EntitySetRights.AllRead);

        config.SetEntitySetPageSize("*", 25);
        config.DataServiceBehavior.MaxProtocolVersion = DataServiceProtocolVersion.V2;
    }
}

You could then access your employees via a GET request using the URL:

http://server:port/InvoicerService.svc/Employees?$filter=ID gt 0

Again, not the answer to your question, but perhaps an alternative. Just thought I’d add it.

Hope this helps!