How to Access SAP ByDesign Data Using Entity Framework

Microsoft Entity Framework serves as an object-relational mapping framework for working with data represented as objects. Although Visual Studio offers the ADO.NET Entity Data Model wizard to automatically generate the Entity Model, this model-first approach may present challenges when your data source undergoes changes or when you require greater control over entity operations. In this article, we will delve into the code-first approach for accessing SAP ByDesign data through the CData ADO.NET Provider, providing you with more flexibility and control.

1. Open Visual Studio and create a new Windows Form Application. This article uses a C# project with .NET 4.5.
2. Run the command 'Install-Package EntityFramework' in the Package Manger Console in Visual Studio to install the latest release of Entity Framework.

3. Modify the App.config file in the project to add a reference to the SAP ByDesign Entity Framework 6 assembly and the connection string.

   Set the following connection properties to connect to SAP ByDesign.

   • Url: Set this to the Url of your SAP ByDesign site. For example, https://test.sapbydesign.com
   • User: Set this to the username of your account.
   • Password: Set this to the password of your account.
   • CustomService or AnalyticsService: Only one of these must be specified. If you have a custom service you want to retrieve data from, specify CustomService. If you want to retrieve the reports of a analytical service, specify AnalyticsService.
     If neither is specified, 'cc_home_analytics.svc' will used as a default for the AnalyticsService property. If you are not sure what service to specify, you can always query the Services view to list available services.

   <configuration>
    ... 
    <connectionStrings>
    <add name="SAPByDesignContext" connectionString="Offline=False;URL=https://my999999.sapbydesign.com;User=username;Password=password;CustomService=servicename;" providerName="System.Data.CData.SAPByDesign" />
    </connectionStrings>
    <entityFramework>
    <providers>
    ... 
    <provider invariantName="System.Data.CData.SAPByDesign" type="System.Data.CData.SAPByDesign.SAPByDesignProviderServices, System.Data.CData.SAPByDesign.Entities.EF6" />
    </providers>
    <entityFramework>
   </configuration>
   </code> 
   

4. Add a reference to System.Data.CData.SAPByDesign.Entities.EF6.dll, located in the lib -> 4.0 subfolder in the installation directory.
5. Build the project at this point to ensure everything is working correctly. Once that's done, you can start coding using Entity Framework.
6. Add a new .cs file to the project and add a class to it. This will be your database context, and it will extend the DbContext class. In the example, this class is named SAPByDesignContext. The following code example overrides the OnModelCreating method to make the following changes:
   • Remove PluralizingTableNameConvention from the ModelBuilder Conventions.
   • Remove requests to the MigrationHistory table.

   using System.Data.Entity;
   using System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure;
   using System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration.Conventions;
   
   class SAPByDesignContext : DbContext {
    public SAPByDesignContext() { }
   
    protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
    {
    // To remove the requests to the Migration History table
    Database.SetInitializer<SAPByDesignContext>(null); 
    // To remove the plural names 
    modelBuilder.Conventions.Remove<PluralizingTableNameConvention>();
    } 
   }
   

7. Create another .cs file and name it after the SAP ByDesign entity you are retrieving, for example, [Inventory Balance]. In this file, define both the Entity and the Entity Configuration, which will resemble the example below:

   using System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration;
   using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;
   
   [System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema.Table("[Inventory Balance]")]
   public class [Inventory Balance] {
    [System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Key] 
    public System.String ID { get; set; }
    public System.String ProductCategoryID { get; set; }
   }
    
   

8. Now that you have created an entity, add the entity to your context class:

   public DbSet<[Inventory Balance]> [Inventory Balance] { set; get; }
   

9. With the context and entity finished, you are now ready to query the data in a separate class. For example:

   SAPByDesignContext context = new SAPByDesignContext();
   context.Configuration.UseDatabaseNullSemantics = true;
   var query = from line in context.[Inventory Balance] select line;