Entity Framework Core Integration Best Practices

See Entity Framework Core Integration document for the basics of the EF Core integration.

• Do define a separated DbContext interface and class for each module.
• Do not rely on lazy loading on the application development.
• Do not enable lazy loading for the DbContext.

DbContext Interface

• Do define an interface for the DbContext that inherits from IEfCoreDbContext.
• Do add a ConnectionStringName attribute to the DbContext interface.
• Do add DbSet<TEntity> properties to the DbContext interface for only aggregate roots. Example:

[ConnectionStringName("AbpIdentity")]
public interface IIdentityDbContext : IEfCoreDbContext
{
    DbSet<IdentityUser> Users { get; }
    DbSet<IdentityRole> Roles { get; }
}

• Do not define set; for the properties in this interface.

DbContext class

• Do inherit the DbContext from the AbpDbContext<TDbContext> class.
• Do add a ConnectionStringName attribute to the DbContext class.
• Do implement the corresponding interface for the DbContext class. Example:

[ConnectionStringName("AbpIdentity")]
public class IdentityDbContext : AbpDbContext<IdentityDbContext>, IIdentityDbContext
{
    public DbSet<IdentityUser> Users { get; set; }
    public DbSet<IdentityRole> Roles { get; set; }

    public IdentityDbContext(DbContextOptions<IdentityDbContext> options)
        : base(options)
    {

    }

    //code omitted for brevity
}

Table Prefix and Schema

• Do add static TablePrefix and Schema properties to the DbContext class. Set default value from a constant. Example:

public static string TablePrefix { get; set; } = AbpIdentityConsts.DefaultDbTablePrefix;
public static string Schema { get; set; } = AbpIdentityConsts.DefaultDbSchema;

• Do always use a short TablePrefix value for a module to create unique table names in a shared database. Abp table prefix is reserved for ABP core modules.
• Do set Schema to null as default.

Model Mapping

• Do explicitly configure all entities by overriding the OnModelCreating method of the DbContext. Example:

protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder builder)
{
    base.OnModelCreating(builder);
    builder.ConfigureIdentity();
}

• Do not configure model directly in the OnModelCreating method. Instead, create an extension method for ModelBuilder. Use ConfigureModuleName as the method name. Example:

public static class IdentityDbContextModelBuilderExtensions
{
    public static void ConfigureIdentity([NotNull] this ModelBuilder builder)
    {
        Check.NotNull(builder, nameof(builder));

        builder.Entity<IdentityUser>(b =>
        {
            b.ToTable(AbpIdentityDbProperties.DbTablePrefix + "Users", AbpIdentityDbProperties.DbSchema);
            b.ConfigureByConvention();
            //code omitted for brevity
        });

        builder.Entity<IdentityUserClaim>(b =>
        {
            b.ToTable(AbpIdentityDbProperties.DbTablePrefix + "UserClaims", AbpIdentityDbProperties.DbSchema);
            b.ConfigureByConvention();
            //code omitted for brevity
        });
        
        //code omitted for brevity
    }
}

• Do call b.ConfigureByConvention(); for each entity mapping (as shown above).

Repository Implementation

• Do inherit the repository from the EfCoreRepository<TDbContext, TEntity, TKey> class and implement the corresponding repository interface. Example:

public class EfCoreIdentityUserRepository
    : EfCoreRepository<IIdentityDbContext, IdentityUser, Guid>, IIdentityUserRepository
{
    public EfCoreIdentityUserRepository(
        IDbContextProvider<IIdentityDbContext> dbContextProvider)
        : base(dbContextProvider)
    {
    }
}

• Do use the DbContext interface as the generic parameter, not the class.
• Do pass the cancellationToken to EF Core using the GetCancellationToken helper method. Example:

public virtual async Task<IdentityUser> FindByNormalizedUserNameAsync(
    string normalizedUserName, 
    bool includeDetails = true,
    CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
{
    return await (await GetDbSetAsync())
        .IncludeDetails(includeDetails)
        .FirstOrDefaultAsync(
            u => u.NormalizedUserName == normalizedUserName,
            GetCancellationToken(cancellationToken)
        );
}

GetCancellationToken fallbacks to the ICancellationTokenProvider.Token to obtain the cancellation token if it is not provided by the caller code.

• Do create a IncludeDetails extension method for the IQueryable<TEntity> for each aggregate root which has sub collections. Example:

public static IQueryable<IdentityUser> IncludeDetails(
    this IQueryable<IdentityUser> queryable,
    bool include = true)
{
    if (!include)
    {
        return queryable;
    }

    return queryable
        .Include(x => x.Roles)
        .Include(x => x.Logins)
        .Include(x => x.Claims)
        .Include(x => x.Tokens);
}

• Do use the IncludeDetails extension method in the repository methods just like used in the example code above (see FindByNormalizedUserNameAsync).

• Do override WithDetails method of the repository for aggregates root which have sub collections. Example:

public override async Task<IQueryable<IdentityUser>> WithDetailsAsync()
{
    // Uses the extension method defined above
    return (await GetQueryableAsync()).IncludeDetails();
}

Module Class

• Do define a module class for the Entity Framework Core integration package.
• Do add DbContext to the IServiceCollection using the AddAbpDbContext<TDbContext> method.
• Do add implemented repositories to the options for the AddAbpDbContext<TDbContext> method. Example:

[DependsOn(
    typeof(AbpIdentityDomainModule),
    typeof(AbpEntityFrameworkCoreModule)
    )]
public class AbpIdentityEntityFrameworkCoreModule : AbpModule
{
    public override void ConfigureServices(ServiceConfigurationContext context)
    {
        context.Services.AddAbpDbContext<IdentityDbContext>(options =>
        {
            options.AddRepository<IdentityUser, EfCoreIdentityUserRepository>();
            options.AddRepository<IdentityRole, EfCoreIdentityRoleRepository>();
        });
    }
}