Shadow properties
Going one step further from private properties, in a well-defined model, it may make sense to hide certain properties from the developers so that they do not make unwanted changes to them, consciously or not.
Historically, Entity Framework, like most ORMs, has three models:
POCO model: This represents the .NET classes and their properties and references
Database model: This represents the tables, views, and columns (in the case of relational data stores) where data is actually stored
Mapping model: This model binds the two preceding models; this is where we say that the
MyEntity
class is to be stored in theMY_ENTITY
table and theId
property goes into theMY_ENTITY_ID
column
Note
Entity Framework used to call these models Conceptual Model, Storage Model, and Mapping Model. If you are curious, refer to the following link:
So, what we are looking for is a way to have a backing data store for entities and properties that does not...