How to get item's metadata with Entity Framework ?

Question

I need to know the date of creation/edition and the author/editor of items in my sharepoint's Lists, but I didn't found a solution to map these columns with Entity Framework.

I tried this kind of code :

[Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq.ColumnAttribute(Name = "tp_author", Storage = "_author", ReadOnly = true, FieldType = "User")]
public SPUser Author
{ 
    get 
    {
        return this._author;
    }
    set
    {
        if (!value.Equals(this._author))
        {
            this.OnPropertyChanging("Author", this._author);
            this._author = value;
            this.OnPropertyChanged("Author");
        }
    }
}

But with that code, Sharepoint give me this error :

Invalid transfer type Microsoft.SharePoint.SPUser

I also tried with other types for _author, but it doesn't change anything.

Is there a way to make this mapping ?

Thank you

Baptiste Wicht BlockquoteMicrosoft.SharePoint.SPUser

Answer 1

You need to use Linq-to-SharePoint, and there is no need in Entity framework.

You need to use SPMetal to generete entity classes that Linq will work with. As I remember by default for columns creation/edition and autor/editor properties wont be generated in entity class, so you must override default generation rules to include them.

Hope it'll help.

[Update] Here's an example of xml file the will help you to generete properties for columns:

  <List Name="Employee Certifications">
    <ContentType Name="Item" Class="Certification">
        <Column Name="Author" Member="Author" />
        <Column Name="Created" Member="Created" />
    </ContentType>
  </List>
  <ExcludeOtherLists/>

By overiding default behavior I was able to create Author and Created property for my entity class, so don't give up and try once more.