Hi,

I have the ConvertNulledReferenceTypesToDefaultValue=True for my "Single Class Self Servicing 2.0 SQL Server 2000" project. There is a particular entity/collection's property i would like to return nulls instead. I want to bind this entity/collection to a third party menu control - which seems to need nulls to indicate top level menu items.

How may i accomplish?

Thank you, Mark

I would create a partial class with a new property that is something like this and use that property. Most other solutions I thought of would affect other types or be a big task for something that may be fairly rare for you. The original property is TestName

    public partial class EmployeeEntity
    {
        /// <summary> The TestName property of the Entity Employee<br/><br/>
        /// </summary>
        /// <remarks>Mapped on  table field: "Employee"."Test_Name"<br/>
        /// Table field type characteristics (type, precision, scale, length): NChar, 0, 0, 10<br/>
        /// Table field behavior characteristics (is nullable, is PK, is identity): true, false, false</remarks>
        public virtual System.String TestNameNull
        {
            get
            {
                object valueToReturn = base.GetCurrentFieldValue((int)EmployeeFieldIndex.TestName);
                return (System.String)valueToReturn;
            }
            set { SetNewFieldValue((int)EmployeeFieldIndex.TestName, value); }
        }
    }

In my case, the nullable field is a value type.

To restate your suggestion:

1. Modify the generated code by adding a new partial class.

using DmDAL.EntityClasses;
using DmDAL;
namespace DmDAL
{
  public  partial class ShortMenuEntity

1. Add this property to partial class:

 public  partial class ShortMenuEntity
    {
        public virtual object ParentIdNull
        {
            get
            {
                object valueToReturn = base.GetCurrentFieldValue((int)ShortMenuFieldIndex.ParentId);
                return valueToReturn;
            }
            set { SetNewFieldValue((int)ShortMenuFieldIndex.TestName, value); }
        }
    }

I tried the above. During compilation an error was emitted:

Error   1   The type 'DmDAL.ShortMenuEntity' must be convertible to 'SD.LLBLGen.Pro.ORMSupportClasses.EntityBase' in order to use it as parameter 'TEntity' in the generic type or method 'SD.LLBLGen.Pro.ORMSupportClasses.EntityCollectionBase<TEntity>

Thank you for your help!

I think: namespace DmDAL should be namespace DmDAL.EntityClasses

the partial class fragment you wrote is now in another namespace.

Otis wrote:

I think: namespace DmDAL should be namespace DmDAL.EntityClasses

the partial class fragment you wrote is now in another namespace.

That fixed the compiler error - Thank you!

Unfortunately the Telerik RadMenu is still not displayed hiarchially when binding to the LLBLGen generated collection. Apparently it has a problem binding to a datasource that does not implement IHierarchicalDataSource i.e. http://www.telerik.com/community/forums/thread/b311D-chagh.aspx

I saw your related comment about the difficulties involved in implementing this interface: http://www.llblgen.com/TinyForum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=6688&HighLight=1

I guess my options are: 1. Convert the LLBGen EnityCollection to a datatable and bind to that in codebehind. 2. Use the SqlDataSource.

1. Convert the LLBGen EnityCollection to a datatable and bind to that in codebehind.

You can fetch a DynamicList or a TypedList from the start. (both are dataTables) Or you can use Projection to project an EntityCollection EntityView to a DataTable.

Walaa wrote:

You can fetch a DynamicList or a TypedList from the start. (both are dataTables) Or you can use Projection to project an EntityCollection EntityView to a DataTable.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I tried this and it failed to display menu hiearchially. The failure may be due to the handling of a null parentId field by returning "0". Unfortunately I need to move on, so I will bind the RadMenu to a SqlDataSource for now.

Thank you all for your help! Mark

The hierarchical data interface isn't supported on the controls as you've read, so indeed you need to find another solution in that case.