.edmx File Properties
This topic describes the Build Action, Custom Tool, and Custom Tool Namespace properties of an .edmx file.
Note
The properties of an .edmx file are not the same as the conceptual model properties. For more information, see .edmx File Overview.
For more information about the Copy to Output Directory and File Name properties of an .edmx file, see File Properties in the Visual Studio documentation.
Note
The Copy to Output Directory file property is not used to specify that model and mapping files should be copied to the output directory. Instead, use the Metadata Artifact Processing property of the conceptual model. For more information, see How to: Edit Conceptual Model Properties.
To view and edit .edmx file properties in Visual Studio, follow these steps:
Open a project that contains an .edmx file in Visual Studio.
Note
For information about adding an .edmx file to a project, see How to: Create a New Entity Data Model or How to: Add an Existing Entity Data Model.
Right-click the .edmx file in Solution Explorer and select Properties.
The file properties are visible in the Properties window.
The following list describes the Build Action, Custom Tool, and Custom Tool Namespace properties of an .edmx file:
- Build Action
When this property is set to EntityDeploy (the default value), three files are created from the .edmx file when a build is executed: the conceptual model file (.csdl), the storage model file (.ssdl), and the mapping file (.msl). These files are either embedded as resources or copied to the output directory, depending on the value of the Metadata Artifact Processing property of the model. For more information, see How to: Edit Conceptual Model Properties. For information about other values of the Build Action property, see File Properties.
- Custom Tool
When this property is set to EntityModelCodeGenerator (the default value), the Entity Designer creates a source code file that contains classes generated from the conceptual model that is defined in the .edmx file. For more information, see Generated Code Overview (Entity Data Model Tools).
- Custom Tool Namespace
By default, this property is empty. When you provide a value, it will be used as the namespace for the code generated by the tool specified in the Custom Tool property. For more information, see Generated Code Overview (Entity Data Model Tools).