Introduction

This article demonstrates an interesting and very useful concept in Entity Framework.

Question: What are entity command objects?

In simple terms "It enables use of entity command objects to query based on the Entity Framework".

Step 1: Create a new web application

datamodel.png

Step 2: Adding a new Entity Data Model Framework

datamodel1.png

Step 3: The complete code of WebForm1.aspx is as in the following:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="WebForm1.aspx.cs" Inherits="EntityClientSelectData.WebForm1" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head id="Head1" runat="server">
 <title></title>
</head>
<body>
 <form id="form1" runat="server">
 <div>
 <center>
 <div>
 <table>
 <tr>
 <td colspan="2" align="center">
 <asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text="Select Data - Entity Client" Font-Bold="true" Font-Size="Large" Font-Names="Verdana"
ForeColor="Maroon"></asp:Label></td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td colspan="2" align="center">
 <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Select Data" Font-Names="Verdana" Width="213px" BackColor="Orange" Font-Bold="True"
OnClick="Button1_Click" /></td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td colspan="2" align="center">
 <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" CssClass="grid" BackColor="LightGoldenrodYellow" BorderColor="Tan" BorderWidth="1px" CellPadding="2"
ForeColor="Black" GridLines="None">
 <AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="PaleGoldenrod" />
 <FooterStyle BackColor="Tan" />
 <HeaderStyle BackColor="Tan" Font-Bold="True" />
 <PagerStyle BackColor="PaleGoldenrod" ForeColor="DarkSlateBlue" HorizontalAlign="Center" />
 <SelectedRowStyle BackColor="DarkSlateBlue" ForeColor="GhostWhite" />
 <SortedAscendingCellStyle BackColor="#FAFAE7" />
 <SortedAscendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#DAC09E" />
 <SortedDescendingCellStyle BackColor="#E1DB9C" />
 <SortedDescendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#C2A47B" />
 <EmptyDataTemplate>No Records Found!</EmptyDataTemplate>
 </asp:GridView>
 </td>
 </tr>
 </table>
 </div>
 </center>
 </div>
 </form>
</body>
</html>

Step 4: The complete code of WebForm1.aspx.cs is as in the following:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Data.EntityClient;
using System.Data;
namespace EntityClientSelectData
{
public partial class WebForm1 : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { }
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
using (EntityConnection objConn = new EntityConnection("name=CompanyEntities"))
{
objConn.Open(); using (EntityCommand command = new EntityCommand("SELECT VALUE e FROM
CompanyEntities.tblEmployee AS e", objConn))
{
EntityDataReader objReader = command.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.SequentialAccess);
GridView1.DataSource = objReader;
GridView1.DataBind();
}
}
}
}
}

Step 5: The output of the application is as in the following:

datamodel2.png

Step 6: The select data output of the application is as in the following:

datamodel3.png

I hope this article was useful for you. I look forward for your comments and feedback. Thanks Vijay.