Entity Framework Code First Approach to Xamarin.Forms PCL app

Question

Can I have a .NET Class Library project with Entity Framework 6.1.1 (in windowsazure.mobileservices.backend.entity nuget package) work with Xamarin.Forms PCL app? Is this achievable? If not what are the possible complications?

Question Background: I am working on a Xamarin.Forms cross platform PCL app with Azure Mobile Services back-end, targeting Android, iOS, Windows 8.1 and WinPhone 8.1. I actually dont care about Windows 8.1 but Visual Studio does not allow me to remove this target. So it stays.

Azure Mobile Services is setup, but I need the tables to be generated automatically (strongly avoiding manually typing table definitions in azure portal). I decided to go EF code first way with windowsazure.mobileservices.backend.entity nuget package to achieve this. However, the Xamarin.Forms PCL project does not support additional assemblies. I am thinking of adding this package into a separate class library project and referring to it from the PCL project.

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

The EntityData type is the required superclass of DTOs on the server SDK. Unfortunately, it has dependencies that are not supported in a PCL project, so it has to be used with a full .NET 4.5 project.

You could instead use partial classes to share DTOs between client and server. Just put all of the non system property types in a common code file that's shared between client and server. Then, on the client, add the system property implementation (ID field, UpdatedAt optionally, Version optionally). On the server, add another partial class definition that inherits from EntityData.