Generic Data Access Layer: Part 1

In this article we will be discussing how we can create a Generic Data Access Layer which we could use in developing our Business Applications.

Lets start by creating a Data Model.

Create a ADO.NET Entity Data Model as shown below :



Once the Data Model is added to my project, I can then move to the next step, Creating a Repository.

Creating a Repository Class

public class Repository<T> where T : EntityObject
    {
        IObjectSet<T> _objectSet;

        /// <summary>
        /// This method is used to pass the Context object as a parameter to the Respository
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="objectContext"></param>
        public Repository(ObjectContext objectContext)
        {
                _objectSet = objectContext.CreateObjectSet<T>();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// This method we manually pass the Context Object
        ///
        /// </summary>
        public Repository()
        {
            DataEntities context = new DataEntities ();
            _objectSet =  context.CreateObjectSet<T>();
        }

        public IQueryable<T> AsQueryable()
        {
            return _objectSet;
        }

        public IEnumerable<T> GetAll()
        {
            return _objectSet.ToList();
        }

        public IEnumerable<T> Find(Expression<Func<T, bool>> where)
        {
            return _objectSet.Where(where);
        }

        public T Single(Expression<Func<T, bool>> where)
        {
            return _objectSet.Single(where);
        }

        public T First(Expression<Func<T, bool>> where)
        {
            return _objectSet.First(where);
        }

        public void Delete(T entity)
        {
            _objectSet.DeleteObject(entity);
        }

        public void Add(T entity)
        {
            _objectSet.AddObject(entity);
        }

        public void Attach(T entity)
        {
            _objectSet.Attach(entity);
        }
    }

I can now use this Repository Class in a Client Project and easily access or modify the Entities using the Above methods.

The client code would look like below :

Repository<Company> company = new Repository<Company>();

            foreach (Company comp in company.GetAll())
            {
                Console.WriteLine(comp.Name);
            }
            Console.ReadLine();

Note that here I am not using the context object at all to get the entities as I have already taken care of that in the below code in Repository Class .

/// <summary>
/// This method we manually pass the Context Object
///
/// </summary>
public Repository()
{
    DataEntities context = new DataEntities ();
    _objectSet =  context.CreateObjectSet<T>();
}

Thanks . In my next post we will look into how we can improve on this Data access Layer which we have just created.