edmx - How can I make the Entity data model designer use my database column descriptions?

Question

I am using EF4 with Visual Studio 2010. I have a SQL database already created and all my columns are documented with the Description property in SQL management studio. When I create the edmx in Visual Studio, how can I make it read those descriptions and use them to add comments to my generated classes? I know I can use the Summary and LongDescription in the edmx properties but I'm looking for a way to do this without having to copy and paste every description.

Thanks!

Answer 1

There is a feature request for this. Feel free to add your votes to help make this available in the future: Retrieve the SQL Descriptions in Entity-Framework feature request

Huagati has some great tools for working with EF and L2S. One of the features is updating the EF documentation based on the SQL database: Huagati website

From the website: Update ADO.NET Entity Data Model documentation from database retrieves free-text table and column descriptions, and index definitions from the database and updates the xml documentation fields in the EDMX designer with the descriptions.

It seems they look for these fields in the database and then update the model XML directly. Probably someone could create a VS Add-In that would do the same without the price if this is the only feature you wanted. I'll add this to my list of "future" projects (though I never seem to find time for these!).

Hope that helps!