Is there a way to exclude fields from being used in the BO?

Same question from me.

Do you mean through the business object mapper?

If you want to exclude a column from being produced, you can "customize" the field (right-click the field within the BOMapper -> Customize Field -> Check "Use Custom Code" -> don't enter anything in the custom code blank.  When the partial class is built, the property will be omitted.

If you mean at runtime, then yes, you can retrieve a subset of the columns from the database because the DataTable's structure is independent of the business object's properties, however, when you want to save a business object, you will need all of the columns present, or you will get an error while saving.

When I click on 'Customize Code' then leave the field blank and click Ok, it unchecks it.

Put carriage return or two into the custom field area and it will allow you to omit the field.

Ok, I don't think its working. I added the carriage return and it saved the custom code but didn't exclude the field from the BO.



Here's the real reason I'm asking about excluding a field...I have a table that has a primary key composed of two fields. Neither of these fields is an autonumber... they rely on the combinatio of the data in both these fields to be unqiue to form the primary key. Then I have a field called UniqueID which is an autonumber field but it isnt a primary key. So when I edit these records and then try to save the changes it's throwing a fit because it can't update the autonumber field. I thought if I could just exclude the field from the BO that would solve the problem, but maybe thats not the approach you would suggest.

No, what you need is the ability to exclude a column from the update.  Paul Chase is running into the same problem with his RowGuidCol he's using for replication... you can't update is once it's been INSERTED.  I'm running through the possible options right now.  Easiest thing would be to have a property where you declare the columns that should be excluded from updates.

I didn't read the entire thread.  I was just assuming to exclude the strong-typed property.  Oops.

That's what I assumed at first as well, then Mike explained what he was tring to do, and I noticed Paul was having the same problem with his guid values for replication.

I thought maybe I could create a view that was identical to the table then just exclude the column from the view. Then use the view in the mapper for the structure. But when I tried to save my changes it said it couldn't create an update statement because there were no PrimaryKeyFields. Is that an error because I cant bind a view to the BO or am I missing something?