EDIT: I have submitted a bug report and Microsoft have acknowledge that it is a bug. There is currently no ETA on when it will be fixed.
Bug Report: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=386982
Official Feedback: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vswpfdesigner/thread/ca3cac55-c1de-4e65-9543-e95484ad78c5/
I have a solution structured in the following way.
- Entity framework project
- Data access project
- WPF application project
The WPF application calls methods in the data access project which gets it's data from the entity framework project and binds it in XAML.
e.g.
<UserControl.Resources>
<ObjectDataProvider x:Key="tokens"
ObjectType="{x:Type ctl:MerchantNetworkController}"
MethodName="ListMerchantNetworkTokens" />
</UserControl.Resources>
The problem i have is that the VS 2008 designer won't load when i call functions from the data access project, I can however compile and run the solution fine.
When i create a function in the code behind of the XAML and use that instead of the data access project it works fine and the designer actually loads. The problem just occurs when i make a call to the data access project.
The error message i get from the designer is
"The specified named connection is either not found in the configuration, not intended to be used with the EntityClient provider, or not valid"
I have the following connection string in the App.config of the WPF project and the data access project
<add name="Entities"
connectionString="metadata=C:\EFModel\Model.csdl|C:\EFModel\Model.ssdl|C:\EFModel\Model.msl;
provider=System.Data.SqlClient;
provider connection string='Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=database;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=username;Password=password;MultipleActiveResultSets=True'"
providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />
I am using VS 2008 sp1, .NET 3.5 sp1, Vista 32 bit