Navigation property
A navigation property is an ORM-mapped entity property that represents an association with a related entity or collection of entities.
Building Web APIs with ASP.NET Core
A navigation property is an entity property that represents an associated entity or collection of entities in an object-relational model.
- How it is used
- Connects related EF Core entities so object properties can represent database joins transparently.
- How deep it goes
- Explains single and collection properties, reciprocal declarations, and Fluent API mapping, stopping short of query-loading behavior.
- Examples
- Uses BoardGame, Domain, Mechanic, Publisher, Category, and junction entities to demonstrate one-to-many and many-to-many mappings.
- What you can do after
- Build it from scratch by adding reciprocal properties and configuring their foreign-key relationships with the EF Core Fluent API.
Read how Building Web APIs with ASP.NET Core explains navigation property →
Pro ASP.NET Core 7, Tenth Edition
A navigation property is an entity property that represents an association with a related entity or collection of entities in an object-relational model.
- How it is used
- Connects entity models to related-data queries, web-service responses, and form fields displaying related values.
- How deep it goes
- Explains model declarations, Include loading, response serialization failures, and nested form expressions; does not develop a general relationship-mapping procedure.
- Examples
- Uses products, suppliers, and categories to demonstrate a collection query, an object-cycle error, and nested form inputs.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via Entity Framework Core Include to load related data, then choose suitable response properties or nested form expressions.
Read how Pro ASP.NET Core 7, Tenth Edition explains navigation property →
.NET in Action, Second Edition
A navigation property is an ORM-mapped object or collection property that traverses a relationship to related entities.
- How it is used
- Models entity relationships that EF Core can use when joining related records.
- How deep it goes
- Explains object, collection, and optional navigations plus foreign-key conventions, but defers explicit-configuration techniques.
- Examples
- Uses Book, Rating, and Tag entities with collection properties, Include queries, and console output.
- What you can do after
- Build entity relationships and query related records through EF Core navigation properties.
Read how .NET in Action, Second Edition explains navigation property →
Related concepts
- Entity Framework Coreuses · Entity Framework Core is a cross-platform object-relational mapping framework for .NET that enables applications to query and persist data through .NET objects and APIs.
- Includeused by · Include is an Entity Framework Core query extension method that specifies related navigation properties to load with queried entities.
- model directiveused by · The @model directive is a Razor directive that declares the model type associated with a page or view.
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