Visual Studio 2010 Entity Framework .edmx not available to edit

Question

I am trying to edit my .edmx model in Visual Studio 2010 however, the symbol is not correct and when I click to edit it does not present the designer where I can update the model etc

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What I get is just the XML model info as follows:

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Does anyone have any ideas why this may be. The same solution opened on another machines gives me no such issues so its the visual studio set up that is causing this?

possible duplicate of [No Entity Data Model (EDMX) Template with Visual Studio 2010 SP1 & ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.1](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5696436/no-entity-data-model-edmx-template-with-visual-studio-2010-sp1-ado-net-entit) — John, Oct 15 '14 at 15:10

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

I had the exact same issue and tried all sorts of NuGet and other Entity Framework 4 package installs/uninstalls etc. In the end my origninal install of VS 2010 SP1 did not have the "ADO.NET Entity Framework Tools" installed. To check this just open up windows control panel and go to installed programs if you do NOT see "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 ADO.Net Entity Framework Tools" then this IS your issue.

The only way to fix this was to get the Entity files, specifically the .msi and .cab files off of the original Visual Studio install source disk and reinstall. The good news is you do NOT have to reinstall all of Visual Studio! FYI - I surprisingly had no luck finding just these files available online as a seperate package, had to get it off my VS install dvd.

Just follow the instructions below which I found posted on the following site and pasted below, this worked for me. Once I ran the command below I reopened my project and all was good with the world, I did not need to do anything or add any references once back inside my ASP.Net Web Forms project.

No Entity Data Model (EDMX) Template with Visual Studio 2010 SP1 & ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.1

Open the install media for VS2010 and browse to ":\WCU\EFTools". Her you will find two files:

ADONETEntityFrameworkTools_enu.msi

ADONETEntityFrameworkTools_enu.cab

1.Copy those files to a folder on your PC. 2.Create a log file in the folder - for instance with the name "Log.txt" 3.Open a cmd prompt (possibly run the cmd prompt as administrator) and navigate to the folder with the msi and cap files. 4.Run this command:

ADONETEntityFrameworkTools_enu.msi USING_EXUIH=1 /log "Log.txt"

It will take a while to install so be patient.

The installation should now be visible in "Control Panel -> Installed Programs" as "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 ADO.NET Entity Framework Tools".

The items template should be visible in Visual Studio when adding a new item to a project. (Add New Item->Data->ADO.NET Entity Data Model).

Jones · Answer 2 · 2012-08-04T19:55:51.390

2

Try use context menu

select

open with "ADO.NET Entity Data Model designer" option and set this default option.

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edited Aug 04 '12 at 19:55

answered Mar 27 '12 at 20:50

Jones

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@Kevin You still have this problem? – Jones Aug 04 '12 at 19:57
I had the same issue, it was set as the default already but this did not solve the problem. – John Oct 15 '14 at 14:48
@John Check version of your EF. Another check you can do is create another model to see if the error is not in the edmx file. – Jones Oct 15 '14 at 18:52

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 26 '11 at 08:34

-1

Can you verify that you have Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 ADO.NET Entity Framework Tools installed on your machine? Without these tools VS will not recognize entities added to projects.

You can find it here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/ee712906

answered Mar 26 '11 at 08:34

Kasper Holdum

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Many thanks, I have just downloaded and installed this however no Entity Framework templates are available. I have tried creating a new project also but no joy. – Kevin Mar 26 '11 at 08:46
Do you have the SP 1 of VS installed? – Kasper Holdum Mar 26 '11 at 08:50
Thanks, I have just installed SP1 now, but still the same issue? – Kevin Mar 26 '11 at 10:02
I give up then. This should be a standard module in VS2010. Try reinstalling your VS2010. – Kasper Holdum Mar 26 '11 at 10:04

Visual Studio 2010 Entity Framework .edmx not available to edit

3 Answers3