XSD DataSets and ignoring foreign keys

Question

I have and pretty standard table setup in a current application using the .net XSD DataSet and TableAdapter features. My contracts table consists of some standard contract information, with a column for the primary department. This column is a foreign key to my Departments table, where I store the basic department name, id, notes. This is all setup and functioning in my SQL Server.

When I use the XSD tool, I can drag both tables in at once and it auto detects/creates the foreign key I have between these two tables. This works great when I'm on my main page and am viewing contract data.

However, when I go to my administrative page to modify the department data. I typically do something like this:

Dim dtDepartment As New DepartmentDataTable()
Dim taDepartment As New DepartmentTableAdapter()

taDepartment.Fill(dtDepartment)

However, at this point an exception is thrown saying to the effect that there is a foreign key reference broken here, I'm guessing since I don't have the Contract DataTable filled.

Has anybody encountered this before? I know I can simply remove the foreign key from the XSD to make things work fine, but having the additional integrity check there and having the XSD schema match the SQL schema in the database is nice.

Answer 1

You can try turning CheckConstraints off on the DataSet (it's in its properties), or altering the properties of that relationship, and change the key to a simple reference - up to you.

Answer 2

Excellent! Thanks so much. I like that simple reference idea. I think it will work best.