Restrict SqlEntityConnection Type Provider to only certain tables

Question

I am writing a utility for myself that needs to be able to access a pair of tables in a SQL database. I used the SqlEntityConnection Type Provider and was rewarded with the data I needed from the table as easy to use entities.

One thing I noticed though was that startup and compiling of the project increased by quite a lot. I suspect this is because the database has over a hundred tables and it's compiling and getting data from all of them as opposed to just the two I need. Is there a way to restrict the EntityTypeProvider to only referencing the needed tables in the schema?

type private EntityConnection = SqlEntityConnection<ConnectionString="Server=Server;Initial Catalog=Database;Integrated Security=SSPI;MultipleActiveResultSets=true", Pluralize = true>

let private context = EntityConnection.GetDataContext()

Answer 1

I have not tried this myself, but I think you could add a new "ADO.NET Entity Data Model" (edmx) file to your project, let it generate from your existing database, and then delete from the model every table you don't want accessible to your code.

The EDMX designer will generate a *.csdl file that you can then reference from the LocalSchemaFile parameter of SqlEntityConnection. You'd use this parameter instead of ConnectionString.

The end result is that the entity provider would not automatically pick up changes to your database, but compilation times will go down, and only the tables you care about would be visible to your code.