Running transformation failed due to unknown namespace with keyword "using"

Question

I would like to use the "Using" element in my *.csdl in order to import a other namespace, and use POCO to transform the objects.

I use a CSDL looks like this:

<Schema xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2008/09/edm"
          xmlns:cg="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2006/04/codegeneration"
          xmlns:store="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/12/edm/EntityStoreSchemaGenerator"
          Namespace="BooksModel" Alias="Self">

    <Using Namespace="BooksModel.Extended" Alias="BMExt" />

    <EntityContainer Name="BooksContainer" >
      <EntitySet Name="Publishers" EntityType="BooksModel.Publisher" />
    </EntityContainer>

    <EntityType Name="Publisher">
      <Key>
        <PropertyRef Name="Id" />
      </Key>
      <Property Type="Int32" Name="Id" Nullable="false" />
      <Property Type="String" Name="Name" Nullable="false" />
      <Property Type="BMExt.Address" Name="Address" Nullable="false" />
    </EntityType>

</Schema>

(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb738545.aspx)

However when I use a template (POCO) in order to transform my CSDL, the run tool throw an error of transformation:

Running transformation: No schema encountered with 'BooksModel.Extended' namespace. Make sure the namespace is correct or the schema defining the namespace is specified.

Running transformation: Unknown namespace or alias (BooksModel.Extended).

I load my CSDL like this:

var inputFile = @"CSDL_NAME.csdl";
var ItemCollection = loader.CreateEdmItemCollection(inputFile);

How can I modify the template in order to include the unknown namespace?

Answer 1

The problem behind the error is that you are not loading the other CSDL files in the EdmItemCollection. The solution is to load a String[] with the paths of the necessary CSDL files (including the ones with the imported namespaces) to the EdmItemCollection.

In code, it looks like this:

List<string> lstCsdlPaths = new List<string>();
lstCsdlPaths.Add(@"path\CSDLBase.csdl");
lstCsdlPaths.Add(@"path\CSDLImports.csdl");
var ItemCollection = new EdmItemCollection(lstCsdlPaths.ToArray());