EF and Repository Pattern

Question

I am writing a project in MVC and am using EF 4.0. I am using the repository pattern but am unsure about where to place some properties.

public interface IUserRepository<User> 
{
    User GetUserById(int userId);
    void UpdateUser(User user);
    void AddUser(User user);
    List<User> GetUsersByName(string userName);             
    void Create(User user);      
    int NumberOfFollowers { get; set; }     
}

My two problems are 1). should the property NumberOfFollowers be a property or a method? and 2). should it be placed inside the User entity class instead of the interface?

cheers.

Answer 1

If NumberOfFollowers is a property of a User, it should definitely be on the User class, not the repository. The repository is responsible for getting/putting data only.

Here is my favorite repository implementation for EF:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/ImplRepositoryPatternEF.aspx

This one is terrific, very complete and comes with a lot of features.