It was several times that I faced this annoying situation till I decided to handle it myself.
The story is simple.
I am using EF designer to mirror the database tables into a .NET DAL.
In the database there is a view that reflects a table or returns a table with additional information I want to keep separated from the table.
I do want to be able to navigate from the table to the view in a short way:
Dim table = context.Items.FirstOrDefault
table.TableViewReference.Load()
Dim view = table.View
To be able to set relationships between tables in EF, you manually have to apply several changes to the .edmx file.
The bad news, is that once you click "Update Model From Database" and regenerate your model, all your changes are gone and you have to modify the edmx file once again.
I tried few ways thru the designer but I haven't come along to something satisfactory.
So I developed my own extension to the designer that does the job (processes the view keys) for you.
You then only have to add relationships and referencial constraints and you're set!
If you ever encoutered this issue before, go ahead and install this extension: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/d9b76b5d-d45c-4e79-8d28-31444be582de.
I also posted a connection to Microsoft, I hope them to implement this out-the-box and improve the functionality for views and relationships between them.
I don't really count on it for upcoming version, from what I spoke to a few MS employees we'll still have to wait, it's not implemented in the CTP4 either.
Don't forget to rate, comment, etc. etc. blah blah blah