Why should you care?

Clear ShopNest entities (Customer, Order, Product) keep queries readable and stop duplicate email columns scattered across tables.

See it live — copy this example

Paste into a .NET project with EF Core packages, then run with LocalDB/SQL Server (dotnet ef / dotnet run).

public class Customer
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Email { get; set; } = "";
    public string FullName { get; set; } = "";
    public ICollection<Order> Orders { get; set; } = new List<Order>();
}

public class Order
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public int CustomerId { get; set; }
    public Customer Customer { get; set; } = null!;
    public DateTime OrderDate { get; set; }
}

What happened?

• Id is PK by convention.
• CustomerId on Order is FK.
• Customer navigation is many-side; Orders collection is one-to-many pairing.

Practice next

1. Place entities in ShopNest.Domain without EF attributes initially.
2. Draw ER diagram: Customer —< Order —< OrderItem >— Product.
3. Avoid putting API DTO fields on entities — keep persistence separate.
4. Switch ICollection to List and confirm EF still maps the relationship.
5. Add a computed UI field in a separate ProductDto class instead of on Product.

Remember

Entities represent tables in C#. FK + navigation pairs define relationships. Keep entities free of UI concerns.

ShopNest domain model clarity

Team models Customer and Order in Domain project consumed by Infrastructure and API layers.

Outcome: New hires read entities to understand core commerce relationships quickly.