• POCO class is the class that doesn’t depend on any framework specific base class.
• It is like any other normal .NET class that is why it is called “Plain Old CLR Objects”.
• These POCO entities (Persistence-ignorant objects) support most of the behaviors as entity types that are generated by the Entity Data Model.
• Entity can have two types of properties: Scalar properties and Navigation properties.
  • Scalar properties are properties whose actual values are contained in the entity.
  • Navigation properties are pointers to other related entities.

Dynamic Proxy (POCO Proxy)

• Dynamic Proxy is a runtime proxy class of POCO entity.
• "POCO entity" becomes "POCO Proxy entity" if it meets certain requirements.
• POCO Proxy adds some methods at runtime to the POCO class which will help with change tracking and lazy loading.
• The proxy overrides some virtual properties of the entity to insert hooks for performing actions automatically when the property is accessed.
• POCO entity should meet the following requirements to become a POCO proxy:
  1. A custom data class must be public.
  2. A custom data class must not be sealed.
  3. A custom data class must not be abstract.
  4. ProxyCreationEnabled option should not set to false (default is true) in context class.
  5. Each navigation property must be public and virtual.
• By default dynamic proxy is enabled for every entity.
  • You can disable dynamic proxy by setting the ProxyCreationEnabled option to false in context class.

context.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;

Explicitly Creating an Instance of a Proxy

• A proxy instance will not be created if you create an instance of an entity using the new operator.
• If you need to create a proxy instance (for example, so that lazy loading or proxy change tracking will work) then you can do so using the Create method.
• Note that the Create method does not add or attach the created entity to the context.

using (var context = new BloggingContext())
{
    var blog = context.Blogs.Create();
		// The generic version of Create can be used if you want to create an instance of a derived entity type.
		var admin = context.Users.Create<Administrator>();
}

Getting the Actual Entity Type From a Proxy Type

• EDM generates POCO entities which satisfy the above requirements for a dynamic proxy by default.
• At runtime type of YourClass will be System.Data.Entity.DynamicProxies.YourClass.