cannot add view to the edmx

Each table or view added to entity model must have some key. It actually doesn't have to be primary key. If the table doesn't have the primary key defined EF will try to infer a key using simple rule: It will take all non-nullable non-computed non-binary columns and marks them as an entity key. If none such column exist the entity cannot be automatically added and the designer will throw the mentioned warning. Workaround is adding the view manually and selecting the key yourselves but once you do it you cannot use Update from database because it will always overwrite your changes.

Your defined key should be unique otherwise you can have some other problems related to identity map used internally.

Just add a column to your view I added a Row_Number to create a key like this

SELECT ISNULL(CAST((row_number() OVER (ORDER BY tab.ENTRYDATE)) AS int), 0) 
AS EDMXID,...other columns go on

the tab expression is table alias and the entrydate is just a field needed for row_number built in sql-server func.

you may choose diffrent ways, e.g.

select newid() as MYEDMXID,....so on

Hope Helps

You can easily solve this problem by joining your view with any arbitrary table with a primary column. Just make sure that you only grab a single row from the table.

Here is an example:

CREATE VIEW dbo.myView
AS
SELECT
	-- This column enables EF-import via designer by enabling PK generation
	Id,
	-- These columns belong to the view
	[Count],
	[Sum]
FROM
(
SELECT
	COUNT(*) AS [Count]
	,SUM(1) AS [Sum]
FROM
	dbo.myTable
) TheViewItself
-- Grab a primary key of a single row from atable
INNER JOIN (SELECT TOP 1 Id FROM dbo.TableWithPrimaryKey) Id ON 1 = 1

"ON 1 = 1" join predicate looks odd. But I needed this to convince EF to import the view.