How to use LINQ to Entities to make a left join using a static value - .net-4.0

Question

I've got a few tables, Deployment, Deployment_Report and Workflow. In the event that the deployment is being reviewed they join together so you can see all details in the report. If a revision is going out, the new workflow doesn't exist yet new workflow is going into place so I'd like the values to return null as the revision doesn't exist yet.
Complications aside, this is a sample of the SQL that I'd like to have run:
DECLARE #WorkflowID int
SET #WorkflowID = 399 -- Set to -1 if new
SELECT *
FROM Deployment d
LEFT JOIN Deployment_Report r
ON d.FSJ_Deployment_ID = r.FSJ_Deployment_ID
AND r.Workflow_ID = #WorkflowID
WHERE d.FSJ_Deployment_ID = 339
The above in SQL works great and returns the full record if viewing an active workflow, or the left side of the record with empty fields for revision details which haven't been supplied in the event that a new report is being generated.
Using various samples around S.O. I've produced some Entity to SQL based on a few multiple on statements but I feel like I'm missing something fundamental to make this work:
int Workflow_ID = 399 // or -1 if new, just like the above example
from d in context.Deployments
join r in context.Deployment_Reports.DefaultIfEmpty()
on
new { d.Deployment_ID, Workflow_ID }
equals
new { r.Deployment_ID, r.Workflow_ID }
where d.FSJ_Deployment_ID == fsj_deployment_id
select new
{
...
}
Is the SQL query above possible to create using LINQ to Entities without employing Entity SQL? This is the first time I've needed to create such a join since it's very confusing to look at but in the report it's the only way to do it right since it should only return one record at all times.
The workflow ID is a value passed in to the call to retrieve the data source so in the outgoing query it would be considered a static value (for lack of better terminology on my part)

Answer 1

First of all don't kill yourself on learning the intricacies of EF as there are a LOT of things to learn about it. Unfortunately our deadlines don't like the learning curve!
Here's examples to learn over time:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397895.aspx
In the mean time I've found this very nice workaround using EF for this kind of thing:
var query = "SELECT * Deployment d JOIN Deployment_Report r d.FSJ_Deployment_ID = r.Workflow_ID = #WorkflowID d.FSJ_Deployment_ID = 339"
var parm = new SqlParameter(parameterName="WorkFlowID" value = myvalue);
using (var db = new MyEntities()){
db.Database.SqlQuery<MyReturnType>(query, parm.ToArray());
}
All you have to do is create a model for what you want SQL to return and it will fill in all the values you want. The values you are after are all the fields that are returned by the "Select *"...
There's even a really cool way to get EF to help you. First find the table with the most fields, and get EF to generated the model for you. Then you can write another class that inherits from that class adding in the other fields you want. SQL is able to find all fields added regardless of class hierarchy. It makes your job simple.
Warning, make sure your filed names in the class are exactly the same (case sensitive) as those in the database. The goal is to make a super class model that contains all the fields of all the join activity. SQL just knows how to put them into that resultant class giving you strong typing ability and even more important use-ability with LINQ
You can even use dataannotations in the Super Class Model for displaying other names you prefer to the User, this is a super nice way to keep the table field names but show the user something more user friendly.