title: Decorating an enum on the EF object model with a Description attribute?
body: <p>I have defined an enum in my Entity Framework 5 model, which I'm using to define the type of a field on a table, e.g.</p>
  
  <pre><code>public enum PrivacyLevel : byte {
    Public = 1,
    FriendsOnly = 2,
    Private = 3,
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And I have a table <code>Publication</code> that has a <code>tinyint</code> field <code>PrivacyLevel</code>, which I've mapped in the EF model to use the <code>PrivacyLevel</code> type defined above, using the method described <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/11595087/7850">here</a>.</p>
  
  <p>But I also want to be able to display a string description for each value of the enum.  This I've done in the past for enums by decorating them with a Description attribute, e.g.</p>
  
  <pre><code>public enum PrivacyLevel : byte {
    [Description("Visible to everyone")]
    Public = 1,
    [Description("Only friends can view")]
    FriendsOnly = 2,
    [Description("Only I can view")]
    Private = 3,
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I've got some code that converts enums to strings by checking if they have a Description attribute, and that works well.  But here, because I had to define the enum in my model, the underlying code is auto-generated, and I don't have anywhere stable to decorate them. </p>
  
  <p>Any ideas for a workaround?</p>