Input values on the edit form are empty, using UI component- Magento 2

This is my ui component file content:

    
        
            vendor_modulename_shippingmethods_form.shippingmethods_form_data_source
        
        General Information
        templates/form/collapsible
    
    
        
            
                entity_id
                entity_id
            
        
    
    

        
            Shipping Method Infomation
        
        
            
                
                    text
                    name
                    Name
                    input
                    name
                
            
            
                
                    false
                
            
        
    

and this is my DataProvider:

    namespace VendorModuleNameModelShippingMethods;

    use VendorModuleNameModelResourceModelShippingMethodsCollectionFactory;

    class DataProvider extends MagentoUiDataProviderAbstractDataProvider
    {

        protected $_loadedData;

        public function __construct(
            $name,
            $primaryFieldName,
            $requestFieldName,
            CollectionFactory $employeeCollectionFactory,
            array $meta = [],
            array $data = []
        ) {
            $this->collection = $employeeCollectionFactory->create();
            parent::__construct($name, $primaryFieldName, $requestFieldName, $meta, $data);
        }

        public function getData()
        {
            if (isset($this->_loadedData)) {
                return $this->_loadedData;
            }
            $items = $this->collection->getItems();
            .......
        }
    }

If I display my query string in the getData() with echo $this->collection->getSelect();, the result is:

SELECT `main_table`.* FROM `mytable` AS `main_table` WHERE (`entity_id` = '') . My id is missing. Not sure how, any idea where to look ?  Thnx in advance