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EF Core upsert child entities upon parent entity save

I have a DDD aggregate with User as root and Appointment as the child records. I want, when I save a User in my repository, the existing child appointments of the User are updated and the child appointment which do not exist in the database be inserted.
I have for each entity a domain class and a persistence class
I have read this post on the matter and I think I understand what the accepted answer explained, so I went with the following logic :
public async Task Update(IApplicationUserWithAppointments domainUserEntity)
{
ApplicationUserEntity persistenceUserEntity = await FindEntityById(domainUserEntity.Id);
IDictionary<Guid, AppointmentEntity> appointmentEntitiesById =
persistenceUserEntity.Appointments
.ToDictionary(appointmentEntity => appointmentEntity.Id, appointmentEntity => appointmentEntity);
persistenceUserEntity.UserName = domainUserEntity.UserName;
persistenceUserEntity.Password = domainUserEntity.Password;
persistenceUserEntity.FirstName = domainUserEntity.FirstName;
persistenceUserEntity.LastName = domainUserEntity.LastName;
persistenceUserEntity.Role = domainUserEntity.Role;
persistenceUserEntity.Validated = domainUserEntity.Validated;
persistenceUserEntity.Appointments = domainUserEntity.Appointments
.Select(appointment => BuildOrUpdateAppointmentEntity(appointmentEntitiesById, appointment))
.ToList();
this.context.Users.Update(persistenceUserEntity);
}
private static AppointmentEntity BuildOrUpdateAppointmentEntity(IDictionary<Guid, AppointmentEntity> appointmentEntitiesById,
Appointment appointment)
{
if (!appointmentEntitiesById.ContainsKey(appointment.Id))
{
return new AppointmentEntity(appointment);
}
AppointmentEntity appointmentEntity = appointmentEntitiesById[appointment.Id];
appointmentEntity.State = appointment.State.Name;
appointmentEntity.DateTime = appointment.DateTime;
return appointmentEntity;
}
The logic is that I retrieve the user entity from the database with its appointments (to avoid detached entity error). Then, I map the appointment entity, updating those which exist and creating the new one.
This logic works well for the update of existing appointment records, but for the insertion of new appointments records, the following unit test fails :
public async Task Update_ChildRecord_InsertChildRecordInDb()
{
// Given
ApplicationUserEntity entity = await this.dbDataFactory.InsertValidatedLifeAssistant();
var repository = new ApplicationUserRepository(this.context, factory);
entity.Appointments.Add(new AppointmentEntity()
{
Id = Guid.NewGuid(),
State = "Planned",
DateTime = DateTime.Today.AddDays(3)
});
// When
await repository.Update(entity.ToDomainEntity(new AppointmentStateFactory()));
await repository.Save();
// Then
entity = await this.context
.Users
.Include(u => u.Appointments)
.FirstAsync(item => item.Id == entity.Id);
(await this.context.Appointments.CountAsync()).Should().Be(1);
}
With the following error :
The database operation was expected to affect 1 row(s), but actually affected 0 row(s); data may have been modified or deleted since entities were loaded. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=527962 for information on understanding and handling optimistic concurrency exceptions.
On the Save call of the update.
I don't understand why my logic is not working. Thank you in advance

After a lot of debugging, and thank to a github post I realised that my problem was that my child record had already an Id generated, and EF Core did not expected it to. I solved my problem with by using ValueGeneratedNever() in my onModelCreating model definition. Ex :
modelBuilder.Entity<AppointmentEntity>().HasKey(appointment => appointment.Id);
modelBuilder.Entity<AppointmentEntity>().Property(appointment => appointment.Id).ValueGeneratedNever();
modelBuilder.Entity<AppointmentEntity>().Property(appointment => appointment.State);
modelBuilder.Entity<AppointmentEntity>().Property(appointment => appointment.DateTime);

The instance of the entity type cannot be tracked because another instance with the keyvalue is being tracked

I am basically trying to implement CRUD using EntityFrameWork core and .Net core 3.1. I have an issue with my update operation where I am not able update the context with the modified value.
I am using postman to initiate the request.
As you can see in the code below, I am trying to check if that customer exist and if it does pass the modified object to the context.
Function code
[FunctionName("EditCustomer")]
public async Task<IActionResult> Run(
[HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Anonymous,"post", Route = "update-customer")] HttpRequest req)
{
var customer = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<CustomerViewModel>(new StreamReader(req.Body).ReadToEnd());
await _repo.UpdateCustomer(customer);
return new OkResult();
}
Repository method
public async Task UpdateCustomer(CustomerViewModel customerViewModel)
{
if (customerViewModel.CustomerId != null)
{
var customer = _context.Customers.Where(c => c.CustomerId.Equals(customerViewModel.CustomerId)).FirstOrDefault();
if (customer == null)
{
throw new Exception("customer not found");
}
else
{
_context.Customers.Update(_mapper.Map<Customers>(customerViewModel));
await _context.SaveChangesAsync();
}
}
}
Mapping
public class CustomerManagerProfile : Profile
{
public CustomerManagerProfile()
{
CreateMap<CustomerDetails, CustomerDetailsViewModel>().ReverseMap();
CreateMap<CustomerOrders, CustomerOrdersViewModel>().ReverseMap();
CreateMap<CustomerOrderDetails, OrderDetailsViewModel>().ReverseMap();
CreateMap<Customers, CustomerViewModel>().ReverseMap();
}
}
Solution
public async Task UpdateCustomer(CustomerViewModel customerViewModel)
{
if (customerViewModel.CustomerId != null)
{
var customer = _context.Customers.Where(c => c.CustomerId.Equals(customerViewModel.CustomerId)).FirstOrDefault();
if (customer == null)
{
throw new Exception("customer not found");
}
else
{
var customerModel = _mapper.Map<Customers>(customerViewModel);
_context.Entry<Customers>(customer).State = EntityState.Detached;
_context.Entry<Customers>(customerModel).State = EntityState.Modified;
await _context.SaveChangesAsync();
}
}
}

Entity Framework tracks your entities for you. For simplicity's sake, think of it like keeping a dictionary (for every table) where the dictionary key is equal to your entity's PK.
The issue is that you can't add two items of the same key in a dictionary, and the same logic applies to EF's change tracker.
Let's look at your repository:
var customer = _context
.Customers
.Where(c => c.CustomerId.Equals(customerViewModel.CustomerId))
.FirstOrDefault();
The fetched customer is retrieved from the database and the change tracker puts it in his dictionary.
var mappedCustomer = _mapper.Map<Customers>(customerViewModel);
_context.Customers.Update();
I split your code in two steps for the sake of my explanation.
It's important to realize that EF can only save changes to tracked objects. So when you call Update, EF executes the following check:
Is this the same (reference-equal) object as one I have I my change tracker?
If yes, then it's already in my change tracker.
If not, then add this object to my change tracker.
In your case, the mappedCustomer is a different object than customer, and therefore EF tries to add mappedCustomer to the change tracker. Since customer is already in there, and customer and mappedCustomer have the same PK value, this creates a conflict.
The exception you see is the outcome of that conflict.
Since you don't need to actually track your original customer object (since EF doesn't do anything with it after fetching it), the shortest solution is to tell EF to not track customer:
var customer = _context
.Customers
.AsNoTracking()
.Where(c => c.CustomerId.Equals(customerViewModel.CustomerId))
.FirstOrDefault();
Since customer is now not put into the change tracker, mappedCustomer won't cause a conflict anymore.
However, you don't actually need to fetch this customer at all. You're only interested in knowing whether it exists. So instead of letting EF fetch the entire customer object, we can do this:
bool customerExists = _context
.Customers
.Any(c => c.CustomerId.Equals(customerViewModel.CustomerId));
This also solves the issue since you never fetch the original customer, so it never gets tracked. It also saves you a bit of bandwidth in the process. It's admittedly negligible by itself, but if you repeat this improvement across your codebase, it may become more significent.

The most simple adjustment that you could make would be to avoid tracking your Customers on retrieval like this:
var customer = _context
.Customers
.AsNoTracking() // This method tells EF not to track results of the query.
.Where(c => c.CustomerId.Equals(customerViewModel.CustomerId))
.FirstOrDefault();
It's not entirely clear from the code, but my guess is your mapper returns a new instance of Customer with the same ID, which confuses EF. If you would instead modify that same instance, your call to .Update() should work as well:
var customer = _context.Customers.Where(c => c.CustomerId.Equals(customerViewModel.CustomerId)).FirstOrDefault();
customer.Name = "UpdatedName"; // An example.
_context.Customers.Update(customer);
await _context.SaveChangesAsync();
As a matter of fact, if you track your Customer you don't even need to explicitly call .Update() method, the purpose of tracking is to be aware of what changes were made to the entities and should be saved to the database. Therefore this will also work:
// Customer is being tracked by default.
var customer = _context.Customers.Where(c => c.CustomerId.Equals(customerViewModel.CustomerId)).FirstOrDefault();
customer.Name = "UpdatedName"; // An example.
await _context.SaveChangesAsync();
EDIT:
The solution you yourself provide begins by tracking the results of your query (the Customer) instance, then stops tracking it (a.k.a. gets detached) before writing to database and instead starts tracking the instance that represents the updated Customer and also marks it as modified. Obviously that works as well, but is just a less efficient and elegant way of doing so.
As a matter of fact if you use this bizarre approach, I don't see the reason for fetching your Customer at all. Surely you could just:
if (!(await _context.Customers.AnyAsync(c => c.CustomerId == customerViewModel.CustomerId)))
{
throw new Exception("customer not found");
}
var customerModel = _mapper.Map<Customers>(customerViewModel);
_context.Customers.Update(customerModel);
await _context.SaveChangesAsync();

You use AutoMapper wrong way. It is not created to map from View model or DTO to Entity classes. It makes many problems and you are facing with only one of them now.
If you have more complex bussiness logic in you app (not just udpate all fields), it will be horrible to manage, test and debug what actually is happening in your code. You should write you own logic with some bussiness validation in case when you want to make some other update than CRUD.
If I were you I would create UpdateFields method in Customer class which would update them and finally call SaveChanges. It depends on whether you use anemic entity (anti)pattern or not. If you do not want your entity class to have any method you can create just method which manually map you VM do entity with some domain validation

EF5 can not handle Concurrency when Updating selective fields

I am using EF5 and Data First approach to Update entities.
I am using approach suggested by other questions to conditionally update only modified properties in the Entities.
Oki so here's the scenario My controller call Service with POCO objects and gets POCO objects from Service, The Service layer talks with Data layer which internally uses EF5 to retrieve entity from DB and Update them in DB.
The View data is loaded by controller from DTO object retrieved from Service layer.
User makes changes to View and Posts back JSON data to controller which gets mapped to DTO object in controller (courtesy MVC).
The controller makes call to Service layer with the DTO object (POCO) object.
The Service maps the POCO object to EF entity object and calls the Data layer's(i.e Repository) Update method passing in the EF entity.
In the Repository I fetch the existing entity from DB and call ApplyCurrentvaluesValues method, then I check if any properties are modified .
If properties are modified then I apply my custom logic to other entities which are not related to current entity and also Update the "UpdatedAdminId" & "UpdationDate" of current entity.
Post this I call "SaveChanges" method on Centext.
Every thing above I mentioned is working fine , except if I insert a break point in "SaveChanges" call and update some field modified by User to different value then "DbUpdateConcurrencyException" is not thrown by EF5.
i.e. I can get conditional Update & fire my custom logic when properties of my interest are modified to work perfectly.
But I am not getting error in case of the concurrency i.e the EF is not raising "DbUpdateConcurrencyException" in case a record is updated in between me fetching the record from DB , updating the record and saving it.
In real scenario there is a offline cron running which checks for newly created campaign and creates portfolio for them and marks the IsPortfolioCreated property below as true, in the mean time user can edit the campaign and the flag can be set to false even though the cron has created the portfolios.
To replicate the concurrency scenario I put a break point on SaveChanges and then Update the IsPortfolioCreated feild from MS-Sql enterprise manager for the same entity, but the "DbUpdateConcurrencyException" is not thrown even though the Data in Store has been updated.
Here's my code for reference,
Public bool EditGeneralSettings(CampaignDefinition campaignDefinition)
{
var success = false;
//campaignDefinition.UpdatedAdminId is updated in controller by retreiving it from RquestContext, so no its not comgin from client
var updatedAdminId = campaignDefinition.UpdatedAdminId;
var updationDate = DateTime.UtcNow;
CmsContext context = null;
GlobalMasterContext globalMasterContext = null;
try
{
context = new CmsContext(SaveTimeout);
var contextCampaign = context.CampaignDefinitions.Where(x => x.CampaignId == campaignDefinition.CampaignId).First();
//Always use this fields from Server, no matter what comes from client
campaignDefinition.CreationDate = contextCampaign.CreationDate;
campaignDefinition.UpdatedAdminId = contextCampaign.UpdatedAdminId;
campaignDefinition.UpdationDate = contextCampaign.UpdationDate;
campaignDefinition.AdminId = contextCampaign.AdminId;
campaignDefinition.AutoDecision = contextCampaign.AutoDecision;
campaignDefinition.CampaignCode = contextCampaign.CampaignCode;
campaignDefinition.IsPortfolioCreated = contextCampaign.IsPortfolioCreated;
var campaignNameChanged = contextCampaign.CampaignName != campaignDefinition.CampaignName;
// Will be used in the below if condition....
var originalSkeForwardingDomain = contextCampaign.skeForwardingDomain.ToLower();
var originalMgForwardingDomain = contextCampaign.mgForwardingDomain.ToLower();
//This also not firing concurreny exception....
var key = ((IObjectContextAdapter) context).ObjectContext.CreateEntityKey("CampaignDefinitions", campaignDefinition);
((IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext.AttachTo("CampaignDefinitions", contextCampaign);
var updated = ((IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext.ApplyCurrentValues(key.EntitySetName, campaignDefinition);
ObjectStateEntry entry = ((IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext.ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntry(updated);
var modifiedProperties = entry.GetModifiedProperties();
//Even tried this , works fine but no Concurrency exception
//var entry = context.Entry(contextCampaign);
//entry.CurrentValues.SetValues(campaignDefinition);
//var modifiedProperties = entry.CurrentValues.PropertyNames.Where(propertyName => entry.Property(propertyName).IsModified).ToList();
// If any fields modified then only set Updation fields
if (modifiedProperties.Count() > 0)
{
campaignDefinition.UpdatedAdminId = updatedAdminId;
campaignDefinition.UpdationDate = updationDate;
//entry.CurrentValues.SetValues(campaignDefinition);
updated = ((IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext.ApplyCurrentValues(key.EntitySetName, campaignDefinition);
//Also perform some custom logic in other entities... Then call save changes
context.SaveChanges();
//If campaign name changed call a SP in different DB..
if (campaignNameChanged)
{
globalMasterContext = new GlobalMasterContext(SaveTimeout);
globalMasterContext.Rename_CMS_Campaign(campaignDefinition.CampaignId, updatedAdminId);
globalMasterContext.SaveChanges();
}
}
success = true;
}
catch (DbUpdateConcurrencyException ex)
{
//Code never enters here, if it does then I am planning to show the user the values from DB and ask him to retry
//In short Store Wins Strategy
//Code in this block is not complete so dont Stackies don't start commenting about this section and plague the question...
// Get the current entity values and the values in the database
var entry = ex.Entries.Single();
var currentValues = entry.CurrentValues;
var databaseValues = entry.GetDatabaseValues();
// Choose an initial set of resolved values. In this case we
// make the default be the values currently in the database.
var resolvedValues = databaseValues.Clone();
// Update the original values with the database values and
// the current values with whatever the user choose.
entry.OriginalValues.SetValues(databaseValues);
entry.CurrentValues.SetValues(resolvedValues);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
if (ex.InnerException != null)
throw ex.InnerException;
throw;
}
finally
{
if (context != null) context.Dispose();
if (globalMasterContext != null) globalMasterContext.Dispose();
}
return success;
}

Entity framework it's not doing anything special about concurrency until you (as developer) configure it to check for concurrency problems.
You are trying to catch DbUpdateConcurrencyException, the documentation for this exception says: "Exception thrown by DbContext when it was expected that SaveChanges for an entity would result in a database update but in fact no rows in the database were affected. ", you can read it here
In a database first approach, you have to set the property 'Concurrency Mode' for column on 'Fixed' (the default is None). Look at this screenshot:
The column Version is a SQL SERVER TIMESTAMP type, a special type that is automatically updated every time the row changes, read about it here.
With this configuration, you can try with this simple test if all is working as expected:
try
{
using (var outerContext = new testEntities())
{
var outerCust1 = outerContext.Customer.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Id == 1);
outerCust1.Description += "modified by outer context";
using (var innerContext = new testEntities())
{
var innerCust1 = innerContext.Customer.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Id == 1);
innerCust1.Description += "modified by inner context";
innerContext.SaveChanges();
}
outerContext.SaveChanges();
}
}
catch (DbUpdateConcurrencyException ext)
{
Console.WriteLine(ext.Message);
}
In the example above the update from the inner context will be committed, the update from the outer context will thrown a DbUpdateConcurrencyException, because EF will try to update the entity using 2 columns as a filters: the Id AND the Version column.
Hope this helps!

Attaching an entity of type failed because another entity of the same type already has the same primary key value

Error message: Attaching an entity of type failed because another entity of the same type already has the same primary key value.
Question: How do I attached an entity in a similar fashion as demonstrated in the AttachActivity method in the code below?
I have to assume the "another entity" part of the error message above refers to an object that exists in memory but is out of scope (??). I note this because the Local property of the DBSet for the entity type I am trying to attach returns zero.
I am reasonably confident the entities do not exist in the context because I step through the code and watch the context as it is created. The entities are added in the few lines immediately following creation of the dbcontext.
Am testing for attached entities as specified here:what is the most reasonable way to find out if entity is attached to dbContext or not?
When looking at locals in the locals window of visual studio I see no entities of type Activity (regardless of ID) except the one I am trying to attach.
The code executes in this order: Try -> ModifyProject -> AttachActivity
Code fails in the AttachActivity at the commented line.
Note the code between the debug comments which will throw if any entities have been added to the context.
private string AttachActivity(Activity activity)
{
string errorMsg = ValidateActivity(activity); // has no code yet. No. It does not query db.
if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(errorMsg))
{
// debug
var state = db.Entry(activity).State; // Detached
int activityCount = db.Activities.Local.Count;
int projectCount = db.Activities.Local.Count;
if (activityCount > 0 || projectCount > 0)
throw new Exception("objects exist in dbcontext");
// end debug
if (activity.ID == 0)
db.Activities.Add(activity);
else
{
db.Activities.Attach(activity); // throws here
db.Entry(activity).State = System.Data.Entity.EntityState.Modified;
}
}
return errorMsg;
}
public int ModifyProject(Presentation.PresProject presProject, out int id, out string errorMsg)
{
// snip
foreach (PresActivity presActivity in presProject.Activities)
{
Activity a = presActivity.ToActivity(); // returns new Activity object
errorMsg = ValidateActivity(a); // has no code yet. No. It does not query db.
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(errorMsg))
{
a.Project = project;
project.Activities.Add(a);
AttachActivity(a);
}
else
break;
}
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(errorMsg))
{
if (project.ID == 0)
db.Projects.Add(project);
else
db.AttachAsModfied(project);
saveCount = db.SaveChanges();
id = project.ID;
}
return saveCount;
}
This is the class that news up the dbContext:
public void Try(Action<IServices> work)
{
using(IServices client = GetClient()) // dbContext is newd up here
{
try
{
work(client); // ModifyProject is called here
HangUp(client, false);
}
catch (CommunicationException e)
{
HangUp(client, true);
}
catch (TimeoutException e)
{
HangUp(client, true);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
HangUp(client, true);
throw;
}
}
I am not asking: How do I use AsNoTracking What difference does .AsNoTracking() make?

One solution to avoid receiving this error is using Find method. before attaching entity, query DbContext for desired entity, if entity exists in memory you get local entity otherwise entity will be retrieved from database.
private void AttachActivity(Activity activity)
{
var activityInDb = db.Activities.Find(activity.Id);
// Activity does not exist in database and it's new one
if(activityInDb == null)
{
db.Activities.Add(activity);
return;
}
// Activity already exist in database and modify it
db.Entry(activityInDb).CurrentValues.SetValues(activity);
db.Entry(activityInDb ).State = EntityState.Modified;
}

Attaching an entity of type failed because another entity of the same type already has the same primary key value. This can happen when using the Attach method or setting the state of an entity to Unchanged or Modified if any entities in the graph have conflicting key values. This may be because some entities are new and have not yet received database-generated key values. In this case use the Add.
The solution is that
if you had to use GetAll()
public virtual IEnumerable<T> GetAll()
{
return dbSet.ToList();
}
Change To
public virtual IEnumerable<T> GetAll()
{
return dbSet.AsNoTracking().ToList();
}

I resolved this error by changing Update method like below.
if you are using generic repository and Entity
_dbContext.Set<T>().AddOrUpdate(entityToBeUpdatedWithId);
or normal(non-generic) repository and entity , then
_dbContext.Set<TaskEntity>().AddOrUpdate(entityToBeUpdatedWithId);
If you use AddOrUpdate() method, please make sure you have added
System.Data.Entity.Migrations namespace.

Entity Framework 6: update entity already existing in ChangeTracker

I use repository with Update method. In this method I need to check some conditions, finding updating entity in DB before actual update. I use one context for both - Find and Update operations inside one transaction. But when I try to update entity I get an exception:
"Attaching an entity of type 'MyNamespace.MyEntityType' failed because another entity of the same type already has the same primary key value"
public void Update(SomeType entity)
{
using (var context = new MyEntities())
{
using (var transaction = context.Database.BeginTransaction(IsolationLevel.RepeatableRead))
{
try
{
// check conditions
var root = context.MyEntitySet
.Where(e => e.Parent == null); // entity.Parent == null
if(root ...)
; // return
// HERE I got an error described above
context.Entry(entity).State = EntityState.Modified;
context.SaveChanges();
transaction.Commit();
}
catch
{
transaction.Rollback();
throw;
}
}
}
}
I need to load entity with same Id from DB first, check some conditions and if ok, update entity. But after "Get" entity attaches to ChangeTracker with "Detached" state and when I try to change state to "Modified" I got an error.
I've already tried:
if (IsAttached(entity, out attachedEntity))
context.Entry(attachedEntity).CurrentValues.SetValues(entity);
but my original entity object stays unchanged with DB generated values. State = EntityState.Modified works as I need, but how can I remove preloaded entity from ChangeTracker?