I was trying to create a generic method to update an Entity and all it's collection properties from a detached object. For example:
public class Parent{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string ParentProperty { get; set; }
public List<Child> Children1 { get; set; }
public List<Child> Children2 { get; set; }
}
public class Child{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string ChildProperty { get; set; }
}
So, my first intention was to use something like this:
Repository<Parent>.Update(parentObj);
It would be perfect have a magic inside this method that update Parent properties and compare the list of Children of the parentObj to the current values in database and add/update/remove them accordingly, but it's too complex to my knowledge about EF/Reflection/Generic... and so I tried a second more easier way like this:
Repository<Parent>.Update(parentObj, parent => parent.Children1
parent => parent.Children2);
This method would be a little harder to use, but yet acceptable. But how I think the second parameter had to be params Expression<Func<TEntity, ICollection<TRelatedEntity>>>[] relatedEntities I had problems to specify multiple TRelatedEntity. So my try was to 3rd step with no success yet...
Now I tried to call a method to update Parent and a sequence of methods to update Childreen, like this:
Repository<Parent>.Update(parentObj);
Repository<Parent>.UpdateChild(parentObj, parent => parent.Id, parent => parent.Children1);
Repository<Parent>.UpdateChild(parentObj, parent => parent.Id, parent => parent.Children2);
And the code:
public virtual void Update(TEntity entityToUpdate)
{
context.Entry(entityToUpdate).State = EntityState.Modified;
}
public virtual void UpdateChild<TRelatedEntity>(TEntity entityToUpdate, Func<TEntity, object> keySelector, Expression<Func<TEntity, ICollection<TRelatedEntity>>> relatedEntitySelector) where TRelatedEntity: class
{
var entityInDb = dbSet.Find(keySelector.Invoke(entityToUpdate));
var current = relatedEntitySelector.Compile().Invoke(entityToUpdate);
var original = relatedEntitySelector.Compile().Invoke(entityInDb);
foreach (var created in current.Except(original))
{
context.Set<TRelatedEntity>().Add(created);
}
foreach (var removed in original.Except(current))
{
context.Set<TRelatedEntity>().Remove(removed);
}
foreach (var updated in current.Intersect(original))
{
context.Entry(updated).State = EntityState.Modified;
}
context.Entry(entityInDb).State = EntityState.Detached;
}
First problem was to get original values, because when I call dbSet.Find the entity is already in context (context.Entry(entityToUpdate).State = EntityState.Modified;).
So I tried to change order calling first Child:
Repository<Parent>.Update(parentObj);
Repository<Parent>.UpdateChild(parentObj, parent => parent.Id, parent => parent.Children1);
Repository<Parent>.UpdateChild(parentObj, parent => parent.Id, parent => parent.Children2);
And now I have the error:
Store update, insert, or delete statement affected an unexpected number of rows (0). Entities may have been modified or deleted since entities were loaded. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=472540 for information on understanding and handling optimistic concurrency exceptions.
In summary, it would be very nice the first way, but I would be satisfied with the second/third too.
Thanks very much
Edit 1
Please, I need a native solution or using Automapper (which we already use in the project), because my customer don't like external dependencies and if we need to adapt something to the project, like working with Attached objects to update their related entities, so GraphDiff mencioned in the comments doesn't fit our needs (and VS 2015 RC crashed when I tried to install the package for tests)
Have you considered getting the object from the DB and using AutoMapper to modify all the property values?
I mean:
var obj = GetObjectFromDB(...);
AutoMapObj(obj, modifiedObj);
SaveInDb();
Related
I have the following method, which receives an entity which was mapped from a dto. Therefor it is not tracked yet.
public async Task UpdateAsync(Entity value, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
dbContext.Update(value);
await dbContext.SaveChangesAsync(cancellationToken);
}
public class Entity
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public ICollection<Item> Items { get; set; }
}
public class Item
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public Guid EntityId { get; set; }
}
The Entity has a property Items which is a one to many relation.
What is the best way to update the Entity and remove existing or add new relations?
Currently it does not remove existing Items, which are not part of the collection anymore. I guess this is because, not all items are tracked, since the Entity is created from a dto.
It seems like I have to load the existing Entity and all relations from the database first, and then manually map all the properties and relations (Add, Remove).
This means a lot of work. Is there a better way to achieve this? Can EF somehow remove untracked relations?
No, actually you need to separate add/update or delete logic. It is also better way to maintain you code later.
Maybe you can try such approach (_factory is IServiceScopeFactory):
public async Task<TModel> UpdateAsync(TModel model)
{
using var scope = _factory.CreateScope();
await using var context = scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<ApplicationContext>();
var entry = await context.Set<TModel>().FirstAsync(t => t.Id == model.Id); // try other methods
var entryEntry = context.Entry(entry);
entryEntry.CurrentValues.SetValues(model);
await context.SaveChangesAsync();
return entryEntry.Entity;
}
I'm trying to find a way to refresh my EF entities after they've been modified by another context. Everything works fine, except for navigation properties, which are not updated.
After the change I've tried both:
var objectContext = ((IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext;
objectContext.Refresh(RefreshMode.ClientWins, entity);
And:
context.Entry(entity).Reload();
But neither cause the relationship to update. This is the code-first model (with some stuff cut out):
public class ElementType : IElementType
{
[Key]
public Guid ID { get; set; } = Guid.NewGuid();
public virtual List<Element> Elements { get; set; }
}
public class ElementType : IElementType
{
[Key]
public Guid ID { get; set; } = Guid.NewGuid();
public virtual ElementType ElementType { get; set; }
}
I'm adding a new Element, and refresh is not updating the Elements relationship property in ElementType. I know things are getting updated by the other context fine, because when I close everything down and restart it, everthing looks like I expect.
The context is still connected, as I can get the new entity from the DB context. I can even force the ElementType to update it's Element collection in the debugger by navagating to the new Element, checking it's relationship property, (which then triggers ElementType to update):
So it's 0 after the update methods above:
If I navigate to the context in the debugger, check the Elements set, the new Element is present, and the relationship property is set right (and refers to the same Proxy ElementType object). So this is the DBContext's Elements collection:
And now back to the origional Element:
Everything is up to date!
So I'm pretty sure everything is working except the Refresh/Update method. This question here suggests that Reload should work for lazy loaded relationships, and I can't seem to find any further information on how to actually refresh this collection. Anyone know why it's not working as I'd expect it?
Thanks to Cristian Szpisjak pointing me in the direction of the Collection method for the DbEntityEntry.
I wrote a generic method for refreshing my collections:
public void Refresh(object entity)
{
DbEntityEntry entry = context.Entry(entity);
entry.Reload();
var values = entity.GetType().BaseType
.GetProperties()
.Where(propertyInfo => propertyInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ReloadCollectionOnRefresh), false).Count() > 0)
.Select(propertyInfo => propertyInfo.Name);
foreach (string value in values)
{
var collection = entry.Collection(value);
collection?.Load();
}
}
Where the collection properties are tagged with a ReloadCollectionOnRefresh Custom Attribute:
[ReloadCollectionOnRefresh]
public virtual List<MyEntity> MyEntities{ get; set; }
which is just a pretty much empty attribute to 'tag' the collection:
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Property)]
class ReloadCollectionOnRefresh : Attribute
{
// can we add checking that this is applied to a virtual collection?
}
I have 2 classes like this:
Parent.cs
public class Parent
{
public int Id {get;set;}
public virtual ICollection<Child> Children { get; set; }
}
Child.cs
public class Child
{
public int Id {get;set;}
public ItemStatusType ItemStatusTyp { get; set; }
public int ParentId {get;set;}
[ForeignKey("ParentId")]
public virtual Parent Parent { get; set; }
}
ItemStatusType.cs
public enum ItemStatusType
{
Active = 1,
Deactive = 2,
Deleted = 3
}
What I want is to somehow retrieve always the active ones and not the deleted ones. Since I am not deleting the record physically, I'm merely updating the ItemStatusType to Deleted status.
So, when I say ParentObj.Children I only wish to retrieve the active ones without further using Where condition.
Here is so far what I've done but giving an exception on runtime that I stated afterwards:
public class ParentConfiguration : EntityTypeConfiguration<Parent>
{
public ParentConfiguration()
{
HasMany(c => c.Children.Where(p => p.ItemStatusTyp != ItemStatusType.Deleted).ToList())
.WithRequired(c => c.Parent)
.HasForeignKey(c => c.ParentId)
;
}
}
Runtime Exception:
The expression 'c => c.Children.Where(p => (Convert(p.ItemStatusTyp)
!= 3)).ToList()' is not a valid property expression. The expression
should represent a property: C#: 't => t.MyProperty' VB.Net:
'Function(t) t.MyProperty'.
I had to use ToList after the expression, otherwise it does not compile.
What is the proper what to do what I want?
Thanks in advance,
You cannot use Where or any other logic in fluent property mapping - that's just configuration.
Basically you cannot solve what you need in declarative way.
There are some workarounds which you can use for first-level entities, like implement your own extension(s) MySet<T> which will return .Set<T>.Where(x => x.ItemStatusType != ItemStatusType.Deleted) and use it everywhere, but that won't solve filtering issue for child collections.
You can go hard way and prepare a separate set of entities to use for selecting data, which basically should be based on database views or stored procedures; you will have to create separate view for every entity, so you will be able to combine selecting in any relations based on these views-entities.
For inserting though you will need to have entities mapped over "real" tables. No sure if it worth it but it might in some cases.
I am using EF6 with Generic Repository pattern. Recently I experienced a problem trying to delete a composite entity in a single go. Here is a simplified scenario:
public class Parent
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Child> Children { get; set; }
}
public class Child
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("Parent")]
public int ParentId { get; set; }
public virtual Parent Parent { get; set; }
}
For deleting the Parent entity with related Children I am doing something like this:
public virtual T GetById(int id)
{
return this.DBSet.Find(id);
}
public virtual void Delete(T entity)
{
DbEntityEntry entry = this.Context.Entry(entity);
if (entry.State != EntityState.Deleted)
{
entry.State = EntityState.Deleted;
}
else
{
this.DBSet.Attach(entity);
this.DBSet.Remove(entity);
}
}
First I find the parent object by ID and then pass it to the delete method to change it's state to deleted. The context.SaveChanges() finally commits the delete.
This worked fine. The find method only pulled up Parent object and Delete worked since I have a cascade on delete enabled on Children.
But the moment I added another property in Child class:
[ForeignKey("Gender")]
public int GenderId { get; set; }
public virtual Gender Gender { get; set; }
For some reason EF started pulling related Children on the Parent.Find() method. Because of this I get the following error:
The operation failed: The relationship could not be changed because one or more of the foreign-key properties is non-nullable. When a change is made to a relationship, the related foreign-key property is set to a null value. If the foreign-key does not support null values, a new relationship must be defined, the foreign-key property must be assigned another non-null value, or the unrelated object must be deleted.
Even after reverting the changes (removing the Gender property) the problem still exists. I am not able to understand this weird behavior!!
All I want to do is Delete the Parent object along with the Children.
There are some solutions around it but none really serves my purpose:
Turn LazyLoading to false - this.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = false; This works but in my real application I need this property to true.
Iterate all children first and Delete them and then delete the Parent. This seems at best a workaround and is very verbose.
Use Remove() rather than just changing the EntityState to Deleted. I need to track Changes for Auditing so EntityState helps there.
Can someone explain why EF is loading related Entities even when I am not using them?
It seems that the problem was related to the life-cycle of context. I am using Unit Of Work and injecting it into my service layers using ninject.
kernel.Bind<IUnitOfWork>().To<UnitOfWork>().InRequestScope();
The UnitOWork class implements IDisposable.
public bool DeleteView(int viewId)
{
// This is a workaround. It seems ninject is not disposing the context.
// Because of that all the info (navigation properties) of a newly created view is presisted in the context.
// Hence you get a referential key error when you try to delete a composite object.
using (var context = new ApplicationDbContext())
{
var repo = new GenericRepository<CustomView>(context);
var view = repo.GetById(viewId);
repo.Delete(view);
context.SaveChanges();
}
//var model = _unitOfWork.CustomViews.GetById(viewId);
//_unitOfWork.CustomViews.Delete(model);
//_unitOfWork.Save();
return true;
}
The commented code throws and error, while the un-commented one (using block) works. A controller method before this call loads the CustomView entity (which is of a similar structure as Parent with a list of children). And a subsequent user action can be triggered to delete that view.
I believe this has something to do with the context not being disposed. Maybe this has something to do with Ninject or UnitOfWork, I haven't been able to pin-point yet. The GetById() might be pulling the whole entity from context cache or something.
But the above workaround works for me. Just putting it out there so that it might help somebody.
What is the correct way to save a graph of objects whose state you don't know? By state I mean whether they are new or existing database entries that are being updated.
For instance, if I have:
public class Person
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Automobile> Automobiles { get; set; }
}
public class Automobile
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int Name { get; set; }
public short Seats { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<MaintenanceRecord> MaintenanceRecords { get; set ;}
public virtual Person Person { get; set; }
}
public class MaintenanceRecord
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int AutomobileId { get; set; }
public DateTime DatePerformed { get; set; }
public virtual Automobile Automobile{ get; set; }
}
I'm editing models, similar to these objects above, and then passing those models into the data layer to save, where for this instance I happen to be using entity framework. So I'm translating these models into POCO entities internal to the DAL.
It appears that unless my models have a state indicating whether they are new or updated, I have quite a bit of work to do to "Save" the changes. I have to first select the Person entity, update it, then match any existing Automobiles and update those and add any new, then for each automobile check for any new or updated maintenance records.
Is there a faster/easier way of doing this? It's possible I can keep track of the Model state, which I guess would be helpful with this, but it would mean changes to code outside of the data layer which i would prefer to avoid. I'm just hoping there is a pattern of usage out there that I can follow for updates like this.
I ran into this issue a while back and have been following this thread on the EF Codeplex site. https://entityframework.codeplex.com/workitem/864
Seems like it is being considered for the next release, I'm assuming EF 7, which apparently is a pretty large internal overhaul of EF. This may be worth checking out... http://www.nuget.org/packages/RefactorThis.GraphDiff/
Back when I was working on this I found another EF post on SO, and someone had an example of how to do this manually. At the time I decided to do it manually, not sure why, GraphDiff looks pretty cool. Here is an example of what I did.
public async Task<IHttpActionResult> PutAsync([FromBody] WellEntityModel model)
{
try
{
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
return BadRequest(ModelState);
}
var kne = TheContext.Companies.First();
var entity = TheModelFactory.Create(model);
entity.DateUpdated = DateTime.Now;
var currentWell = TheContext.Wells.Find(model.Id);
// Update scalar/complex properties of parent
TheContext.Entry(currentWell).CurrentValues.SetValues(entity);
//We don't pass back the company so need to attached the associated company... this is done after mapping the values to ensure its not null.
currentWell.Company = kne;
// Updated geometry - ARGHHH NOOOOOO check on this once in a while for a fix from EF-Team https://entityframework.codeplex.com/workitem/864
var geometryItemsInDb = currentWell.Geometries.ToList();
foreach (var geometryInDb in geometryItemsInDb)
{
// Is the geometry item still there?
var geometry = entity.Geometries.SingleOrDefault(i => i.Id == geometryInDb.Id);
if (geometry != null)
// Yes: Update scalar/complex properties of child
TheContext.Entry(geometryInDb).CurrentValues.SetValues(geometry);
else
// No: Delete it
TheContext.WellGeometryItems.Remove(geometryInDb);
}
foreach (var geometry in entity.Geometries)
{
// Is the child NOT in DB?
if (geometryItemsInDb.All(i => i.Id != geometry.Id))
// Yes: Add it as a new child
currentWell.Geometries.Add(geometry);
}
// Update Surveys
var surveyPointsInDb = currentWell.SurveyPoints.ToList();
foreach (var surveyInDb in surveyPointsInDb)
{
// Is the geometry item still there?
var survey = entity.SurveyPoints.SingleOrDefault(i => i.Id == surveyInDb.Id);
if (survey != null)
// Yes: Update scalar/complex properties of child
TheContext.Entry(surveyInDb).CurrentValues.SetValues(survey);
else
// No: Delete it
TheContext.WellSurveyPoints.Remove(surveyInDb);
}
foreach (var survey in entity.SurveyPoints)
{
// Is the child NOT in DB?
if (surveyPointsInDb.All(i => i.Id != survey.Id))
// Yes: Add it as a new child
currentWell.SurveyPoints.Add(survey);
}
// Update Temperatures - THIS IS A HUGE PAIN = HOPE EF is updated to handle updating disconnected graphs.
var temperaturesInDb = currentWell.Temperatures.ToList();
foreach (var tempInDb in temperaturesInDb)
{
// Is the geometry item still there?
var temperature = entity.Temperatures.SingleOrDefault(i => i.Id == tempInDb.Id);
if (temperature != null)
// Yes: Update scalar/complex properties of child
TheContext.Entry(tempInDb).CurrentValues.SetValues(temperature);
else
// No: Delete it
TheContext.WellTemperaturePoints.Remove(tempInDb);
}
foreach (var temps in entity.Temperatures)
{
// Is the child NOT in DB?
if (surveyPointsInDb.All(i => i.Id != temps.Id))
// Yes: Add it as a new child
currentWell.Temperatures.Add(temps);
}
await TheContext.SaveChangesAsync();
return Ok(model);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Trace.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
return InternalServerError();
}
This is a huge pain to me too. I extracted the answer from #GetFuzzy to a more reusable method:
public void UpdateCollection<TCollection, TKey>(
DbContext context, IList<TCollection> databaseCollection,
IList<TCollection> detachedCollection,
Func<TCollection, TKey> keySelector) where TCollection: class where TKey: IEquatable<TKey>
{
var databaseCollectionClone = databaseCollection.ToArray();
foreach (var databaseItem in databaseCollectionClone)
{
var detachedItem = detachedCollection.SingleOrDefault(item => keySelector(item).Equals(keySelector(databaseItem)));
if (detachedItem != null)
{
context.Entry(databaseItem).CurrentValues.SetValues(detachedItem);
}
else
{
context.Set<TCollection>().Remove(databaseItem);
}
}
foreach (var detachedItem in detachedCollection)
{
if (databaseCollectionClone.All(item => keySelector(item).Equals(keySelector(detachedItem)) == false))
{
databaseCollection.Add(detachedItem);
}
}
}
With this method in place I can use it like this:
public void UpdateProduct(Product product)
{
...
var databaseProduct = productRepository.GetById(product.Id);
UpdateCollection(context, databaseProduct.Accessories, product.Accessories, productAccessory => productAcccessory.ProductAccessoryId);
UpdateCollection(context, databaseProduct.Categories, product.Categories, productCategory => productCategory.ProductCategoryId);
...
context.SubmitChanges();
}
However when the graph gets deeper, I have a feeling this will not be sufficient.
What your looking for is the Unit of Work pattern:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd882510.aspx
You can either track UoW on the client and pass it in with the DTO or have the server figure it out. Both the veritable DataSet and EF Entities have their own internal implementation of UoW. For something stand alone there is this framework, but I have never used it so have no feedback:
http://genericunitofworkandrepositories.codeplex.com/
Alternatively another option is to do real time updates with undo functionality, kind of like when you go into Gmail contacts and it saves the changes as you make them with the option to undo.
It depends HOW you are accomplishing adding/changing the entities.
I think you may be trying to do too much with an entity at any given time. Allowing editing and adding at the same time can get you into a situation where your not sure what is being done with the entity, especially in a disconnected scenario. You should only perform a single action on a single entity at a time, unless you are deleting entities. Does this seem monotonous, sure, but 99% of your users want a clean and easily understandable interface. Many time we end up making screens of our applications "god" screens where everything and anything can be done. Which 9/10 times isn't needed (YAGNI).
This way, when you edit a user, you know you are doing an update operation. If you are adding a new maintenance record, you know you are creating a new record that is attached to an automobile.
To summarize, you should limit how many operations you are making available for a single screen and make sure you provide some type of unique information for the entity so you can try to look up the entity to see if it exists.
I had the similar problem, and couldnt find my own solution. I think that problem is complex. Complete solution for updating graphs in disconected scenario with EF6 I find in extension method RefactoringThis.GraphDiff produced by Brent McKendric.
Exemple brings by author is:
using (var context = new TestDbContext())
{
// Update the company and state that the company 'owns' the collection Contacts.
context.UpdateGraph(company, map => map
.OwnedCollection(p => p.Contacts, with => with
.AssociatedCollection(p => p.AdvertisementOptions))
.OwnedCollection(p => p.Addresses)
);
context.SaveChanges();
}
See more at:
http://blog.brentmckendrick.com/introducing-graphdiff-for-entity-framework-code-first-allowing-automated-updates-of-a-graph-of-detached-entities/