Entity Framework - Get 'fake' navigation property within one query - c#

I have a Product table that has no relation defined to the translation table. I added a Translation property to the Product POCO as [NotMapped].
**My Product POCO: **
public partial class Product
{
public int ProductID { get; set; }
public double Price { get; set; }
[NotMapped]
public virtual Translation Translation{ get; set; }
/** Other properties **/
}
I also have a Translation table, and like the name says, it contains all the translations.
Now, the right translation can be retrieved from the database by providing three parameters: LanguageID, TranslationOriginID and ValueID.
LanguageID: ID from the language that the user has defined.
TranslationOriginID: Simply said, 'What table contains the entity that I want the translation for?' In other words, this ID points to another table that contains all possible origins. An origin is a table/entity that can have a translation. E.g: The origin in this example is Product.
ValueID: This is the ID of the entity that I want a translation for.
My Translation POCO:
public partial class Translation
{
public int TranslationID { get; set; }
public byte LanguageID { get; set; }
public short TranslationOriginID { get; set; }
public int ValueID { get; set; }
public string TranslationValue { get; set; }
/** Other properties **/
public virtual TranslationOrigin TranslationOrigin { get; set; }
public virtual Language Language { get; set; }
}
When I want to retrieve all products with their Translation, I execute this code:
List<Product> products = context.Products.ToList();
foreach (Product product in products)
{
product.Translation = context.Translations.FirstOrDefault(y => y.LanguageID == 1 && y.TranslationOriginID == 2 && y.ValueID == product.ProductID);
}
Like you can see, I execute for every product in the list another query to get the translation.
My question:
Is it possible to get all the products and their translation in one query? Or even that I automatically retrieve the right translation when I select a product?
I already tried an .Include() and a .Select(). It didn't work, maybe I did something wrong?
I also tried this method, didn't work either.
Btw, I use Entity framework 5 with .NET 4 (so, Entity Framework 4.4).
Thanks in advance.
Greetings
Loetn
Answer
With the example given by Ed Chapel, I came up with a solution.
return (from p in context.Products
join t in context.Translations
on new
{
Id = p.ProductID,
langId = languageID,
tOriginId = translationOriginID
}
equals new
{
Id = d.ValueID,
langId = d.LanguageID,
tOriginId = d.TranslationOriginID
}
into other
from x in other.DefaultIfEmpty()
select new
{
Product = p,
Translation = x
})
.ToList().ConvertAll(x => new Product()
{
Code = x.Product.Code,
Translation = x.Translation,
/** Other properties **/
});


I don't like proper LINQ in most cases. However, join is one scenario where the LINQ is easy than the extensions methods:
from p in context.Products
join t in context.Translations
on t.ValueID equals p.ValueID
&& t.LanguageID == 1
&& t.TranslationOriginID == 2
into joinT
from x in joinT
select new {
Product = p,
Translation = t,
};
You then loop over the result setting x.Product.Translation = x.Translation.


First of all you should realize that your translations table is not structured like a dba would like it You have a non enforced relationship because depending on the OriginId your valueId references a different table.
Because of this you cannot use lazy loading or includes from EF.
My best idea at this point would to manually join the table on an anonymous type(to include your originId). Afterwards you can iterate over the results to set the translation property
The result would look like this :
var data = from p in context.Products
join pt in context.Translations on new{p.Id,2} equals new {pt.ValueId, pt.OriginId} into trans
select new {p, trans};
var result = data.ToList().Select( a =>
{
a.p.Translations = a.trans;
return a.p;
}).ToList();


With the example that Ed Chapel proposed as a solution, I came up with this.
return (from p in context.Products
join t in context.Translations
on new
{
Id = p.ProductID,
langId = languageID,
tOriginId = translationOriginID
}
equals new
{
Id = d.ValueID,
langId = d.LanguageID,
tOriginId = d.TranslationOriginID
}
into other
from x in other.DefaultIfEmpty()
select new
{
Product = p,
Translation = x
})
.ToList().ConvertAll(x => new Product()
{
Code = x.Product.Code,
Translation = x.Translation,
/** Other properties **/
});

Related

Selecting on document "outside" of join while filtering on documents "within" join?

I have two IMongoCollections holding documents of type Person and Animal respectively.
public class Person
{
public Guid PersonId { get; set; } = Guid.NewGuid();
public Guid PetId { get; set; }
}
public class Animal
{
public Guid AnimalId { get; set; } = Guid.NewGuid();
public bool IsMammal { get; set; }
}
...
Animal bootsTheMonkey = new Animal() { IsMammal = true };
Person doraTheExplorer = new Person() { PetId = bootsTheMonkey.AnimalId };
I am trying to write a query which finds "all persons whose pets are mammals".
var query =
from pDoc in PersonDocumentCollection.AsQueryable()
where !pDoc.PetId.Equals(Guid.Empty)
join aDoc in AnimalDocumentCollection.AsQueryable() on pDoc.PetId equals aDoc.AnimalId
where aDoc.IsMammal
select pDoc;
Though this query is incorrect evidenced by the error message
$project or $group does not support {document}.
From searching it looks like this error comes about from the use of where aDoc.IsMammal, more specifically the use of the aDoc within/after the join (Based on this SO question). Though I am not entirely sure if that is the issue.
Overall I am trying to join two IMongoCollections where the first's documents have a field whose value is the BsonId of a document from another collection. Then once joined I would like to first the documents from the first collection on the values of fields in the second.

You could try to do something like this (assuming allPeople is a list of all your Person objects and allAnimals is all your Animal objects):
var query = allPeople
.Join(allAnimals,
p => p.PetId,
a => a.AnimalId,
(p, a) => new { P = p, A = a })
.Where(PA => PA.A.IsMammal == true);
https://dotnetfiddle.net/8lw5ye

How to query data with calculated fields and map to a ViewModel with a nested ViewModel Collection?

I have referenced numerous questions on this site related to calculated fields and ViewModels, but I can't seem to extrapolate from examples given. I hope that laying out a specific scenario would allow someone to pin point what I can't see. I am new to WebApp design in general. Please take that into consideration. Also, if I've left off any relevant information, please let me know and I will update the question.
Here is the scenario:
I have a complex query that is spanning multiple tables to return data used in calculations. Specifically, I store units for a recipe converted to a base unit and then convert the quantity to the units specified by the user.
I am using AutoMapper to map from entities to ViewModels and vice versa, but I am not sure how to handle the calculated values. Especially with the nested ViewModel Collection thrown into the mix.
Option 1
Do I return an autonomous set of data? Like the following... and then somehow use AutoMapper to do the mapping? Perhaps I would need to do the mapping manually, which I haven't found a solid example which includes nested ViewModels. At this point, I'm not even sure if the following code handles the nested collection correctly for the autonomous data.
var userId = User.Identity.GetUserId();
var recipes = from u in db.Users.Where(u => u.Id == userId)
from c in db.Categories
from r in db.Recipes
join ur in db.UserRecipes.Where(u => u.UserId == userId) on r.Id equals ur.RecipeId
join mus in db.MeasUnitSystems on ur.RecipeYieldUnitSysId equals mus.Id
join muc in db.MeasUnitConvs on mus.Id equals muc.UnitSysId
join mu in db.MeasUnits on mus.UnitId equals mu.Id
join msy in db.MeasUnitSymbols on mu.Id equals msy.UnitId
select new
{
Id = c.Id,
ParentId = c.ParentId,
Name = c.Name,
Descr = c.Descr,
Category1 = c.Category1,
Category2 = c.Category2,
Recipes = new
{
Id = r.Id,
Title = r.Title,
Descr = r.Descr,
Yield = String.Format("{0} {1}", ((r.Yield * muc.UnitBaseConvDiv / muc.UnitBaseConvMult) - muc.UnitBaseConvOffset), msy.Symbol)
}
};
Option 2
Another option that crossed my mind was to return the entities and use AutoMapper as I normally would. Then iterate through the collections and perform the calculations there. I feel like I could make this work, but it seems inefficient to me because it would result in many queries back to the database.
Option 3
???? I can't think of any other method to do this. But, please, if you have suggestions, I am more than willing to hear them.
Relevant Data
Here is the query returning the data I want in SQL Server (more or less).
declare #uid as nvarchar(128) = 'da5435ae-5198-4690-b502-ea3723a9b217'
SELECT c.[Name] as [Category]
,r.Title
,r.Descr
,(r.Yield*rmuc.UnitBaseConvDiv/rmuc.UnitBaseConvMult)-rmuc.UnitBaseConvOffset as [Yield]
,rmsy.Symbol
FROM Category as c
inner join RecipeCat as rc on c.Id = rc.CategoryId
inner join Recipe as r on rc.RecipeId = r.Id
inner join UserRecipe as ur on r.Id = ur.RecipeId and ur.UserId = #uid
inner join MeasUnitSystem as rmus on ur.RecipeYieldUnitSysId = rmus.Id
inner join MeasUnitConv as rmuc on rmus.Id = rmuc.UnitSysId
inner join MeasUnit as rmu on rmus.UnitId = rmu.Id
inner join MeasUnitSymbol as rmsy on rmu.Id = rmsy.UnitId
inner join UserUnitSymbol as ruus on rmsy.UnitId = ruus.UnitId and rmsy.SymIndex = ruus.UnitSymIndex and ruus.UserId = #uid
ViewModels
public class CategoryRecipeIndexViewModel
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int ParentId { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Category")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Description")]
public string Descr { get; set; }
public ICollection<CategoryRecipeIndexViewModel> Category1 { get; set; }
public CategoryRecipeIndexViewModel Category2 { get; set; }
public ICollection<RecipeIndexViewModel> Recipes { get; set; }
}
public class RecipeIndexViewModel
{
public int Id { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Recipe")]
public string Title { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Description")]
public string Descr { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "YieldUnit")]
public string Yield { get; set; }
}
UPDATE 2/10/2018
I found an answer here that does a very good job of explaining exactly what I'm looking at. Particularly under the A Better solution ? section. Mapping queries directly to my ViewModels looks like it would allow me to get my calculated values as well. Problem is, the example given is once again too simplistic.
He gives the following DTO's
public class UserDto
{
public int Id {get;set;}
public string Name {get;set;}
public UserTypeDto UserType { set; get; }
}
public class UserTypeDto
{
public int Id { set; get; }
public string Name { set; get; }
}
And does the following for mapping:
var users = dbContext.Users.Select(s => new UserDto
{
Id = s.Id,
Name = s.Name,
UserType = new UserTypeDto
{
Id = s.UserType.Id,
Name = s.UserType.Name
}
});
Now what if the UserDTO looked like this:
public class UserDto
{
public int Id {get;set;}
public string Name {get;set;}
public ICollection<UserTypeDto> UserTypes { set; get; }
}
How would the mapping be done if the UserTypes were a collection?
Update 2/13/2018
I feel I am making progress, but am currently headed in the wrong direction. I found this and came up with the following (which currently errors because of the method call in the linq query):
*Note: I removed Category2 from the ViewModel as I found it was not needed and only complicated this further.
query inside index controller method
IEnumerable<CategoryRecipeIndexViewModel> recipesVM = db.Categories
.Where(x => x.ParentId == null)
.Select(x => new CategoryRecipeIndexViewModel()
{
Id = x.Id,
ParentId = x.ParentId,
Name = x.Name,
Descr = x.Descr,
Category1 = MapCategoryRecipeIndexViewModelChildren(x.Category1),
Recipes = x.Recipes.Select(y => new RecipeIndexViewModel()
{
Id = y.Id,
Title = y.Title,
Descr = y.Descr
})
});
Recursive Method
private static IEnumerable<CategoryRecipeIndexViewModel> MapCategoryRecipeIndexViewModelChildren(ICollection<Category> categories)
{
return categories
.Select(c => new CategoryRecipeIndexViewModel
{
Id = c.Id,
ParentId = c.ParentId,
Name = c.Name,
Descr = c.Descr,
Category1 = MapCategoryRecipeIndexViewModelChildren(c.Category1),
Recipes = c.Recipes.Select(r => new RecipeIndexViewModel()
{
Id = r.Id,
Title = r.Title,
Descr = r.Descr
})
});
}
At this point, I don't even have the calculations I require, but that doesn't matter until I get this working (small steps). I quickly discovered you can't really call a method inside a Linq Query. Then a thought occurs to me, if I need to force the Linq Query to execute and then perform all the mapping on the in memory data, then I would essentially be doing the same thing as Option 2 (above), but I could perform the calculations within the ViewModel. This is the solution I will pursue and will keep everyone posted.

You have to iterate over UserType Collection and map the value to UserType dto's collection.
Use this code.
var users = dbContext.Users.Select(s => new UserDto
Id = s.Id,
Name = s.FullName,
UserType = s.UserType.Select(t => new UserTypeDto
{
Id = t.Id,
Name = t.Name
}).ToList()
Hope this will help.

I got it working! ...I think. ...Maybe. If anything, I'm querying the data, mapping it to my ViewModels and I have the calculations too. I do have additional questions, but they are a lot more specific. I will layout the solution I followed and where I think it requires work below.
I basically implemented my Option 2 from above, but instead of iterating through the collections, I just performed the calculations within the ViewModels.
Controller Method
public ActionResult Index()
{
var userId = User.Identity.GetUserId();
var recipes = db.Categories.Where(u => u.Users.Any(x => x.Id == userId))
.Include(c => c.Category1)
.Include(r => r.Recipes
.Select(u => u.UserRecipes
.Select(s => s.MeasUnitSystem.MeasUnitConv)))
.Include(r => r.Recipes
.Select(u => u.UserRecipes
.Select(s => s.MeasUnitSystem.MeasUnit.MeasUnitSymbols)));
IEnumerable<CategoryRecipeIndexViewModel> recipesVM = Mapper.Map<IEnumerable<Category>, IEnumerable<CategoryRecipeIndexViewModel>>(recipes.ToList());
return View(recipesVM);
}
View Models
public class CategoryRecipeIndexViewModel
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int ParentId { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Category")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Description")]
public string Descr { get; set; }
public ICollection<CategoryRecipeIndexViewModel> Category1 { get; set; }
public ICollection<RecipeIndexViewModel> Recipes { get; set; }
}
public class RecipeIndexViewModel
{
public int Id { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Recipe")]
public string Title { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Description")]
public string Descr { get; set; }
public double Yield { get; set; }
public ICollection<UserRecipeIndexViewModel> UserRecipes { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Yield")]
public string UserYieldUnit
{
get
{
return System.String.Format("{0} {1}", ((Yield *
UserRecipes.FirstOrDefault().MeasUnitSystem.MeasUnitConv.UnitBaseConvDiv /
UserRecipes.FirstOrDefault().MeasUnitSystem.MeasUnitConv.UnitBaseConvMult) -
UserRecipes.FirstOrDefault().MeasUnitSystem.MeasUnitConv.UnitBaseConvOffset).ToString("n1"),
UserRecipes.FirstOrDefault().MeasUnitSystem.MeasUnit.MeasUnitSymbols.FirstOrDefault().Symbol);
}
}
}
public class UserRecipeIndexViewModel
{
public MeasUnitSystemIndexViewModel MeasUnitSystem { get; set; }
}
public class MeasUnitSystemIndexViewModel
{
public MeasUnitIndexViewModel MeasUnit { get; set; }
public MeasUnitConvIndexViewModel MeasUnitConv { get; set; }
}
public class MeasUnitIndexViewModel
{
public ICollection<MeasUnitSymbolIndexViewModel> MeasUnitSymbols { get; set; }
}
public class MeasUnitConvIndexViewModel
{
public double UnitBaseConvMult { get; set; }
public double UnitBaseConvDiv { get; set; }
public double UnitBaseConvOffset { get; set; }
}
public class MeasUnitSymbolIndexViewModel
{
public string Symbol { get; set; }
}
This appears to be working, but I know it needs some work.
For instance, the relation shown between the Recipe and UserRecipe shows one to many. In reality, if the UserRecipe were filtered by the current user, the relationship would be one to one. Also, the same goes for the MeasUnit and the MeasUnitSymbol entities. Currently, I'm relying on the FirstOrDefault of those collections to actually perform the calculations.
Also, I have seen numerous posts that state that calculations should not be done in the View Models. Except for some who say it's okay if it is only a requirement of the View.
Last I will say that paying attention to variable names within the ViewModels would have saved me some headaches. And I thought I knew how to utilize Linq Queries, but had issues with the data returned. It was easier to rely on the eager loading provided by Entity Framework to bring back the hierarchical data structure needed, versus the flat table structures I'm used to working with.
I'm still new to a lot of this and wrapping my head around some of the quirks of MVC and Entity Framework leaves me brain dead after a few hours, but I will continue to optimize and adopt better programming methods as I go.

NHibernate queryover join many to many

I am really banging my head with this NHibernate query :) to write a join.
I have many to many relation with Asset and Product. Please find below the table model
public class Asset
{
string Id { get; set; }
List<Product> Products { get; set; }
}
public class Product
{
string Id { get; set; }
List<Asset> Assets { get; set; }
}
Here is the code i am trying with QueryOver
Product productAlias = null;
Asset assetAlias = null;
var query = Session.QueryOver<Asset>(()=>assetAlias);
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(title))
query.WhereRestrictionOn(x => x.Title).IsLike(title, MatchMode.Anywhere);
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(productNumber))
{
query.WhereRestrictionOn(asset => asset.Products.First().Id).Equals(productNumber);
}
var result = query.List<Asset>();
Can anyone help how to write the join queryover so that i want to find all the asset whose title is like title and the productnumber is equal to productnumber?
I am not getting the result with the above code.
The sql query i am trying to achieve is :
select a.* from Asset a ,
ManyToManyTable b on a.mat_id=b.mat_id
where a.title like '%test%' and b.prod_no='212300733'
Thanks

You need to use .JoinQueryOver() to change the context of what you're placing the WHERE restrictions on. Learn more at http://blog.andrewawhitaker.com/blog/2014/03/16/queryover-series-part-2-basics/. This should be close to what you are looking for. You state that you're looking for a left join, but since the join here is only applied when there is a product number specified, there should be no problems with that. It's possible to apply .Left.JoinQueryOver() if you find you need it though.
var query = Session.QueryOver<Asset>();
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(title))
query = query.WhereRestrictionOn(x => x.Title).IsLike(title, MatchMode.Anywhere);
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(productNumber))
{
query = query.JoinQueryOver(a => a.Products).Where(p => p.Id == productNumber);
}
var result = query.List<Asset>();

join diffrent field type in linq

join diffrent field type in linq
public partial class Product
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public string CategoryID
{
get { return Myclass.increse(CategoryID); }
set { CategoryID = value; }
}
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public partial class ProductCategory
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
var query = (from c in dContext.ProductCategories
join p in dContext.Products
on Myclass.EncodeMD5(c.ID.ToString()) equals p.CategoryID
select new { id = p.ID, cat = p.CategoryID, name = p.Name, cat1 = c.Name }
).ToList();
The field should be converted to string
Then function runs EncodeMD5
error:
LINQ to Entities does not recognize the method 'System.String
EncodeMD5(System.String)' method, and this method cannot be translated
into a store expression.

You cannot call arbitrary .NET methods in LINQ-to-(some database backend) - the entire point of EF (etc) is that it wants to create SQL from your expression - something involving a where clause. It can work with simple properties and operators, and a few methods it knows about and can map into SQL, but it can't perform something it has never heard of (increse, EncodeMD5, etc) how would it know what SQL to write?
With something like MD5, your best bet would be to store the MD5 hash in the underlying table along with the ID. Likewise with the CategoryID's "increse" (whatever that is). So your query would end up working off these pre-calculated values:
on c.IDHash equals p.CategoryIDHash

How can I populate an object's child List property with a LINQ To SQL query

I'm creating a product listing for an online store. It's pretty standard stuff, a page of product thumbnails with brief details, price and a link through to full details.
I'm using a repository pattern, so I have a central data repository which gives me back tables from a SQL server. I've cut a lot of the code out for the sake of brevity, but just so you get the idea:
public class SqlProductsRepository : IProductsRepository
{
private Table<Product> productsTable;
public SqlProductsRepository(string connectionString)
{
var context = new DataContext(connectionString);
productsTable = context.GetTable<Product>();
// More tables set up here
}
public IQueryable<Product> Products
{
get { return productsTable; }
}
// More properties here
}
I have the following objects mapped to tables:
[Table(Name = "Products")]
public class Product
{
[Column(IsPrimaryKey = true)]
public string ProductCode { get; set; }
[Column]
public string Name { get; set; }
[Column]
public decimal Price { get; set; }
public List<ShopImage> Images = new List<ShopImage>();
}
[Table(Name = "Images_Products")]
public class Image_Product
{
[Column]
public int ImageID { get; set; }
[Column]
public string ProductCode { get; set; }
[Column]
public int DisplayOrder { get; set; }
}
[Table(Name = "Images")]
public class Image
{
[Column(Name = "ImageID")]
public int ImageID { get; set; }
[Column]
public bool Caption { get; set; }
}
If I perform the following query:
// 'db' is the repository (member variable of the controller class)
IQueryable<Product> products = from p in db.Products
join ip in db.Image_Product on p.ProductCode equals ip.ProductCode
where ip.DisplayOrder == 0
select p;
I get a nice IQueryable full of Product objects. However, what I want to do is populate each object's Images list property with a single Image object, with its ID set from the joined Image_Product table.
So I end up with a list of Products, each with one Image in its Images property, which has the ID of the image for that product in the database where DisplayOrder is 0.
I tried this projection, which I thought made sense:
IQueryable<Product> products = from p in db.Products
join ip in db.Image_Product on p.ProductCode equals ip.ProductCode
where ip.DisplayOrder == 0
select new Product {
ProductCode = p.ProductCode,
Price = p.Price,
Images = new List<Image> {
new Image { ImageID = ip.ImageID }
}
};
Which compiles, but throws a runtime error: Explicit construction of entity type 'xxx.Product' in query is not allowed.
Yet elsewhere in the project I do this:
var pages = from i in db.TemplatePageNavigationItems
orderby i.DisplayOrder
select new NavigationItem {
ID = i.PageID,
ParentID = i.ParentID,
Text = i.Name,
Title = i.Name,
Url = (i.Folder == null) ? "" : i.Folder
};
And get no complaints! I assume it's something to do with the first query returning an IQueryable<Product> but I'm not sure why.
Two questions really: why is this not allowed in the first situation, and what should I be doing in order to get my desired result?

As the error says, you can't construct explicit entity types (Product is just that) in your query which should return IQueryable<Product>. Your pages query will return IEnumerable<NavigationItem> and NavigationItem does not seem to be an entity type defined in the database.
You could try returning IEnumerable<Product> in your first query or define a separate type and return IEnumerable of that instead, if you need to project explicit, custom tailored instances of an object.

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