How to mark a property not accessible in predicates - entity-framework

I'm using a property in my model which is not mapped to database fields.
But it's accessible in predicates :
Queryable().Where(w => w.MyProperty == "HELLO")
[NotMapped]
public string MyProperty { get; set; }
How can I forbid the access of this property in predicates?

I am not sure if it is the best solution, but if you want to keep these properties as part of your model you can move model classes to a separate project and mark all the properties which you want to hide as internal, in that way these properties can be only be accessed within that assembly unless you specify
[assembly: InternalsVisibleTo()]

You need to transition to in-memory query execution using .AsEnumerable(), .ToList(), etc:
EG
var q = db.SomeEntity.Where( e => e.SomeMappedProperty == "A");
var results = q.AsEnumerable().Where(w => w.MyProperty == "HELLO");

Related

EF classes containing collections: Lists induce to use memory when navigating

When one wants to use EF navigation (navigating by the property of the classes), List<T>´s are all treated in memory.
For example I have this EF model class:
class School
{
public virtual ICollection<Groups> Groups { get; set; }
...
public School()
{
this.Courses = new List<Group>(); // List<T>!!
}
}
And if I do this:
someSchool.Groups.Count
I will be counting the groups in memory and not in SQL (ie: these won't be counted like "select count(*) from Groups join School Where SchoolId = ...")
So my question is.. what should I use instead of List?
IEnumerable is an interface so I can't have a new IEnumerable,... IQueryable too..
If no collection class is suitable for this, then I guess I should be using my DbContext instance. Like this:
(new MyDbContext()).Groups.Count(g => g.SchoolId == ...)
If that is the case, then: why is there EF navigation?!??
Edit:
Ok maybe I should use real information:
I'm already using ICollection (i used IEnumerable in the post because I thought they where similar)
This is the slow query: domain.Persons.Count(p => p.IsStudent && p.GuardianId != null && p.Guardian.Mobile.Equals(""))
This is the fast query: db.Persons.Count(p => p.Domains.Any(d => d.DomainId == domain.DomainId) && p.IsStudent && p.GuardianId != null && p.Guardian.Mobile.Equals(""))
As you can see, 2 and 3 are very similar ...one uses navigation and the other doesn't.
You should use ICollection<T> instead and define your properties as virtual, so that you can lazy load and get your Count().
// Example
public virtual ICollection<Apple> Apples{get;set;}
virtual keyword enables EF to override its behavior and lazy load entities for you when you access the getter.

Best practice for setting default values for model properties in Domain Driven Design?

What's the best way to set default properties for new entities in DDD? Also, what's the best way to set default states for complex properties (eg. collections)?
My feeling is that default values should be in the models themselves as they are a form of business rule ("by default, we want X's to be Y & Z"), and the domain represents the business. With this approach, maybe a static "GetNew()" method on the model itself would work:
public class Person {
public string Name { get; set; }
public DateTime DateOfBirth { get; set; }
public bool IsAlive { get; set; }
public List Limbs { get; set; }
public static Person GetNew() {
return new Person() {
IsAlive = true,
Limbs = new List() { RightArm, LeftArm, RightLeg, LeftLeg }
}
}
}
Unfortunately in our case, we need the collection property to be set to all members of another list, and as this model is decoupled from its Repository/DbContext it doesn't have any way of loading them all.
Crappy solution would be to pass as parameter :
public static Person GetNew(List<Limb> allLimbs) {
return new Person() {
IsAlive = true,
Limbs = allLimbs
}
}
Alternatively is there some better way of setting default values for simple & complex model properties?
This is an instance of the factory pattern in DDD. It can either be a dedicated class, such as PersonFactory, or a static method, as in your example. I prefer the static method because I see no need to create a whole new class.
As far as initializing the collection, the GetNew method with the collection as a parameter is something I would go with. It states an important constraint - to create a new person entity you need that collection. The collection instance would be provided by an application service hosting the specific use case where it is needed. More generally, default values could be stored in the database, in which case the application service would call out to a repository to obtain the required values.
Take a look at the Static Builder in Joshua Bloch's Effective Java (Second Edition). In there, you have a static builder class and you chain calls to set properties before construction so it solves the problem of either having a constructor that takes a ton of arguments or having to put setters on every property (in which case, you effectively have a Struct).

EF Filtering a Child Table with Lazy Load

I'm using entity framework with POCOs and the repository pattern and am wondering if there is any way to filter a child list lazy load. Example:
class Person
{
public virtual Organisation organisation {set; get;}
}
class Organisation
{
public virtual ICollection<Product> products {set; get;}
}
class Product
{
public bool active {set; get;}
}
Currently I only have a person repository because I'm always starting from that point, so ideally I would like to do the following:
Person person = personRepo.GetById(Id);
var products = person.organisation.products;
And have it only load products where active = true from the database.
Is this possible and if so how?
EDIT My best guess would be either a filter can be added to the configuration of the entity. Or there might be a way to intercept/override the lazy load call and modify it. Obviously if I created an Organisation Repository I could manually load it as I please but I am trying to avoid that.
There's not a direct way to do this via lazy loading, but if you were willing to explicitly load the collection, you could follow whats in this blog, see the Applying filters when explicitly loading related entities section.
context.Entry(person)
.Collection(p => p.organisation.products)
.Query()
.Where(u => u.IsActive)
.Load();
You can do what Mark Oreta and luksan suggest while keeping all the query logic within the repository.
All you have to do is pass a Lazy<ICollection<Product>> into the organization constructor, and use the logic they provided. It will not evaluate until you access the value property of the lazy instance.
UPDATE
/*
First, here are your changes to the Organisation class:
Add a constructor dependency on the delegate to load the products to your
organization class. You will create this object in the repository method
and assign it to the Person.Organization property
*/
public class Organisation
{
private readonly Lazy<ICollection<Product>> lazyProducts;
public Organisation(Func<ICollection<Product>> loadProducts){
this.lazyProducts = new Lazy<ICollection<Product>>(loadProducts);
}
// The underlying lazy field will not invoke the load delegate until this property is accessed
public virtual ICollection<Product> Products { get { return this.lazyProducts.Value; } }
}
Now, in your repository method, when you construct the Person object you will assign the Organisation property with an Organisation object containing the lazy loading field.
So, without seeing your whole model, it will looks something like
public Person GetById(int id){
var person = context.People.Single(p => p.Id == id);
/* Now, I'm not sure about the cardinality of the person-organization or organisation
product relationships, but let's assume you have some way to access the PK of the
organization record from the Person and that the Product has a reference to
its Organisation. I may be misinterpreting your model, but hopefully you
will get the idea
*/
var organisationId = /* insert the aforementioned magic here */
Func<ICollection<Product>> loadProducts = () => context.Products.Where(product => product.IsActive && product.OrganisationId == organisationId).ToList();
person.Organisation = new Organisation( loadProducts );
return person;
}
By using this approach, the query for the products will not be loaded until you access the Products property on the Organisationinstance, and you can keep all your logic in the repository. There's a good chance that I made incorrect assumptions about your model (as the sample code is quite incomplete), but I think there is enough here for you to see how to use the pattern. Let me know if any of this is unclear.
This might be related:
Using CreateSourceQuery in CTP4 Code First
If you were to redefine your properties as ICollection<T> rather than IList<T> and enable change-tracking proxies, then you might be able to cast them to EntityCollection<T> and then call CreateSourceQuery() which would allow you to execute LINQ to Entities queries against them.
Example:
var productsCollection = (EntityCollection<Product>)person.organisation.products;
var productsQuery = productsCollection.CreateSourceQuery();
var activeProducts = products.Where(p => p.Active);
Is your repository using something like:
IQueryable<T> Find(System.Linq.Expressions.Expression<Func<T, bool>> expression)
If so you can do something like this:
var person = personRepo.Find(p => p.organisation.products.Any(e => e.active)).FirstOrDefault();
You could possibly use Query() method to achieve this. Something like:
context.Entry(person)
.Collection(p => p.organisation.products)
.Query()
.Where(pro=> pro.Active==true)
.Load();
Have a look at this page click here

Entity Framework doesn't query derived classes - Error in DbOfTypeExpression

I have a base class and two derived classes.
Each of the derived classes implements the same type as a property - the only difference is the property name.
Sadly I don't have much influence on the class design -> they have been generated from a wsdl file.
I then have a property on the BaseType to encapsulate the common property. The plan was to use this property in my web views etc.
I have used the famous "Fruit-Example" to demonstrate the problem:
public class FruitBase
{
public virtual int ID { get; set; }
//
// The plan is to use this property in mvc view
//
[NotMapped]
public virtual FruitnessFactor Fruitness
{
get
{
if (this.GetType().BaseType == typeof(Apple))
return ((Apple)this).AppleFruitness;
else if (this.GetType().BaseType == typeof(Orange))
return ((Orange)this).OrangeFruitness;
else
return null;
}
}
}
public class FruitnessFactor { }
In my MVC controller, the following query works absolutely fine:
return View(context.FruitEntities
.OfType<Apple>().Include(a =>a.AppleFruitness)
.ToList());
But this one doesn't:
return View(context.FruitEntities
.OfType<Apple>().Include(a =>a.AppleFruitness)
.OfType<Orange>().Include(o => o.OrangeFruitness)
.ToList());
The error message I get is:
DbOfTypeExpression requires an expression argument with a polymorphic result type that is compatible with the type argument.
I am using EF 5.0 RC and the Code First approach.
Any help is much appreciated!
As far as I can tell you can't apply Include on multiple subtypes in a single database query. You can query one type (OfType<Apple>().Include(a => a.AppelFruitness)) and the same for another subtype. The problem is that you can't concat the results in the same query because the result collections have different generic types (apples and oranges).
One option would be to run two queries and copy the result collection into a new collection of the base type - as you already indicated in the comment section under your question.
The other option (which would only need a single query) is a projection. You would have to define a projection type (you could also project into an anonymous type)...
public class FruitViewModel
{
public FruitBase Fruit { get; set; }
public FruitnessFactor Factor { get; set; }
}
...and then can use the query:
List<FruitViewModel> fruitViewModels = context.FruitEntities
.OfType<Apple>()
.Select(a => new FruitViewModel
{
Fruit = a,
Factor = a.AppleFruitness
})
.Concat(context.FruitEntities
.OfType<Orange>()
.Select(o => new FruitViewModel
{
Fruit = o,
Factor = o.OrangeFruitness
}))
.ToList();
If you don't disable change tracking (by using AsNoTracking) the navigation properties get populated automatically when the entities get attached to the context ("Relationship fixup") which means that you can extract the fruits from the viewModel collection...
IEnumerable<FruitBase> fruits = fruitViewModels.Select(fv => fv.Fruit);
...and you'll get the fruits including the FruitnessFactor properties.
This code is pretty awkward but a direct approach without using a projection has been asked for several times without success:
bottleneck using entity framework inheritance
Entity Framework - Eager loading of subclass related objects
How do I deeply eager load an entity with a reference to an instance of a persistent base type (Entity Framework 4)

Using subquery in poco to fill property

I am trying to use a property on a POCO that uses LINQ to ENTITY to pull the first object out of a HashSet property on the same POCO. My object contains the following:
public virtual HashSet<ScheduleWaypoint> ScheduleWaypoints { get; set; }
public ScheduleWaypoint ArrivalStation {
get {
if (this.ScheduleWaypoints != null && this.ScheduleWaypoints.Count() > 0) {
return this.ScheduleWaypoints.Where(row => row.WaypointType.Type.Trim() == "SA").OrderByDescending(row => row.ScheduledTime).First();
} else
return null;
}
}
If I were working with just one object I can't say for certain if this would work but I know that it does not work inside other linq queries. I don't have access to the ID of the ScheduleWaypoint when creating the object, only after it is populated could I possibly do that. Is there a way that I can get this to work? Right now it is telling me:
The specified type member 'ArivalStation' is not supported in LINQ to
Entities. Only initializers, entity members, and entity navigation
properties are supported.
Is there something I can do to get access to this information on a property rather than constantly doing joins when I need the info?
Thanks.
You cannot use custom properties in linq-to-entities query. Only properties mapped directly to the database can be used = you must have sub query directly in your linq-to-entities query returning your ArrivalStation. Perhaps it can be wrapped as simple extension method:
public static IQueryable<ScheduleWaypoint> GetArrivalStation(this IQueryable<ScheduleWaypoints> waypoints, int routeId)
{
return waypoints.Where(w => w.WaypointType.Type.Trim() == "SA" && w.Route.Id == routeId)
.OrderByDescending(w => w.ScheduledTime)
.FirstOrDefault();
}
Where Route is your principal entity where way points are defined. FirstOrDefault is used because sub queries cannot use just First.