Updating entity without having the know primary key - entity-framework

Question

Given the following code, how can I add an element to one of the properties of an entity without knowing its Id and retrieving it from the database?
public async Task BookInPersonVisitAsync(Guid propertyId, DateTime dateTime, CancellationToken token)
{
var entity = new OnBoardingProcessEntity{ ExternalId = propertyId };
DbContext.OnBoardingProcesses.Attach(entity);
entity.OnBoardingProcessVisits.Add(new OnBoardingProcessVisitEntity
{
DateTime = dateTime,
Occurred = false
});
await DbContext.SaveChangesAsync(token);
}
ExternalId is just a guid we use for external reference. This doesnt work cause it does not have the id set, but without hitting the database we cant have it.

Answer 1

With entity framework if you have to reference an entity (referencedEntity) from another entity (entity) you have to know referencedEntity.
Otherwise you can add just add the entity setting the referencedEntity to null.
To know the referencedEntity or you know the Id or you have to retrieve it in some ways (from the database).
In SQL (DML) if (and only if) ExternalId is a candidate key noy nullable you can insert the OnBoardingProcessVisit record with a single roundtrip but the insert statement will contain an inner query.
OnBoardingProcessVisit.OnBoardingProcess_Id = (
SELECT
Id
FROM
OnBoardingProcess
WHERE
ExternalId = #propertyId)
EDIT
No way to generate that query with EF. You can have a look to external components (free and not free, for example EntityFramework Extended but in this case I think that doesn't help).
In this case I probably would try to use standard entity framework features (so 1 roundtrip to retrieve the OnBoardingProcess from the ExternalId).
Then, if the roundtrip is too slow, run the SQL query directly on the database.
About performances (and database consistency) add a unique index on OnBoardingProcess.ExternalId (in every case).
Another suggestion if you decide for the roundtrip.
In your code, the entity will be a proxy. If you don't disable lazy load, using your code you will do one more roundtrip when you will access to property
entity.OnBoardingProcessVisits (in the statement entity.OnBoardingProcessVisits.Add).
So, in this case, disable lazy load or do the same using a different way.
The different way in your case is something like
var onBoardingProcessVisitEntity new OnBoardingProcessVisitEntity
{
DateTime = dateTime,
Occurred = false,
OnBoardingProcess = entity
});
DbContext.OnBoardingProcessVisits.Add(onBoardingProcessVisitEntity);
await DbContext.SaveChangesAsync(token);