Entity Framework Core not loading related data - entity-framework

Question

We are developing a new application using ASP.NET Core and EF Core. We're on the latest stable release (v1.1.2). We are unable to load related data via navigation properties.
I am aware that lazy loading is not supported in EF Core but every post on the subject I have looked at suggests that we should be able to explicitly load related data using .Include(). However, this is not working for us and the related entities are always null when we load them in code.
We have two entities - 'Exchange' and 'Trade'. 'Exchange' has a foreign key to 'Trade' and contains a Virtual Trade called Request and another called Offer, thus:-
[Table("Exchange")]
public partial class Exchange : BaseEntity
{
public string Pending { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Exchange Date"), DataType(DataType.Date)]
public DateTime DateOfExchange { get; set; }
public decimal EstimatedHours { get; set; }
public decimal ActualHours { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public string FollowUp { get; set; }
public string Status { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("User")]
[Required]
public int Broker_Fk { get; set; }
public virtual User Broker { get; set; }
public int Request_Fk { get; set; }
public virtual Trade Request { get; set; }
public int Offer_Fk { get; set; }
public virtual Trade Offer { get; set; }
I have a View Model that instantiates an 'Exchange' which I know has a related 'Request':-
_vm.Exchanges = _context.Exchange.Include(i => i.Request).Where(t => t.Request.User_Fk == user.Id || t.Offer.User_Fk == user.Id).ToList();
This returns an Exchange, which I am passing to and rendering in the View Model:-
#foreach (var item in Model.Exchanges)
{
<span>#item.Request.Name</span> <br />
}
The problem is that #item.Request is null, even though I have explicitly included it when loading the Exchange. I know that there really is a related entity in existence because one of the other properties on Exchange is its foreign key, which is populated.
What am I missing? Every example I have seen posted suggests that what I've done should work.

Answer 1

Your model attributes are messed up:
[Table("Exchange")]
public partial class Exchange : BaseEntity
{
//...
[ForeignKey("Broker")]
[Required]
public int Broker_Fk { get; set; }
public virtual User Broker { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("Request")]
public int Request_Fk { get; set; }
public virtual Trade Request { get; set; }
//...
}