Should DBContext be globally defined or explicitly created every time? - entity-framework

Question

I'm a SQL guy who's tinkering with Web API and Entity Framework 6 and I keep receiving the error "The operation cannot be completed because the DbContext has been disposed" when I my code is:
namespace DataAccessLayer.Controllers
{
public class CommonController : ApiController
{
[Route("CorrespondenceTypes")]
[HttpGet]
public IQueryable GetCorrespondenceTypes()
{
using (var coreDB = new coreEntities())
{
var correspondenceType = coreDB.tblCorrespondenceTypes.Select(cor => new { cor.CorrespondenceTypeName });
return correspondenceType;
}
}
}
}
But if change my code around a little and try this it works:
namespace DataAccessLayer.Controllers
{
public class CommonController : ApiController
{
readonly coreEntities coreDB = new coreEntities();
[Route("CorrespondenceTypes")]
[HttpGet]
public IQueryable GetCorrespondenceTypes()
{
var correspondenceType = coreDB.tblCorrespondenceTypes.Select(cor => new { cor.CorrespondenceTypeName });
return correspondenceType;
}
}
}
My question is why does the second one work but not the first? Is it better practice to have a global connection string or call DBContext explicitly each time?

Answer 1

Your are getting error because you are returning the IQueryable for which Entity framework has yet not executed the query and DbContext has been disposed when that query needs to be executed.
Remember Entity framework will not execute query until collection is initialized or any method that does not support deferred execution. Visit this link for list of Linq deferred execution supported method.
why does the second one work but not the first?
In first code snippet you are returning an instance of IQuerable which has not executed DbQuery and then after it just fires dispose on your context (coreDB). So then after whenever your code iterate over the collection it tries to fire DbQuery but finds that context has already been destroyed so you are getting an error.
In second case when ever you are iterating over the collection coreDB context must be alive so you are not getting an error.
Is it better practice to have a global connection string or call DBContext explicitly each time?
Answer to this question is based on developers taste or his own comforts. You can use your context wrapped within using statements as below:
public IList GetCorrespondenceTypes()
{
using (var coreDB = new coreEntities())
{
var correspondenceType = coreDB.tblCorrespondenceTypes.Select(cor => new { cor.CorrespondenceTypeName });
return correspondenceType.ToList();
}
}
As shown in above code snippet if you would use ToList before returning it would execute query before your coreDB got destroyed. In this case you will have to make sure that you returned materialized response (i.e. returned response after executing the DbQuery).
Note: I have noticed most of the people choose the second way. Which targets context as an instance field or property.