EF6 Change tracking - entity-framework

I was implementing audit in my EF 6 database by adding a ModifiedDate property in the entity base and tried to override SaveChanges() by adding the below code (Taken from https://stackoverflow.com/a/6282472/82152)
public class Session : ISession
{
public DbContext _context;
public Session(DbContext context)
{
_context = context;
}
.
.
.
public int SaveChanges()
{
var context = ((IObjectContextAdapter)_context).ObjectContext;
var objectStateEntries =
from e in context.ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntries(EntityState.Modified)
where
e.IsRelationship == false &&
e.Entity != null &&
typeof(ModelBase).IsAssignableFrom(e.Entity.GetType())
select e;
foreach (var entry in objectStateEntries)
{
var modelBase = entry.Entity as ModelBase;
modelBase.LastModifiedDate = DateTime.Now;
}
return _context.SaveChanges();
}
After I changed one of the entity properties, and called SaveChanges - I could see that none of the objectStateEntries were marked as EntityState.Modified. It was all marked as EntityState.Unchanged.
Now after doing some reading, I changed my SaveChanges method to do context.DetectChanges(); after the first line - and it all worked. I tested a case where the entity property changed and another case where the entity property did not change, and it worked perfectly.
Now my concern is
Although my current solution works, would it take a performance hit ?
Why doesn't context.Configuration.AutoDetectChangesEnabled=true do the job of tracking the change automatically from property changes ?

You're not overriding SaveChanges(). You're creating a new wrapper class, and creating a SaveChanges method, and then trying to call SaveChanges() of your wrapped context. That's something totally different from overriding SaveChanges(). If you read the documentation for AutoDetectChangesEnabled You will find that it says this:
Gets or sets a value indicating whether the DetectChanges() method is called automatically by methods of DbContext and related classes. The default value is true.
So what it means is that DetectChanges() gets called when you call methods of the DbContext, which is something you are not doing. You ARE calling a method of the ObjectContext, which is not part of the DbContext (DbContext inherits from it), thus calling this method wouldn't trigger a DetectChanges() call.

Related

Entity Framework: partially update record not working

I have the following set up:
All instances are injected, UnitOfWork and DataContext are singletons.
I want to do a partial update of a record.
In the generic repository, I have the following code in my update statement:
dbSet.Attach(entity);
if (updatedProperties != null)
{
foreach (var property in updatedProperties)
{
unitOfWork.DataContext.Entry<TEntity>(entity).Property(property).IsModified = true;
}
}
In my update method, I accept a List of string with the updated fields.
This method is called from the usermanager with the following code:
userRepo.Update(origUser, updatedProperties);
if(processToDB)
{
unitOfWork.SaveChanges();
}
The variable processToDB is set to true. I step into the code, I see in the changetracker that the entity is there, but the update never happens.
So, what fixes this for me, but I don't find this a good fix, is calling the SaveChanges method directly from the Update method in the generic repository:
dbSet.Attach(entity);
if (updatedProperties != null)
{
foreach (var property in updatedProperties)
{
unitOfWork.DataContext.Entry<TEntity>(entity).Property(property).IsModified = true;
}
unitOfWork.SaveChanges(); //added
}
Why doesn't it work when calling the savechanges on the user manager, it is after all the samen unitOfWork and DataContext (because they are singletons).
You don't need to set IsModified for each entity properties. Use AutoDetectChangesEnabled property and set as true while initialize your EF model as
DbContext.Configuration.AutoDetectChangesEnabled = true;
It will make EF to track changes on your entity object. You may check it by using
unitOfWork.DataContext(entity).State == EntityState.Modifed.
If the above condition get paced then update your entity.

Delete loaded and unloaded objects by ID in EntityFrameworkCore

I have a method that receives an IEnumerable<Guid> of IDs to objects I want to delete. One suggested method is as follows
foreach(Guid id in ids)
{
var tempInstance = new MyEntity { Id = id };
DataContext.Attach(tempInstance); // Exception here
DataContext.Remove(tempInstance);
}
This works fine if the objects aren't already loaded into memory. But my problem is that when they are already loaded then the Attach method throws an InvalidOperationException - The instance of entity type 'MyEntity' cannot be tracked because another instance with the key value 'Id:...' is already being tracked. The same happens if I use DataContext.Remove without calling Attach.
foreach(Guid id in ids)
{
var tempInstance = new MyEntity { Id = id };
DataContext.Remove(tempInstance); // Exception here
}
I don't want to use DataContext.Find to grab the instance of an already loaded object because that will load the object into memory if it isn't already loaded.
I cannot use DataContext.ChangeTracker to find already loaded objects because only objects with modified state appear in there and my objects might be loaded and unmodified.
The following approach throws the same InvalidOperationException when setting EntityEntry.State, even when I override GetHashCode and Equals on MyEntity to ensure dictionary lookups see them as the same object.
foreach(Guid id in ids)
{
var tempInstance = new MyEntity { Id = id };
EntityEntry entry = DataContext.Entry(tempInstance);
entry.State == EntityState.Deleted; // Exception here
}
The only way so far I have found that I can achieve deleting objects by ID without knowing if the object is the following:
foreach(Guid id in ids)
{
var tempInstance = new MyEntity { Id = id };
try
{
DataContext.Attach(tempInstance); // Exception here
}
catch (InvalidOperationException)
{
}
DataContext.Remove(tempInstance);
}
It's odd that I am able to call DataContext.Remove(tempInstance) without error after experiencing an exception trying to Attach it, but at this point it does work without an exception and also deletes the correct rows from the database when DataContext.SaveChanges is executed.
I don't like catching the exception. Is there a "good" way of achieving what I want?
Note: If the class has a self-reference then you need to load the objects into memory so EntityFrameworkCore can determine in which order to delete the objects.
Strangely, although this is a quite common exception in EF6 and EF Core, neither of them expose publicly a method for programmatically detecting the already tracked entity instance with the same key. Note that overriding GetHashCode and Equals doesn't help since EF is using reference equality for tracking entity instances.
Of course it can be obtained from the DbSet<T>.Local property, but it would not be as efficient as the internal EF mechanism used by Find and the methods throwing the aforementioned exception. All we need is the first part of the Find method and returning null when not found instead of loading from the database.
Luckily, for EF Core the method that we need can be implemented relatively easily by using some of the EF Core internals (under the standard This API supports the Entity Framework Core infrastructure and is not intended to be used directly from your code. This API may change or be removed in future releases. policy). Here is the sample implementation, tested on EF Core 2.0.1:
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Internal;
namespace Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore
{
public static partial class CustomExtensions
{
public static TEntity FindTracked<TEntity>(this DbContext context, params object[] keyValues)
where TEntity : class
{
var entityType = context.Model.FindEntityType(typeof(TEntity));
var key = entityType.FindPrimaryKey();
var stateManager = context.GetDependencies().StateManager;
var entry = stateManager.TryGetEntry(key, keyValues);
return entry?.Entity as TEntity;
}
}
}
Now you can use simply:
foreach (var id in ids)
DataContext.Remove(DataContext.FindTracked<MyEntity>(id) ?? new MyEntity { Id = id }));
or
DataContext.RemoveRange(ids.Select(id =>
DataContext.FindTracked<MyEntity>(id) ?? new MyEntity { Id = id }));

EF 6 OriginalValues lost when using Attach method

I have the following Update generic method for my entities:
public void Update < T > (T entity) where T: class {
DbEntityEntry dbEntityEntry = DbContext.Entry(entity);
if (dbEntityEntry.State == System.Data.Entity.EntityState.Detached) {
DbContext.Set < T > ().Attach(entity);
}
dbEntityEntry.State = System.Data.Entity.EntityState.Modified;
}
After SaveChanges() the data is successfully updated in the DB.
Now I nee to implement and Audit Log before SaveChanges() but I noticed that CurrentValues are equal to OriginalValues:
// For updates, we only want to capture the columns that actually changed
if (!object.Equals(dbEntry.OriginalValues.GetValue<object>(propertyName), dbEntry.CurrentValues.GetValue<object>(propertyName))){
//here I add a new Audit Log entity
}
Any clue on how to solve this? Or is there a better way to do it in Entity Framework 6?
If you are using a disconnected entity, you can set originals values without affect entity instance values, adapt this method at you needs
public static void LoadOriginalValues(this WorkflowsContext db, DbEntityEntry entity)
{
var props = entity.GetDatabaseValues();
foreach (var p in props.PropertyNames)
{
if (entity.Property(p).IsModified)
{
entity.Property(p).OriginalValue = props[p];
}
}
}
The original values are recovered from the entity itself. If the entity is being tracked by a context, this information is available.
In your case, you're using a disconected entity, so there is no change tracking, and the entity doesn't have the original values.
SO, in this case, if you need the original values there is no other option than getting them from the DB, and compare them, one by one.
If you want to get an entity that behaves as if it had been tracked by the context you can use a context to read the entity from the DB, and use something like ValueInjecter to automatically set the property values from the disconected entity into the tracked entity.

How can I prevent EF from inserting an object that already exists in the db when adding one that contains this first one?

It's quite self-explainatory.
I have a class that contains another
Let's call them Subject and Classroom
public class Subject
{
public Classroom Class {get; set;}
}
I'm using stateless facades, wich means my DbContext is disposed right after recovering the objects and is created to store the new ones.
Shouldn't it know that Classroom isn't a new object since it's ID is already in the DB?
Using the debugger I can track to the point right before I call the SaveChanges method and Classroom.id is the one I have on the database.
What's the problem? EF adds a new Classroom with the exact properties as the previous one, but with a new PK.
What am I doing wrong here?
This is the code used for the general CRUD operations (They are in my DbContext) Both update and delete work just fine:
public void Update(DbSet MySet, object Obj)
{
MySet.Attach(Obj);
var Entry = this.Entry(Obj);
Entry.State = EntityState.Modified;
this.SaveChanges();
}
public void Insert(DbSet MySet, object Obj)
{
MySet.Add(Obj);
this.SaveChanges();
}
public void Delete(DbSet MySet, object Obj)
{
MySet.Attach(Obj);
var Entry = this.Entry(Obj);
Entry.State = EntityState.Deleted;
this.SaveChanges();
}
Without seeing you're actual code on how you're either updating or creating your Subject entity, it's hard to tell. However, you're probably not attaching the Classroom so EF is assuming that the entity is new, when it's really not.
using (Model m = new Model())
{
m.Subject.Add(subject);
m.Classrooms.Attach(subject.Class);
m.SaveChanges();
}
Even though the PK is the same, without attaching to the Context, EF has no way of figuring out what you're intention is. Attaching the entity explicitly tells your context what you want.

Entity Framework - Auditing activity

My database has a 'LastModifiedUser' column on every table in which I intend to collect the logged in user from an application who makes a change. I am not talking about the database user so essentially this is just a string on each entity. I would like to find a way to default this for each entity so that other developers don't have to remember to assign it any time they instantiate the entity.
So something like this would occur:
using (EntityContext ctx = new EntityContext())
{
MyEntity foo = new MyEntity();
// Trying to avoid having the following line every time
// a new entity is created/added.
foo.LastModifiedUser = Lookupuser();
ctx.Foos.Addobject(foo);
ctx.SaveChanges();
}
There is a perfect way to accomplish this in EF 4.0 by leveraging ObjectStateManager
First, you need to create a partial class for your ObjectContext and subscribe to
ObjectContext.SavingChanges Event. The best place to subscribe to this event is inside the OnContextCreated Method. This method is called by the context object’s constructor and the constructor overloads which is a partial method with no implementation:
partial void OnContextCreated() {
this.SavingChanges += Context_SavingChanges;
}
Now the actual code that will do the job:
void Context_SavingChanges(object sender, EventArgs e) {
IEnumerable<ObjectStateEntry> objectStateEntries =
from ose
in this.ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntries(EntityState.Added
| EntityState.Modified)
where ose.Entity != null
select ose;
foreach (ObjectStateEntry entry in objectStateEntries) {
ReadOnlyCollection<FieldMetadata> fieldsMetaData = entry.CurrentValues
.DataRecordInfo.FieldMetadata;
FieldMetadata modifiedField = fieldsMetaData
.Where(f => f.FieldType.Name == "LastModifiedUser").FirstOrDefault();
if (modifiedField.FieldType != null) {
string fieldTypeName = modifiedField.FieldType.TypeUsage.EdmType.Name;
if (fieldTypeName == PrimitiveTypeKind.String.ToString()) {
entry.CurrentValues.SetString(modifiedField.Ordinal, Lookupuser());
}
}
}
}
Code Explanation:
This code locates any Added or Modified entries that have a LastModifiedUser property and then updates that property with the value coming from your custom Lookupuser() method.
In the foreach block, the query basically drills into the CurrentValues of each entry. Then, using the Where method, it looks at the names of each FieldMetaData item for that entry, picking up only those whose Name is LastModifiedUser. Next, the if statement verifies that the LastModifiedUser property is a String field; then it updates the field's value.
Another way to hook up this method (instead of subscribing to SavingChanges event) is by overriding the ObjectContext.SaveChanges Method.
By the way, the above code belongs to Julie Lerman from her Programming Entity Framework book.
EDIT for Self Tracking POCO Implementation:
If you have self tracking POCOs then what I would do is that I first change the T4 template to call the OnContextCreated() method. If you look at your ObjectContext.tt file, there is an Initialize() method that is called by all constructors, therefore a good candidate to call our OnContextCreated() method, so all we need to do is to change ObjectContext.tt file like this:
private void Initialize()
{
// Creating proxies requires the use of the ProxyDataContractResolver and
// may allow lazy loading which can expand the loaded graph during serialization.
ContextOptions.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
ObjectMaterialized += new ObjectMaterializedEventHandler(HandleObjectMaterialized);
// We call our custom method here:
OnContextCreated();
}
And this will cause our OnContextCreated() to be called upon creation of the Context.
Now if you put your POCOs behind the service boundary, then it means that the ModifiedUserName must come with the rest of data from your WCF service consumer. You can either expose this
LastModifiedUser property to them to update or if it stores in another property and you wish to update LastModifiedUser from that property, then you can modify the 2nd code as follows:
foreach (ObjectStateEntry entry in objectStateEntries) {
ReadOnlyCollection fieldsMetaData = entry.CurrentValues
.DataRecordInfo.FieldMetadata;
FieldMetadata sourceField = fieldsMetaData
.Where(f => f.FieldType.Name == "YourPropertyName").FirstOrDefault();
FieldMetadata modifiedField = fieldsMetaData
.Where(f => f.FieldType.Name == "LastModifiedUser").FirstOrDefault();
if (modifiedField.FieldType != null) {
string fieldTypeName = modifiedField.FieldType.TypeUsage.EdmType.Name;
if (fieldTypeName == PrimitiveTypeKind.String.ToString()) {
entry.CurrentValues.SetString(modifiedField.Ordinal,
entry.CurrentValues[sourceField.Ordinal].ToString());
}
}
}
Hope this helps.
There is a nuget package for this now : https://www.nuget.org/packages/TrackerEnabledDbContext
Github: https://github.com/bilal-fazlani/tracker-enabled-dbcontext