Generic Repository and Leaky Abstraction - entity-framework

I am implementing a repository pattern. My main reasons for this:
To abstract client code away from persistence specifics (Entity Framework)
To support testability
Generic Repository or not?
The issue I have run into is whether I should have a generic repository or not. An IQueryable<T> Query() method would provide the calling code with means to construct specific queries. The issue here is that this is leaky abstraction - Entity Framework specifics are now leaking into my client code.
How would this effect unit testing? Would I still be able to Mock the ICustomerRepository with this implementation?
How would this effect swopping out my persistence layer? Like Azure Storage Tables or NHibernate.
Otherwise I would have to implement very specific query method on ICustomerRepository, such as GetIsActiveByFirstName() and GetIsActiveByDistrict(). I dislike this a lot as my repository classes are going to become jam-packed with different query methods. This system has hundreds of models and so there could be hundreds or even thousands of these methods to write and maintain.

You can have a relatively clean IRepository<T> by sticking to the pattern.
Data Access LAyer
reference to EF and Core project
Has Respository<T> : IRepository<T>
Option has IEFJunk declaration (Only if using multiple repositories)
Reference to Core
Respository is injected with Context (typically during instantiation)
Core
Interfaces that can be "Injected"
IRepository declaration. With no EF data type use.
NO reference to EF
So now code in Core you can refer to an IRepository<t>.
The implementing class can have EF specifics. But this can not be accessed from core!
so you can have IQueryable.
public interface IRepositoryBase<TPoco>{
IQueryable<TPoco> GetListQ(Expression<Func<TPoco, bool>> predicate);
//...
BUt if you decided you wanted to add
//...
// logically exposing IQueryable<T> Include<T>(this IQueryable<T> source, string path) from EF
IQueryable<TPoco> IncludeNAVProp(string navToInclude);
}
Then the Repository implementation
return Context.Set<TPoco>().Include(navToInclude);
requires the underlying provider to be EF. So now mocking is against an actual EF provider.
And unless you are careful, EF specific code. leaks out.
Indeed the interface IRepository that has the CONCEPT "include" can already be considered LEAKY.
Keeping EF specifics out of your Interfaces, is the key to avoiding the leaks.
And you can have 1 IRepository<t> and 1 Respository<t> and support 100s of tables

Related

DbContext Multiple Inheritance

The design of EF forces developers to inherit the DbContext class. Some reusable libraries (such as ASP.NET Identity) typically provides its functionality using the same inheritance route, i.e. by providing the IdentityDbContext base-class.
But obviously this won't work if you have 2 such libraries, e.g. requiring you to inherit from IdentityDbContext and CmsDbContext at the same time, which is obviously impossible to do on .NET. The result that I want is to have an application-dbcontext that contains both the models from my identity module and my cms module (I won't be able to separate this to 2 dbcontexts since that would mean I will end up with multiple connections and transactions, and that my models can only reference to either identity or cms entities, but not both).
It's hard to believe that this question hasn't seemed to be asked around EF community, but this seems like a horrendously bad ORM design. Inheritance only lets you to have strictly linear modularisation. (As a comparison, in NHibernate, ISession and your Configuration are 2 separate things, therefore you can use discovery process to build up your mapping-configuration from different unrelated modules, without messing with my ISession and thus my db-connection/transactions).
So the question is, let's say you're a developer of a module that would like to register models into entity-framework (similar to ASP.NET identity module), you won't want to have a base DbContext that the consuming application must inherit, because it would prevent them from consuming other modules (e.g. ASP.NET identity's IdentityDbContext). So what are my options?
Is there any way to register models into a DbContext class without requiring to inherit from a DbContext? Is overriding OnModelCreating the only way to get access to a ModelBuilder?
I don't think your comparison is entirely fair. (Although I'm the first to admit that NHibernate beats EF in many areas).
With NHibernate, usually you load objects by some generic method in which you supply the type you want to load. You could create ISession implementations with hard-coded Query<T> (or QueryOver<T>) properties, like...
public Query<MyUser> Users { get; set; }
...and you'd have the same "problem" that you can't merge, or inherit from, two different implementations.
Likewise, you could work with EF by loading objects by using context.Set<T> only. You could even inject the configuration (sort of) by supplying EntityTypeConfiguration classes (as a list) in the context's constructor, storing them in a member variable and adding them to the model builder in the OnModelCreating override.
These specialized context classes, like IdentityDbContext, are offered to make life easier if they suit you. They have hard-coded DbSet properties (among others). The fact that you can't multiple inherit them is not a design flaw. It's just a (non-negotiable) language specification.
Choose the one that most closely serves your needs (propably CmsDbContext) and add other class mappings yourself.

How could I access special functions baked into a Custom DbContext through a Generic DbContext which lives within a Generic Repository?

Here is my set up thus far:
Database-First Entity Framework (generates a EDMX)
Separated POCOs into a different project
Left Custom DbContext under EDMX to be used as a bounded Countext
Created a UOW
Created a generic Repository (IRepository)
Mapped each entity into the UOW through concrete implementations of IRepository
UOW instantiates the Custom DbContext created by the EDMX and passes it along to each Repository
So far all is well.
Now, the problem stems out of that last part. The UOW instantiates the Custom DbContext, injects it into the Repositories and everything works... for the most part.
Each Repository implementation takes the DbContext, creates a DbSet and exposes the usual CRUD operations. All Entities are accessible through generics, so if I want to implement say GetAll() I will simply return DbSet and it will already be mapped to the Entity .
BUT, when I try to access a Function Import from DbContext within the Repository... I CAN'T.
It makes sense that I can't of course: the generic repository takes a DbContext as input, but it knows nothing of the Custom DbContext created by the EDMX, thus, all such functions added into the Custom DbContext are not known to the DbContext within the repository.
In other words:
I can access the Function Imports from the Custom DbContext while in the UOW
I pass the Custom DbContext to the constructor of each Entity Repository
The Repository expects any class that derives from DbContext, so the Custom DbContext does the trick
When the Repository tries to access the Function Import through the DbContext is has access to, it can't, because it has no knowledge of them
Obviously I can't just use the Custom DbContext everywhere, because I would be marrying the Repository to a specific Custom DbContext, and I'll be needing more than one since I'm created several Bounded Context.
Alas, THE QUESTION:
How could I call the Function Import from within the Repository without marrying it to a specific Custom DbContext?
Workarounds:
I know I could use reflection, but I'm trying to stir away from it for performance reasons (I know it is not that terrible, but still... the present question is about finding out a better way).
I have managed to get what I needed using DbContext.SqlQuery() to execute the Stored Procedure (which was mapped to the Function Import in the EDMX). Yet again, since I can easily swap Function Imports in the EDMX, I would like to find a way to access it within the Repository.
Hope it all makes sense. I appreciate any light anyone can shed onto the matter.
It's not clear to me how would you know what function to invoke or what parameters it takes. However you can take a look at the code generated for function imports and it basically looks like this:
((IObjectContextAdapter)this).ObjectContext
.ExecuteFunction<Customer>("Customers_With_Recent_Orders", customerId)
Therefore (instead of using reflection) you can just do the same thing dynamically - given that even with reflection you would have to know what function to invoke, you should know the type of the entity you expect and you can use params to pass any number of parameters it should be doable.
** EDIT **
You can also execute the function as no tracking by using the other overload:
((IObjectContextAdapter)this).ObjectContext
.ExecuteFunction<Customer>(
"Customers_With_Recent_Orders",
MergeOption.NoTracking,
customerId)

Entity Framework - No Repository abstraction

In my project, I need to use EF and abstract the queries from the Presentation layer. Based from what I've been reading questions and answers all over the net, EF is built having repository pattern on it's DbSet and Unit of work on DbContext.
Repository pattern can easily do the requirement but I don't wanna repeat this implementation and now confused where should I initialize or access the DbContext. Should it be on the service layer?
MVC4 Api will be used for this project
One way I have seen this done in the past is to essentially remove the DbContext's dependency on a physical database by creating an interface for your context then make your data access calls from your Services Layer (Business Logic Layer).
There is however, a disadvantage in using this approach, which is the fact that your unit tests (which will be using a Fake implementation of your DbContext) will be using LINQ to Objects to run your queries whereas your concrete implementation will use LINQ to Entities which does not support all LINQ to Objects methods.
There's documentation on MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb738550.aspx) which highlights these differences.
I also recommend reading this article (http://kearon.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/mocking-entity-framework-4-code-first.html) which demonstrates how to make DbContext unit testable by removing the inderlying dependency on a phyiscal database.
Hope this all helps!

How can I configure multiple UnitOfWork classes for multiple databases?

I'm using Entity Framework (code first), Repositories, and the Unit of Work pattern, essentially as described here:
Entity Framework 4 CTP 4 / CTP 5 Generic Repository Pattern and Unit Testable
I'm also using StructureMap to manage my object instances and I have some code like this wiring up the EF dbcontext and unit of work:
For<DbContext>().HybridHttpOrThreadLocalScoped().Use<MyDbContext>();
For<IUnitOfWork>().HybridHttpOrThreadLocalScoped().Use<UnitOfWork>();
I also have a generic Repository<T> that currently knows about the MyDbContext instance. Now I need to be able to support multiple databases, and thus multiple DbContexts. I'm considering trying to adjust my IUnitOfWork to be instead an IUnitOfWork<T>, where T is the DbContext to use. But my repository will also need to know which DbContext to use, so do I then have to make it doubly generic (e.g. Repository<TEntity,TDbContext>)?
What's the best, simplest way to support multiple databases using the UnitOfWork pattern I'm using?
It depends on your application logic. Are you going to do changes in multiple databases withing single unit of work? If yes you should still use one unit of work with database factory for each database accessed within that unit of work. Commit of that unit of work should use TransactionScope to make changes in all database atomically (this can be little bit more challenging).
If you always need to make changes only in a single database you can use single generic unit of work but you also have to implement generic Get on database factory. Passing context type to the repository is not needed. Move the initialization logic to concrete repositories which know the type of context they must use and they will ask database factory for that context.

Which variant of Entity Framework to use in WCF based enterprise app

We are in a process of designing an application with approx 100 tables and complicated business logic. Windows Forms will be used on the client side and WCF services with MSSQL on the server.
Custom DTOs are used for client-server communication, business entities are not distributed.
Which variant of Entity Framework to use (and why):
EF 4.0 EntityObjects
EF 4.0 POCO
EF 4.1 DbContext
Something else
Database-first approach is a requirement.
Also, is it worth implementing a Repository pattern? It seems a bit redundant, as there is one level of abstraction in the mapping itself and another one in the use of DTOs. I'm currently leaned towards using auto-generated extendable repositories for each entity returning IQueryable, just to have a place to put common queries, but still allowing querying entity model directly from the Service Layer.
Which variant to use? Basically once you have custom DTO the only question is do you want to have control over entities code (their base class) and make them independent on EF? Do you want to use code first? If the answers to all questions are no then you can use EntityObjects. If you want to have entities persistence ignorant or use custom base class you should go to POCO. If you want to use code first or new DbContext API you will need EF 4.1. Some related topics:
EF 4.1 Code-first vs Model/Database-first
EF POCO code only VS EF POCO with Entity Data Model (this was related to CTP)
ADO.NET DbContext Generator vs. ADO.NET POCO Entity Generator
EF Model First or Code First Approach?
There are more things to consider when designing service layer. You should be aware of complications you will have to deal with when using EF in WCF. Your service will provide data to WinForms application and it will work with them in "detached mode". Once user will do all changes he wants to do he will post data back to the service. But here comes the problem - you must tell EF what has changed. If you for example allow user to change order with all its order items (change quantity in items, add new items, delete some items) you must say EF exactly what has changed, what was added and what was deleted. That is easy when you work with single entity but once you allow user to change object graph (especially many-to-many relations) then it is quite tough. The most common solution is loading the whole graph and merge the state from incoming DTOs to loaded and attached graph. Other solution is using Self tracking entities instead of EntityObjects/POCOs + DTOs.
When discussing repositories I would refer you to this answer which refers many other answers discussing repositories, their possible redundancy and possible mistakes when using them just to make your code testable. Generally each layer should be added only if there is real need for the layer - due to better separation of concerns.
The main advantage of POCOs is that those classes can be your DTOs, so if you've already got custom DTOs that you're using, POCO seems a bit redundant. However, there are some other advantages which may or may not have value to you, since you didn't mention unit testing as a requirement. If you plan to write unit tests, then POCO is still the way to go. You probably won't notice much difference between 4.0 POCO and 4.1 since you won't be using the code-first feature (disclaimer: I've only used 4.0 POCO, so I'm not intimately familiar with any minor differences between the two, but they seem to be more or less the same--basically I was already using POCO in 4.0 and haven't seen anything that's made me want to update everything to use 4.1).
Also, depending on whether you plan to unit-test this layer, there's still value in implementing the repository/unit of work patterns when using Entity Framework. It serves to abstract away the data access logic (the context), not the entities themselves, and allows you to do things like mocking your context in unit tests. What I do is copy the T4 template for my context and use it to create the interface, then edit the T4 template for the context and have it implement that interface and use IObjectSet<T> instead of ObjectSet<T>. So instead of:
public class MyEntitiesContext
{
public ObjectSet<MyClass> MyEntities
...
}
I end up with:
public interface IMyEntitiesContext
{
public IObjectSet<MyClass> MyEntities;
}
and
public class MyEntitiesContext : IMyEntitiesContext
{
public IObjectSet<MyClass> MyEntities
...
}
So I guess it really comes down to whether or not you plan to write unit tests for this layer. If you won't be doing anything that would require mocking out your context for testing, then the easiest thing to use would probably be 4.0 EntityObjects, since you aren't planning to pass your entities between layers and it would require the least effort to implement. If you plan to use mocking, then you'll probably want to use POCO and implement repository/unit of work.