What are some ways I can delete an item from a collection? (I am using MVC 4 and EF.)
As an example:
public class Birthday
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Gift> Gifts { get; set; }
}
public class Gift
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public double Price { get; set; }
}
I'm using Editing a variable length list, ASP.NET MVC 2-style to create a dynamic list of Gifts.
The example is shows how to "Delete" a row. This will delete the row from the page and the correct Gifts are sent to the controller.
When I update the Birthday / Gifts everything new is updated properly, but anything deleted is still there.
So my question is what are some preferred ways to remove Gifts?
Two ways I've thought of already:
Get a Birthday from the DB and compare the Gifts removing as needed. I don't love this idea because it seems heavy handed.
Use WebApi / Ajax and delete the Gift from the list and the DB when the user pushes the delete link. I like this better than #1 but does this put too much business logic in the presentation layer?
I'm guessing that other people have had this similar problem and have a clever solution I haven't thought of yet.
Thanks in advance!
Make a Gifts api controller.
Let it have a Delete method accepting an Id of whatever type your Id is.
And do something like this in it:
public class GiftsController: ApiController
{
public void Delete(Guid Id)
{
var context = new MyContext();
var giftToDelete = context.Gifts.FirstOrDefault(g=> g.Id == Id);
if(giftToDelete != null)
{
context.Gifts.Remove(giftToDelete);
context.SaveChanges();
}
}
}
Make sure you make a DELETE request to this api in your JS delete function.
You may also replace the body of this method with some Service.DeleteGift(Id) if you're too concerned about doing things in the right place.
Like this:
public class ValuesController : ApiController
{
private List<string> list = new List<string>{"Item1","Item2","Item3","Item4","Item5"};
// DELETE api/values/5
public List<string> DeleteItem(int id)
{
list.Remove(list.Find((i => i.ToString().Contains(id.ToString()))));
return list;
}
}
Related
I'm studying DDD using C# and Entity Framework. I'm stuck in a situation where I've an aggregate root here:
class Experience : AggregateRoot {
public string Name { get; }
public Guid IconId { get; }
public static Experience Create(string name, Guid iconId) {
Name = name;
IconId = icondId;
return new Experience(name, iconId);
}
}
and an Entity:
class Icon : Entity {
public Guid IconId { get; }
public string Url { get; }
public static Icon Create(string Url, Guid iconId) {
IconId = iconId;
Url = url;
return new Icon(Url, IconId);
}
}
I'm using an CQRS pattern, so into my Application Layer GetExperienceQuery() and I create a new Experience Entity using my repository pattern service. But if I use this approach above, I must do 2 queries, one to retrieve the Experience and one to retrieve the Icon from the repository causing some performance issue probably. Another downside of this approach is verified when I want to retrive a List of Experiences, I've to retrive the list of Experience so, for every item I've to retrieve the corrisponding Icon to compose the item of the list. So if I've 100 Experiences, I've to do 100 queries?
Probably I'm missing something, but why can I just do an approach like this:
class Experience : AggregateRoot {
public string Name { get; }
public Icon Icon { get; }
public static Experience Create(string name, Icon icon) {
Name = name;
Icon = icond;
return new Experience(name, icon);
}
}
In this way I can retrieve and map the Experience Item using my Entity Framework because on the database the Experience Table has already an external reference to the Icon table. So retrieve a List it's easy.
All of this doubs comes from this article here that says "reference other aggregates by identity" and not by reference.
Any suggestions? Thanks!
I'm working on a Rest API using Web API2 and EF6 Code first starting from the guide on http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/data/using-web-api-with-entity-framework/part-4
I'm basically doing the same thing having a many to many relationship and when i am creating an object, lets call it A, i include an array of B objects as the Bs variable in the post. They all get created as expected on the initial post, however when i add a second Object A which should link to one or more of the same B's as the first object A it instead of matching to the existing B's tries to create new B's but since there is a constraint on the name of the B this wont work. How do i ensure that it does not try to create a new object B every-time and instead link to an existing Object B if there is one?.
Here is the example in more detail.
I have two Models, lets call them A and B. They have a many to many relation
public class A
{
public int Id { get; set; }
[Required, StringLength(100), Index("IDX_Name", 2, IsUnique = true)]
public string Name { get; set; }
[StringLength(300)]
public string Description { get; set; }
public ICollection<B> Bs{ get; set; }
}
Model B
public class B
{
public int Id { get; set; }
[Required, StringLength(100), Index("IDX_Name", 2, IsUnique = true)]
public string Name { get; set; }
public ICollection<B> As{ get; set; }
}
I'm not including the auto generated context.
and in the auto generated Controller scaffolding for the Web API POST method for Model A it looks like this
[ResponseType(typeof(A))]
public async Task<IHttpActionResult> PostGame(A a)
{
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
return BadRequest(ModelState);
}
db.As.Add(a);
await db.SaveChangesAsync();
return CreatedAtRoute("DefaultApi", new { id = a.Id }, a);
}
All tables are created just fine and if i do the first post creating my first object A with the following json:
{
"Name": "FirstA",
"Description": "FirstADesc",
"Bs" : [{"Name":"FirstB"}]
}
It works and both FirstA and FirstB is created.
If i then post a SecondA which is also linked to the FirstB obect
{
"Name": "SecondA",
"Description": "SecondADesc",
"Bs" : [{"Name":"SecondB"},{"Name":"FirstB"}]
}
It will instead of finding the FirstB try to create it again. Which it due to the constraint.
My first guess was that i should use the ID:s instead in the second post. like:
{
"Name": "SecondA",
"Description": "SecondADesc",
"Bs" : [{"Id":"1"},{"Name":"FirstB"}]
}
but this does not work either.
Is the only way of achieving this to replace the scaffolding code from the controller and check each object in Bs manually if it exist already?.
Basically its a "Tags to a post problem"...
I've looked into the Attached vs Detached Data subject and read articles on the matter without finding an answer that i can understand whether this can be done automatically with some proper annotations or if it has to be done "manually" in the controller.
Thanks in Advance!
Not much response on this one,
Ended up looping and manually checking for an existing entry like below.
[ResponseType(typeof(A))]
public async Task<IHttpActionResult> PostGame(A a)
{
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
return BadRequest(ModelState);
}
foreach (var asd in a.Bs.ToList())
{
var t = db.Bs.FirstOrDefault(a => a.Name == asd.Name);
if (t != null)
{
a.Bs.Remove(asd);
a.Bs.Add(t);
}
}
db.As.Add(a);
await db.SaveChangesAsync();
return CreatedAtRoute("DefaultApi", new { id = a.Id }, a);
}
Cant help to feel that there has to be a better way then this though.
I have found a solution that works (using DTOs and AutoMapper), which is reproduced below, but I would prefer an answer that lists the different approaches to the problem with examples and this will be marked as the answer if received.
In my entity model I have a navigation property that goes from a child entity to the parent entity. My project was working swimmingly. Then I began to use AutoFixture for unit testing, and testing failed, AutoFixture saying I had a circular reference.
Now, I realise that circular reference navigation properties like this are OK within Entity Framework, but I found this post (Use value of a parent property when creating a complex child in AutoFixture), where Mark Seemann, the creator of AutoFixture states:
"For the record, I haven't written an API with a circular reference for years, so it's quite possible to avoid those Parent/Child relations."
So, I want to understand HOW a domain model can be refactored to avoid child/parent relations.
Below are the entity classes in question, the repository method, and how I use the property causing the circular reference in my View. The perfect answer would explain the different options I could choose from with examples, and the basic pros/cons of each approach.
Note: The property causing the circular reference is User, in the UserTeam model.
Models:
public class UserProfile
{
public UserProfile()
{
UserTeams = new HashSet<UserTeam>();
Games = new HashSet<Game>();
}
[Key]
[DatabaseGeneratedAttribute(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public int UserId { get; set; }
public string UserName { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<UserTeam> UserTeams { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Game> Games { get; set; }
}
public class Game
{
public Game()
{
UserTeams = new HashSet<UserTeam>();
}
public int Id { get; set; }
public int CreatorId { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<UserTeam> UserTeams { get; set; }
}
public class UserTeam
{
public UserTeam()
{
UserTeam_Players = new HashSet<UserTeam_Player>();
}
public int Id { get; set; }
public int UserId { get; set; }
public int GameId { get; set; }
public virtual UserProfile User { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<UserTeam_Player> UserTeam_Players { get; set; }
}
Repository Method
public IEnumerable<Game> GetAllGames()
{
using (DataContext)
{
var _games = DataContext.Games
.Include(x => x.UserTeams)
.Include(x => x.UserTeams.Select(y => y.User))
.ToList();
if (_games == null)
{
// log error
return null;
}
return _games;
}
}
View
#model IEnumerable<Game>
#foreach (var item in Model){
foreach (var userteam in item.UserTeams){
<p>#userteam.User.UserName</p>
}
}
Now, if I remove the 'User' navigation property, I wouldn't be able to do '#userteam.User.UserName'
So, how do I refactor the domain model to remove the circular reference, whilst being able to easily loop through Games, and do something like
UserTeam.User.Username?
I had a similar problem with AutoFixture and EntityFramework a while ago. My solution was to add an extension to AutoFixture, that allows you to build a SUT with a few recursions. That extension has recently been adopted in AutoFixture.
But I understand that your question was not about how to make AutoFixture construct recursive data structures, which is indeed possible, but how to create domain models without recursion.
First, you have tree or graph structures. Here anything but recursion would mean indirection through loose coupled node ids. Instead of defining an association, you would have to traverse the tree query-by-query or cache the whole thing and traverse by node-key lookup, which may be impractical depending on the tree-size. Here it is very convenient to make EF do the work for you.
The other common structure is a two-way navigational structure similar to your user / game scenario. Here it is often not that inconvenient to prune the navigation flow to a single direction. If you omit one direction, say from game to team, you can still easily query all teams for a given game. So: User has a list of games and a list of teams. Team has a list of games. Games have no navigational reference to either. To get all users for a specific game you could write something like:
var users = (from user in DataContext.Users
from game in user.Games
where game.Name == 'Chess'
select user).Distinct()
I have found a solution that works (using DTOs and AutoMapper), which is reproduced below, but I would still prefer an answer that lists the different approaches to the problem with examples, in particular whether this is a desirable solution, or whether I should stick with the navigation properties as they were, get rid of AutoFixture, and when it comes to serializing for json just utilise other work arounds (attributes etc)...
So, in my View Model, I added a couple of classes:
public class GameDTO
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int CreatorId { get; set; }
public ICollection<UserTeamDTO> UserTeamsDTO { get; set; }
}
public class UserTeamDTO : UserTeam
{
public UserProfile User { get; set; }
}
And in my controller, I use AutoMapper to map the Game / UserTeam objects from the repository to my DTO objects, and return the IList _gamesDto to the View.
var _games = _gameRepository.GetAllGames();
IList<GameDTO> _gamesDto = new List<GameDTO>();
IList<UserTeamDTO> _userteamsDto = new List<UserTeamDTO>();
GameDTO _gameDto = new GameDTO();
UserTeamDTO _userteamDto = new UserTeamDTO();
Mapper.CreateMap<Game, GameDTO>();
Mapper.CreateMap<UserTeam, UserTeamDTO>();
foreach (Game _game in _games)
{
foreach (UserTeam _userteam in _game.UserTeams)
{
_userteamDto = Mapper.Map<UserTeamDTO>(_userteam);
_userteamDto.User = _userRepository.GetUser(_userteam.UserId);
_userteamsDto.Add(_userteamDto);
}
_gameDto = Mapper.Map<GameDTO>(_game);
_gameDto.UserTeamsDTO = _userteamsDto;
_gamesDto.Add(_gameDto);
}
I had a similar problem recently which also impacted serializing JSON objects. I decided to remove the circular references from my data model.
I first removed the redundant navigation properties which were creating the circular references. I made sure that my resulting tree of data made sense. This allowed me to make it clear which objects own which relationships.
This also made EF unable to automatically reason about my relationships. I had to specify the One-to-Many and Many-to-Many relationships using the FluentAPI. I found a solution here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/16719203/1887885
Hope this is helpful.
I have a Survey that contains questions and also which users can/will participate in the survey.
like so
public virtual ICollection<User> ParticipatingUsers { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Question> SpecificQuestions { get; set; }
However, due to the ajaxy solution I create the questions first and then simply send in the ID of my created question with the survey data. So all I need to do is change the sortingIndex of the question and then add a reference to it in my Survey.
When it comes to users they belong to a Company entity and I only want to reference them from the survey not own them.
But currently I get all the id's for questions and users in my action method (.net mvc) and so currently I load all questions and users and attach them to my survey entity before sending the survey to the repository.
But when my Repository calls Add on dbset it clones the user and question data instead of simply referencing existing data.
I am lost, I have solved this exact problem for a normal navigation property by adding [Foreignkey] but i don't know how that would work with ICollection
For completeness
Here is my action method recieving the data
[HttpPost]
[FlexAuthorize(Roles = "RootAdmin")]
public ActionResult SaveSurvey(EditSurveyViewModel editModel)
{
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
//We dont bother to send this in so we need to fetch the list again
editModel.CompanyList = _companyRepository.GetAll();
List<string> deletionList = new List<string>();
//We clear out all questions from the state as we have custom logic to rerender them with the correct values
foreach (var modelstateItem in ModelState)
{
if (modelstateItem.Key.StartsWith("Questions"))
{
deletionList.Add(modelstateItem.Key);
}
}
foreach (string key in deletionList)
{
ModelState.Remove(key);
}
return View("EditSurvey", editModel);
}
List<Question> questionlist = new List<Question>();
int sort = 1;
Question q;
//We have questions sent in from the ui/client
if (editModel.Questions != null)
{
//Go trough each questions sent in
foreach (var question in editModel.Questions)
{
//if it's a page break, just assign our new question the sent in one and set sort index
if (question.IsPageBreak)
{
q = question;
q.SortIndex = sort;
}
else
{
//It's a question and all questions are already created with ajax from the client
//So we simply find the question and then set sort index and tie it to our survey
q = _questionRepository.GetById(question.Id);
q.SortIndex = sort;
}
questionlist.Add(q);
sort++;
}
}
//assign the new sorted questions to our Survey
editModel.Item.SpecificQuestions = questionlist;
List<User> userlist = new List<User>();
foreach (int id in editModel.SelectedUsers)
{
userlist.Add(_userRepository.GetById(id));
}
editModel.Item.ParticipatingUsers = userlist.ToList();
_surveyRepository.SaveSurveyBindAndSortQuestionsLinkUsers(editModel.Item);
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}
Here is the viewmodel the method gets sent in
public class EditSurveyViewModel
{
public Survey Item { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<Question> Questions { get; set; }
public bool FullyEditable { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<Company> CompanyList { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<int> SelectedUsers { get; set; }
}
Finally here is the repo method (so far i only implemented insert, not update)
public void SaveSurveyBindAndSortQuestionsLinkUsers(Survey item)
{
if (item.Id == 0)
{
Add(item);
}
ActiveContext.SaveChanges();
}
Update/Edit
Moho: You are of course correct, I think to my shame I was testing some things and forgot to reset the method before pasting it in here.
I have updated the action method above.
Slauma: Sorry for lack of details, here comes more.
All my repositories look like this
public class EFSurveyRepository : Repository<Survey>, ISurveyRepository
So they inherit a generic repository and implement an interface
The generic repository (the part we use in code above, looks like this)
public abstract class Repository<T> : IRepository<T> where T : class
{
public EFDbContext ActiveContext { get; private set; }
private readonly IDbSet<T> dbset;
public Repository()
{
this.ActiveContext = new EFDbContext("SurveyConnection");
dbset = ActiveContext.Set<T>();
}
public virtual void Add(T entity)
{
dbset.Add(entity);
}
public virtual T GetById(int id)
{
return dbset.Find(id);
}
I have noticed in the database that my User table (for User entity) now contains a Survey_Id field which i do not want it to have. I want a many-to-many where many surveys can link to many users (the same users) but the users should entity-wise still only belong to a Department in a Company.
Also, right now when I run the code (after I corrected my action method) I get the following error:
An entity object cannot be referenced by multiple instances of IEntityChangeTracker.
No InnerException, only that when i try to add the new survey.
The problem is that you are using separate contexts per repository:
public Repository()
{
this.ActiveContext = new EFDbContext("SurveyConnection");
//...
}
In your POST action you have four repositories in place: _companyRepository, _questionRepository, _userRepository and _surveyRepository. It means you are working with four different contexts, i.e. you load data from different contexts, create relationships between entities that are attached to different contexts and save the data in yet another context.
That's the reason for the entity duplication in the database, for the "multiple instances of IEntityChangeTracker" exception and will be the source for many other problems you might encounter in future.
You must refactor the architecture so that you are using only one and the same context instance ("unit of work") in every repository, for example by injecting it into the constructor instead of creating a new one:
private readonly EFDbContext _activeContext;
private readonly IDbSet<T> _dbset;
public Repository(EFDbContext activeContext)
{
_activeContext = activeContext;
_dbset = activeContext.Set<T>();
}
You build up questionList, set it to editModel.Item.SpecificQuestions, then overwrite the reference by settting that same property to editModel.Questions.ToList(), which is from your view model (i.e.: not loaded via your database context like questionList's question objects) and therefore appears to be new questions to your database context,
editModel.Item.SpecificQuestions = questionlist;
// what is this? why?
editModel.Item.SpecificQuestions = editModel.Questions.ToList();
Edit after question update:
Instead of using questionList and assigning to the questions property of the Survey, simply use the property directly.
Also, do you realize that if you're reusing Question records from the DB for multiple Surveys, you're updating the sort order at the question itself and not simply for that Survey? Each time you save a new survey that reuses questions, other surveys' question ordering will me altered. Looks like you need a relationship entity that will map Questions to Surveys where you can also store the sort order so that each survey can reuse question entities without messing up existing surveys question ordering.
I have a simple app that consists of:
Model
Items
Filter criteria applied to that list of items
Views
WelcomePage
MainItemsPage
FilterEditPage
I am using MVVM Light and Windows Phone 7
I currently have 3 ViewModels, one for each View. In the past I have had a single ViewModel which made the comunication which I am about to ask about very easy. However I wanted to go with the 3 seperate VMs as that seems to be the correct way.
The WelcomePage is able to set one of the Filter criteria before navigating to the MainItemsPage. The MainItemsPage is bound to an Items property that is exposed by its ViewModel. That ViewModel needs to have filtered that list depending on the current filter criteria. The FilterEditPage allows the user to edit the full criteria set of 4 variables. When the criteria is changed the Items collection used in the ViewModel for MainItemsPage needs to be refiltered.
The question is how I flow the Filter changes through the app. I know that MVVM has the concept of Messaging and the MVVM Light toolkit provides the Messenger class. However what I am struggling with is where does the responsibility lie for sending those messages?
Do the 3 VMs go to the Model whenever they need to work with the current Filter set?
Do all Filter updates go through the FilterEditViewModel and that in turn broadcasts a filter change message?
Do I go back to a single VM for all the Views?
I cannot see 1. working because something will need to trigger the VMs to go back to the Model
I know I can get 3. working right now with no problem. Is it that wrong?
TIA
Pat Long
I would put the shared current filter in the Model not the view model. You've got lots viewModels potentially on different pages or on the same page (consider a breadcrumb showing current selection and something else that needs to show a filter has been applied).
How about a singleton model for the Filter that view models can subscribe to?
Three VMs is the right way in your scenario. I suggest you to build a Parent/Child relation between you VMs. Since the the MainVM holds the ItemList, this is the place, where FilterChanges are applied. The FilterEditVM only receives the filter changes and than calls the MainVM, that it has to re-apply the filters.
The structure would be something like this:
public class WelcomePageVM
{
public WelcomePageVM()
{
this.FilterEditPageVM = new FilterEditPageVM(this);
this.MainItemsVM = new MainItemsVM(this);
}
public FilterEditPageVM FilterEditPageVM { get; private set; }
public MainItemsVM MainItemsVM { get; private set; }
public void SetInitialFilter1(object filter)
{
// the initial filter
this.FilterEditPageVM.Filter1Value = filter;
this.MainItemsVM.ApplyFilters();
}
}
public class FilterEditPageVM : ChildViewModelBase<WelcomePageVM>
{
public FilterEditPageVM(WelcomePageVM parent)
: base(parent) { }
public object Filter1Value { get; set; }
public object Filter2Value { get; set; }
public object Filter3Value { get; set; }
public object Filter4Value { get; set; }
public void FinishFilterChange()
{
this.Parent.MainItemsVM.ApplyFilters();
}
}
public class MainItemsVM : ChildViewModelBase<WelcomePageVM>
{
public MainItemsVM(WelcomePageVM parent)
: base(parent) { }
public List<object> ItemList { get; set; }
public void ApplyFilters()
{
// filter apply logic
}
}
public abstract class ChildViewModelBase<T>
{
T _parent;
public ChildViewModelBase(T parent)
{
this._parent = parent;
}
public T Parent { get { return _parent; } }
}
Here you can access all viewmodels, which is okay because you stay in the "controller" level.