Say I have a class Person that has an "IsArchived" property. A Person can have a Collection - each of which can also be Archived.
Right now I have an UpdatePerson method in my repository that looks like this:
public Person UpdatePerson(Person person)
{
_db.Persons.Attach(person);
var entry = _db.Entry(person);
entry.Property(e => e.Name).IsModified = true;
entry.Property(e => e.Friends).IsModified = true;
SaveChanges();
return entry.Entity;
}
And I have a separate Repository method for Archive:
public void ArchivePerson(int personId)
{
var person = _db.Persons.FirstOrDefault(c => c.PersonId == personId);
if (person != null)
{
person.IsArchived = true;
foreach (var friend in person.Friends)
{
ArchivePerson(friend.PersonId);
}
SaveChanges();
}
}
This means that from my WebAPI, I have to dedicate a function to Archiving/Unarchiving. It would be cool if I could just call Update and set the Archived for the given entity, and apply this to all child entities where possible. Is there any way to accomplish this, or am I best off sticking to the ArchivePerson repository method?
Related
I am tinkering with WebAPI to create a generic implementation for entity framework. I am able to implement most of the methods just fine, but am finding PUT to be tricky in non-trivial cases. The implementation most commonly found online works for simple entities:
[HttpPut]
[ActionName("Endpoint")]
public virtual T Put(T entity)
{
var db = GetDbContext();
var entry = db.Entry(entity);
entry.State = EntityState.Modified;
var set = db.Set<T>();
set.Attach(entity);
db.SaveChanges();
return entity;
}
...but does not delete or update child lists:
public class Invoice
{
...
public virtual InvoiceLineItem {get; set;} //Attach method doesn't address these
}
In an MVC Controller, you could simply use "UpdateModel" and it would add/update/delete children as needed, however that method is not available on ApiController. I understand that some code would be necessary to get the original item from the database, and that it would need to use Include to get the child lists, but can't quite figure out the best way to replicate UpdateModel's functionality:
[HttpPut]
[ActionName("Endpoint")]
public virtual T Put(T entity)
{
var db = GetDbContext();
var original = GetOriginalFor(entity);
//TODO: Something similar to UpdateModel(original), such as UpdateModel(original, entity);
db.SaveChanges();
return original;
}
How can I implement UpdateModel OR somehow implement Put in such a way that it will handle child lists?
The routine dont validate entity, but fill the pre-existent entity.
protected virtual void UpdateModel<T>(T original, bool overrideForEmptyList = true)
{
var json = ControllerContext.Request.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
UpdateModel<T>(json, original, overrideForEmptyList);
}
private void UpdateModel<T>(string json, T original, bool overrideForEmptyList = true)
{
var newValues = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Pessoa>(json);
foreach (var property in original.GetType().GetProperties())
{
var isEnumerable = property.PropertyType.GetInterfaces().Any(t => t.IsGenericType && t.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof(IEnumerable<>));
if (isEnumerable && property.PropertyType != typeof(string))
{
var propertyOriginalValue = property.GetValue(original, null);
if (propertyOriginalValue != null)
{
var propertyNewValue = property.GetValue(newValues, null);
if (propertyNewValue != null && (overrideForEmptyList || ((IEnumerable<object>)propertyNewValue).Any()))
{
property.SetValue(original, null);
}
}
}
}
JsonConvert.PopulateObject(json, original);
}
public void Post()
{
var sample = Pessoa.FindById(12);
UpdateModel(sample);
}
I have this method in my SurveyController class:
public ActionResult AddProperties(int id, int[] propertyids, int page = 1)
{
var survey = _uow.SurveyRepository.Find(id);
if (propertyids == null)
return GetPropertiesTable(survey, page);
var repo = _uow.PropertySurveyRepository;
propertyids.Select(propertyid => new PropertySurvey
{
//Setting the Property rather than the PropertyID
//prevents the error occurring later
//Property = _uow.PropertyRepository.Find(propertyid),
PropertyID = propertyid,
SurveyID = id
})
.ForEach(x => repo.InsertOrUpdate(x));
_uow.Save();
return GetPropertiesTable(survey, page);
}
The GetPropertiesTable redisplays Properties but PropertySurvey.Property is marked virtual and I have created the entity using the new operator, so a proxy to support lazy loading was never created and it is null when I access it. When we have access direct to the DbContext we can use the Create method to explicitly create the proxy. But I have a unit of work and repository pattern here. I guess I could expose the context.Create method via a repository.Create method and then I need to remember to use that instead of the new operator when I add an entity . But wouldn't it be better to encapsulate the problem in my InsertOrUpdate method? Is there some way to detect that the entity being added is not a proxy when it should be and substitute a proxy? This is my InsertOrUpdate method in my base repository class:
protected virtual void InsertOrUpdate(T e, int id)
{
if (id == default(int))
{
// New entity
context.Set<T>().Add(e);
}
else
{
// Existing entity
context.Entry(e).State = EntityState.Modified;
}
}
Based on the answer supplied by qujck. Here is how you can do it without having to employ automapper:
Edited to always check for proxy - not just during insert - as suggested in comments
Edited again to use a different way of checking whether a proxy was passed in to the method. The reason for changing the technique is that I ran into a problem when I introduced an entity that inherited from another. In that case an inherited entity can fail the entity.e.GetType().Equals(instance.GetType() check even if it is a proxy. I got the new technique from this answer
public virtual T InsertOrUpdate(T e)
{
DbSet<T> dbSet = Context.Set<T>();
DbEntityEntry<T> entry;
if (e.GetType().BaseType != null
&& e.GetType().Namespace == "System.Data.Entity.DynamicProxies")
{
//The entity being added is already a proxy type that supports lazy
//loading - just get the context entry
entry = Context.Entry(e);
}
else
{
//The entity being added has been created using the "new" operator.
//Generate a proxy type to support lazy loading and attach it
T instance = dbSet.Create();
instance.ID = e.ID;
entry = Context.Entry(instance);
dbSet.Attach(instance);
//and set it's values to those of the entity
entry.CurrentValues.SetValues(e);
e = instance;
}
entry.State = e.ID == default(int) ?
EntityState.Added :
EntityState.Modified;
return e;
}
public abstract class ModelBase
{
public int ID { get; set; }
}
I agree with you that this should be handled in one place and the best place to catch all looks to be your repository. You can compare the type of T with an instance created by the context and use something like Automapper to quickly transfer all of the values if the types do not match.
private bool mapCreated = false;
protected virtual void InsertOrUpdate(T e, int id)
{
T instance = context.Set<T>().Create();
if (e.GetType().Equals(instance.GetType()))
instance = e;
else
{
//this bit should really be managed somewhere else
if (!mapCreated)
{
Mapper.CreateMap(e.GetType(), instance.GetType());
mapCreated = true;
}
instance = Mapper.Map(e, instance);
}
if (id == default(int))
context.Set<T>().Add(instance);
else
context.Entry(instance).State = EntityState.Modified;
}
I have a Team table and a Player table in many to many relationship. There is a linking table called TeamOnPlayer. EF with POCO generates navigation propertie called Person for the Team entity and also generates a nav. prop. called Team for the People entity.
I'm trying to insert a new record into the TeamOnPlayer table, but EF and POCO hides it. I tried to do this:
public static void AddPersonToTeam(int TeamId, int PersonId)
{
using (var ef = new korfballReportEntities())
{
var team = GetTeam(TeamId);
var person = GetPerson(PersonId);
team.Person.Add(person);
person.Team.Add(team);
ef.SaveChanges();
}
}
The GetTeam(TeamId) and GetPerson(PersonId) gets the right team and person:
public static Team GetTeam(int id)
{
using (var ef = new korfballReportEntities())
{
var q = from l in ef.Team
where l.Id == id
select l;
return q.Single();
}
}
public static Person GetPerson(int id)
{
using (var ef = new korfballReportEntities())
{
var query = from p in ef.Person
where p.Id == id
select p;
return query.Single();
}
}
When it tries to call the team.Person.Add(person) it throws an exception:
"The ObjectContext instance has been disposed and can no longer be used for operations that require a connection." System.Exception {System.ObjectDisposedException}
Can anyone please show me the correct way?
Edit
Now I understand what the problem was, thanks to you. I was a bit confused about the using blocks you included. For example this:
using (var ef = new korfballReportEntities())
{
//switch lazy loading off, only in this single context
ef.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = false;
var repository = new MyRepository(ef);
repository.AddPersonToTeam(int TeamId, int PersonId);
}
Where should I put it?
I've done something else. I simply did this, and it worked fine.
public static void AddPersonToTeam(int TeamId, int PersonId)
{
using (var ef = new korfballReportEntities())
{
var q = from t in ef.Team
where t.Id == TeamId
select t;
var team = q.Single();
var q2 = from p in ef.Person
where p.Id == PersonId
select p;
var person = q2.Single();
try
{
team.Person.Add(person);
person.Team.Add(team);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
}
ef.SaveChanges();
}
}
The only problem is, that i coludn't reuse my GetPerson(int id) and GetTeam(int id) method.
What do you think? Is it okay? Is this an ugly way?
My guess is that you are working with lazy loading - your navigation properties Team.Person and Person.Team are marked as virtual in your entity classes. The result is that your methods GetTeam and GetPerson do not exactly return Team and Person objects but instances of dynamically created proxy classes which are derived from those entities. This dynamic proxy supports lazy loading which means that EF tries to load the navigation collections Team.Person and Person.Team when you access them for the first time. This happens in your AddPersonToTeam method when you call Add on these collections.
Now the problem is that the proxies are created within an context which you immediately dispose in your GetTeam and GetPerson methods (at the end of the using block). The proxies have stored a reference to this context internally and will use this context to load the navigation collections from the database.
Because these contexts are already disposed you get the exception.
You should redesign your code a bit: Don't create a new context in your repository methods GetTeam and GetPerson. You should instead use the same context for all operations: Retrieving the Team, retrieving the Person and adding the relationship. For example:
public static void AddPersonToTeam(int TeamId, int PersonId)
{
using (var ef = new korfballReportEntities())
{
var team = GetTeam(ef, TeamId);
var person = GetPerson(ef, PersonId);
team.Person.Add(person);
//person.Team.Add(team); <- not necessary, EF will handle this
ef.SaveChanges();
}
}
public static Team GetTeam(korfballReportEntities ef, int id)
{
var q = from l in ef.Team
where l.Id == id
select l;
return q.Single();
}
public static Person GetPerson(korfballReportEntities ef, int id)
{
var query = from p in ef.Person
where p.Id == id
select p;
return query.Single();
}
Another approach is to make your "Repository"/"Service" not static, inject the context into the constructor and then use this context throughout the repository. Then you don't need to pass in the context into every method. A rough sketch:
using (var ef = new korfballReportEntities())
{
var repository = new MyRepository(ef);
repository.AddPersonToTeam(int TeamId, int PersonId);
}
public class MyRepository
{
private readonly korfballReportEntities _ef;
public MyRepository(korfballReportEntities ef)
{
_ef = ef;
}
public void AddPersonToTeam(int TeamId, int PersonId)
{
var team = GetTeam(TeamId);
var person = GetPerson(PersonId);
team.Person.Add(person);
_ef.SaveChanges();
}
public Team GetTeam(int id)
{
var q = from l in _ef.Team
where l.Id == id
select l;
return q.Single();
}
public Person GetPerson(int id)
{
var query = from p in _ef.Person
where p.Id == id
select p;
return query.Single();
}
}
Edit
One little thing about performance tuning: In this specific case lazy loading is not necessary and more disturbing. It causes to load a (potentially long) collection team.Person when you want to add only one additional Person to the collection. You can switch off lazy loading for this particular operation (I refer to my second example):
using (var ef = new korfballReportEntities())
{
//switch lazy loading off, only in this single context
ef.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = false;
var repository = new MyRepository(ef);
repository.AddPersonToTeam(int TeamId, int PersonId);
}
public void AddPersonToTeam(int TeamId, int PersonId)
{
var team = GetTeam(TeamId);
var person = GetPerson(PersonId);
// if lazy loading is off, the collecton is null, so we must instantiate one
if (team.Person == null)
team.Person = new List<Person>();
team.Person.Add(person);
_ef.SaveChanges();
}
I have a many-to-many relationship between two entities - Media and MediaCollection. I want to check if a certain Media already exists in a collection. I can do this as follows:
mediaCollection.Media.Any(m => m.id == mediaId)
However, mediaCollection.Media is an ICollection, so to me this looks like it will have to retrieve every Media in the collection from the database just to make this check. As there could be many media in a collection, this seems very inefficient. I'n thinking that I should use a method of IQueryable, but I can't see how to do this for many-to-many relationships.
How can I check for the existence of the relationship without retrieving the whole collection?
EDIT
I am generating the EF data model from my database, then using the built in VS POCO T4 templates to generate my data context and entity classes. I think the problem is that the generated code does not return EntityCollection for the navigation properties, but instead ObjectSet. ObjectSet implements IQueryable, but does not expose a CreateSourceQuery() method.
Here is a stripped down version of the relevant lines from the context:
public partial class Entities : ObjectContext
{
public const string ConnectionString = "name=Entities";
public const string ContainerName = "Entities";
#region Constructors
public Entities()
: base(ConnectionString, ContainerName)
{
this.ContextOptions.LazyLoadingEnabled = true;
}
public Entities(string connectionString)
: base(connectionString, ContainerName)
{
this.ContextOptions.LazyLoadingEnabled = true;
}
public Entities(EntityConnection connection)
: base(connection, ContainerName)
{
this.ContextOptions.LazyLoadingEnabled = true;
}
#endregion
#region ObjectSet Properties
public ObjectSet<MediaCollection> MediaCollections
{
get { return _mediaCollections ?? (_mediaCollections = CreateObjectSet<MediaCollection>("MediaCollections")); }
}
private ObjectSet<MediaCollection> _mediaCollections;
// snipped many more
#endregion
}
And here is a stripped down version of the class for the MediaCollection entity:
public partial class MediaCollection
{
#region Primitive Properties
// snipped
#endregion
#region Navigation Properties
public virtual ICollection<Medium> Media
{
get
{
if (_media == null)
{
var newCollection = new FixupCollection<Medium>();
newCollection.CollectionChanged += FixupMedia;
_media = newCollection;
}
return _media;
}
set
{
if (!ReferenceEquals(_media, value))
{
var previousValue = _media as FixupCollection<Medium>;
if (previousValue != null)
{
previousValue.CollectionChanged -= FixupMedia;
}
_media = value;
var newValue = value as FixupCollection<Medium>;
if (newValue != null)
{
newValue.CollectionChanged += FixupMedia;
}
}
}
}
private ICollection<Medium> _media;
private void FixupMedia(object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.NewItems != null)
{
foreach (Medium item in e.NewItems)
{
if (!item.MediaCollections.Contains(this))
{
item.MediaCollections.Add(this);
}
}
}
if (e.OldItems != null)
{
foreach (Medium item in e.OldItems)
{
if (item.MediaCollections.Contains(this))
{
item.MediaCollections.Remove(this);
}
}
}
}
// snip
#endregion
}
And finally, here is the FixupCollection that the template also generates:
public class FixupCollection<T> : ObservableCollection<T>
{
protected override void ClearItems()
{
new List<T>(this).ForEach(t => Remove(t));
}
protected override void InsertItem(int index, T item)
{
if (!this.Contains(item))
{
base.InsertItem(index, item);
}
}
}
You can do that but you need a context for that:
bool exists = context.Entry(mediaCollection)
.Collection(m => m.Media)
.Query()
.Any(x => x.Id == mediaId);
Edit:
If you are using ObjectContext API with proxied POCOs instead of DbContext API the former sample will not work. You can try this:
context.ContextOptions.LazyLoadingEnabled = false;
bool exists = ((EntityCollection<Media>)mediaCollection.Media).CreateSourceQuery()
.Any(x => x.Id == mediaId);
context.ContextOptions.LazyLoadingEnabled = true;
So it seems that the built in VS POCO T4 template does not generate anything equivalent to CreateSourceQuery(). No matter! We can code it ourselves. If you add the following code at to the context's .tt file and regenerate:
public ObjectQuery<T> CreateNavigationSourceQuery<T>(object entity, string navigationProperty)
{
var ose = ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntry(entity);
var rm = ObjectStateManager.GetRelationshipManager(entity);
var entityType = (System.Data.Metadata.Edm.EntityType)ose.EntitySet.ElementType;
var navigation = entityType.NavigationProperties[navigationProperty];
var relatedEnd = rm.GetRelatedEnd(navigation.RelationshipType.FullName, navigation.ToEndMember.Name);
return ((dynamic)relatedEnd).CreateSourceQuery();
}
then we can check for the existence of a many-to-many as follows:
var exists = _context.CreateNavigationSourceQuery<Medium>(mediaCollection, "Media")
.Any(m => m.Id == medium.Id);
Props to Rowan's answer on Using CreateSourceQuery in CTP4 Code First for this one.
Try,
mediaCollection.CreateSourceQuery()
.Any(....
CreateSourceQuery will create IQueryable for the association.
In Asp.net MVC the url structure goes like
http://example.com/{controller}/{action}/{id}
For each "controller", say http://example.com/blog, there is a BlogController.
But my {controller} portion of the url is not decided pre-hand, but it is dynamically determined at run time, how do I create a "dynamic controller" that maps anything to the same controller which then based on the value and determines what to do?
Same thing with {action}, if the {action} portion of my url is also dynamic, is there a way to program this scenario?
Absolutely! You'll need to override the DefaultControllerFactory to find a custom controller if one doesn't exist. Then you'll need to write an IActionInvoker to handle dynamic action names.
Your controller factory will look something like:
public class DynamicControllerFactory : DefaultControllerFactory
{
private readonly IServiceLocator _Locator;
public DynamicControllerFactory(IServiceLocator locator)
{
_Locator = locator;
}
protected override Type GetControllerType(string controllerName)
{
var controllerType = base.GetControllerType(controllerName);
// if a controller wasn't found with a matching name, return our dynamic controller
return controllerType ?? typeof (DynamicController);
}
protected override IController GetControllerInstance(Type controllerType)
{
var controller = base.GetControllerInstance(controllerType) as Controller;
var actionInvoker = _Locator.GetInstance<IActionInvoker>();
if (actionInvoker != null)
{
controller.ActionInvoker = actionInvoker;
}
return controller;
}
}
Then your action invoker would be like:
public class DynamicActionInvoker : ControllerActionInvoker
{
private readonly IServiceLocator _Locator;
public DynamicActionInvoker(IServiceLocator locator)
{
_Locator = locator;
}
protected override ActionDescriptor FindAction(ControllerContext controllerContext,
ControllerDescriptor controllerDescriptor, string actionName)
{
// try to match an existing action name first
var action = base.FindAction(controllerContext, controllerDescriptor, actionName);
if (action != null)
{
return action;
}
// #ray247 The remainder of this you'd probably write on your own...
var actionFinders = _Locator.GetAllInstances<IFindAction>();
if (actionFinders == null)
{
return null;
}
return actionFinders
.Select(f => f.FindAction(controllerContext, controllerDescriptor, actionName))
.Where(d => d != null)
.FirstOrDefault();
}
}
You can see a lot more of this code here. It's an old first draft attempt by myself and a coworker at writing a fully dynamic MVC pipeline. You're free to use it as a reference and copy what you want.
Edit
I figured I should include some background about what that code does. We were trying to dynamically build the MVC layer around a domain model. So if your domain contained a Product class, you could navigate to products\alls to see a list of all products. If you wanted to add a product, you'd navigate to product\add. You could go to product\edit\1 to edit a product. We even tried things like allowing you to edit properties on an entity. So product\editprice\1?value=42 would set the price property of product #1 to 42. (My paths might be a little off, I can't recall the exact syntax anymore.) Hope this helps!
After a little more reflection, there may be a bit simpler way for you to handle the dynamic action names than my other answer. You'll still need to override the default controller factory. I think you could define your route like:
routes.MapRoute("Dynamic", "{controller}/{command}/{id}", new { action = "ProcessCommand" });
Then on your default/dynamic controller you'd have
public ActionResult ProcessCommand(string command, int id)
{
switch(command)
{
// whatever.
}
}
You need to write your own IControllerFactory (or perhaps derive from DefaultControllerFactory) and then register it with ControllerBuilder.
Iam working with it in .Core but i'll share it's MVC version for all, after that i will share the core version
case OwnerType.DynamicPage:
var dp = mediator.Handle(new Domain.DynamicPages.DynamicPageDtoQuery { ShopId = ShopId, SeoId = seoSearchDto.Id }.AsSingle());
if (dp != null)
{
return GetDynamicPage(dp.Id);
}
break;
// some codes
private ActionResult GetDynamicPage(int id)
{
var routeObj = new
{
action = "Detail",
controller = "DynamicPage",
id = id
};
var bController = DependencyResolver.Current.GetService<DynamicPageController>();
SetControllerContext(bController, routeObj);
return bController.Detail(id);
}
// and
private void SetControllerContext(ControllerBase controller, object routeObj)
{
RouteValueDictionary routeValues = new RouteValueDictionary(routeObj);
var vpd = RouteTable.Routes["Default"].GetVirtualPath(this.ControllerContext.RequestContext, routeValues);
RouteData routeData = new RouteData();
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, object> kvp in routeValues)
{
routeData.Values.Add(kvp.Key, kvp.Value);
}
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, object> kvp in vpd.DataTokens)
{
routeData.DataTokens.Add(kvp.Key, kvp.Value);
}
routeData.Route = vpd.Route;
if (routeData.RouteHandler == null)
routeData.RouteHandler = new MvcRouteHandler();
controller.ControllerContext = new ControllerContext(this.ControllerContext.HttpContext, routeData, controller);
}