Entity Framework: DBContext: How to Detecting entity exists in Database - entity-framework

Given the following example:
public class Parent
{
public Guid ID {get;set;}
public string Name {get;set;}
public Child Child {get;set;}
}
public class Child
{
public Guid ID {get;set;}
public string Name {get;set;}
}
I want to save a Parent object instance, with a Child instance assigned to it. The fact here is: the given child object already exists in the Database,
Parent p = new Parent();
p.ID = Guid.NewGuid();
// Get the Child Object
Child c = GetTheChild(...);
p.Child = c;
SaveParent ( p );
in function Save Parent, the following code is implemented:
public void SaveParent ( Parent p )
{
using (MyContext context = new ClinicContext())
{
context.Parents.Add( P );
context.SaveChanges();
}
}
Now the problem comes: since the child in this example already exists in the database, but when adding the parent in the context DBSet, the entity c given also holds a entry state of "Added", guess what? DBContext tries to save another child record with a duplicated Key!
Any body know how to solve this? I am thinking whether there is a way to turn a Insert into Update if the Entity Framework can detect the records already exists in the database.
Thanks for your help.

If you add an entity all releated entity will be added. If you attach an entity all related entities will be attached. In your case you want to add the Parent entity and then attach the child entity. What you could also try would be to use foreign keys and add parent and just set the foreign key to the related child Id. This way you would not have to bring the entity to the client to create the relationship (you need to know the key of the related entity though).

How are you getting the child? The child should be attached to the same context you save the parent on.
My guess is your GetTheChild function uses a new context - which means when you return the child is detached and for all intents and purposes EF figures its been 'added'
As panel said you can just add a foreign key and just set the child's key instead of the child itself but there seems to be some design issues you should address.

I guess GetTheChild() will return a child from database. So, all you need to do is call ChangeObjectState method to mark the child as Unchanged before calling SaveChanges.
var osm = context.ObjectStateManager;
osm.ChangeObjectState(child, EntityState.Unchanged);

Related

Updating a related Entity tries to add a new related Entity

When updating myItem1 the related entity Entity2 doesn't update but EF tries to add a new Entity2. It throws a primary key constraint error. MyItem has a many-to-one relationship with Entity2
public HttpResponseMessage PutMyItem(MyItem myitem)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
MyItem myItem1 = db.MyItems.First(m => m.MyItemId == myitem.MyItemId);
myItem1.Name = myitem.Name;
myItem1.Entity2 = myitem.Entity2;
db.ObjectStateManager.ChangeObjectState(myItem1, EntityState.Modified);
try
{
db.SaveChanges();
}
Looks like this line attaches Entity2 to the context in the Added state. Setting the state of myItem to Modified doesn't affect its child entities...
myItem1.Entity2 = myitem.Entity2;
If you are sure this is a valid entity that already exists in the database, change its state to Modified...
db.ObjectStateManager.ChangeObjectState(myItem1.Entity2, EntityState.Modified);
Also, there shouldn't be a need to mark myItem1 as Modified, as it should already in Modified state when its Name property was set.

JPA Inheritance - Change the Entity type

I have two classes
#Entity
#Inheritance(strategy=InheritanceType.SINGLE_TABLE)
#DiscriminatorColumn(name="PERSONTYPE")
#DiscriminatorValue(value="PERSON")
public class Parent {
.......
}
#Entity
#DiscriminatorValue(value="CHILD")
public class Child extends Parent{
.......
}
The scenario I have:
create a person -- then the PERSONTYPE = 'PERSON'
go the Person page and update it to be 'CHILD' by checking a check box 'Is Child' then after save the Person must be saved to be with type 'CHILD'.
Then how can I change the entity type from 'PERSON' to 'CHILD'?
Here are a couple possibilities:
It seems the obvious thing to do would be to setIsChild(true) on the Parent object and commit it, however I'm not sure how JPA will react to this since you are now committing a Parent and the result is a Child. Not sure this is possible. It is definitely worth a try.
Another option would be to write JPA update statement (circumventing Child and Parent objects) to update the is_child column in the database. Then when you subsequently query this record you will get a Child back not a Parent.
Lastly, you could create a child object with all values of the parent object, then delete the parent, and create the child. This will work, however aside from the extra processing required for delete / create, instead of a simple update, the id of the child may change (it will change if you are using auto generated ids). IMO, this is not a good solution, but it will work.
i assume you have unique properties for Child Object and thats why you want to use inheritance, otherwize just as #ZB Ziet commented you should just use child flag
Solution 1
i see you are using single table inheritance strategy, thus you have to modify the descriminator field manulay (by using SQL queries) and set appropirate fields on child table.
UPDATE Parent SET PERSONTYPE='CHILD' WHERE id = 1
practicaly you use native queries like this
enityManager.createNativeQuery(“UPDATE PERSON SET PERSONTYPE = ?, ”
“ VERSION = VERSION + 1 WHERE ID = ?”)
.setParameter(1, 'CHILD')
.setParameter(2,personID)
.executeUpdate();
then you can use entitymanager to get the child and set properties
entityManager.find(Child.class,1).childProp=xxxx
** Solution 2 **
IMO, The best thing to do here is instead of using single table strategy you should use joined table strategy
in joined table strategy new table entireis is created for each child having thier id as foreign key to parent entity.so changing the id will also set its parent
#Entity
#Inheritance(strategy = InheritanceType.JOINED)
public class Person {
...
it would have been cool if you can just create new child set the id same as parent and save. Child c = new Child(); c.setId(parent.getId()); entityManager.merge(c) . but hibernate tries to re-create a parent object resulting id confilict.
so the solution is to write native query
em.createNativeQuery("INSERT into child (id) VALUES (1)").executeUpdate(); //1 being the parent id
more reference on inheritance
Use EntityMaster
The Idea is to create an Entity just for changing the discriminator.
At least this Entity need to have the id and the discriminator.
#Entity
public class ParentMaster {
public static final PERSON="PERSON";
public static final CHILD="CHILD";
private Long id;
private String persontype;
//getter setter
}
Now load the ParentMaster by id and pm.setPersontype(ParentMaster.CHILD);.

Entity Framework 4.1 Code First - Unable to remove a relationship between two entities

I have a Supplier entity, each Supplier object may reference another Supplier object as its 'parent'.
public class Supplier
{
public int? Id { get; set; }
public virtual Supplier Parent { get; set; }
}
This all works as expected until I attempt to remove the relationship, as in, this supplier no longer has a parent. I can change it from null to a particular supplier and I can set it to a different supplier but setting it to null is not persisted after SaveChanges().
supplier.Parent = null;
The foreign key 'ParentId' in the Supplier table is set as nullable. Explicitly defining the relationship doesn't help.
modelBuilder.Entity<Supplier>().HasOptional(s => s.Parent).WithMany();
I'm sure I'm missing something obvious.
Just found another place in my code where I do the exact same thing (that works) and found this;
// Must access property (trigger lazy-loading) before we can set it to null (Entity Framework bug!!!)
var colour = modelItem.Colour;
modelItem.Colour = null;
Did the same in the new code and it all works.
Instead of just modelBuilder.Entity<Supplier>().HasOptional(s => s.Parent).WithMany(); use the following modelBuilder.Entity<Supplier>().HasOptional(s => s.Parent).WithMany().HasForeignKey(x=>x.ParentId);
Otherwise it has no idea what the foreign key's name is

The relationship could not be changed because one or more of the foreign-key properties is non-nullable

I am getting this error when I GetById() on an entity and then set the collection of child entities to my new list which comes from the MVC view.
The operation failed: The
relationship could not be changed
because one or more of the foreign-key
properties is non-nullable. When a
change is made to a relationship, the
related foreign-key property is set to
a null value. If the foreign-key does
not support null values, a new
relationship must be defined, the
foreign-key property must be assigned
another non-null value, or the
unrelated object must be deleted.
I don't quite understand this line:
The relationship could not be changed
because one or more of the foreign-key
properties is non-nullable.
Why would I change the relationship between 2 entities? It should remain the same throughout the lifetime of the whole application.
The code the exception occurs on is simple assigning modified child classes in a collection to the existing parent class. This would hopefully cater for removal of child classes, addition of new ones and modifications. I would have thought Entity Framework handles this.
The lines of code can be distilled to:
var thisParent = _repo.GetById(1);
thisParent.ChildItems = modifiedParent.ChildItems();
_repo.Save();
You should delete old child items thisParent.ChildItems one by one manually. Entity Framework doesn't do that for you. It finally cannot decide what you want to do with the old child items - if you want to throw them away or if you want to keep and assign them to other parent entities. You must tell Entity Framework your decision. But one of these two decisions you HAVE to make since the child entities cannot live alone without a reference to any parent in the database (due to the foreign key constraint). That's basically what the exception says.
Edit
What I would do if child items could be added, updated and deleted:
public void UpdateEntity(ParentItem parent)
{
// Load original parent including the child item collection
var originalParent = _dbContext.ParentItems
.Where(p => p.ID == parent.ID)
.Include(p => p.ChildItems)
.SingleOrDefault();
// We assume that the parent is still in the DB and don't check for null
// Update scalar properties of parent,
// can be omitted if we don't expect changes of the scalar properties
var parentEntry = _dbContext.Entry(originalParent);
parentEntry.CurrentValues.SetValues(parent);
foreach (var childItem in parent.ChildItems)
{
var originalChildItem = originalParent.ChildItems
.Where(c => c.ID == childItem.ID && c.ID != 0)
.SingleOrDefault();
// Is original child item with same ID in DB?
if (originalChildItem != null)
{
// Yes -> Update scalar properties of child item
var childEntry = _dbContext.Entry(originalChildItem);
childEntry.CurrentValues.SetValues(childItem);
}
else
{
// No -> It's a new child item -> Insert
childItem.ID = 0;
originalParent.ChildItems.Add(childItem);
}
}
// Don't consider the child items we have just added above.
// (We need to make a copy of the list by using .ToList() because
// _dbContext.ChildItems.Remove in this loop does not only delete
// from the context but also from the child collection. Without making
// the copy we would modify the collection we are just interating
// through - which is forbidden and would lead to an exception.)
foreach (var originalChildItem in
originalParent.ChildItems.Where(c => c.ID != 0).ToList())
{
// Are there child items in the DB which are NOT in the
// new child item collection anymore?
if (!parent.ChildItems.Any(c => c.ID == originalChildItem.ID))
// Yes -> It's a deleted child item -> Delete
_dbContext.ChildItems.Remove(originalChildItem);
}
_dbContext.SaveChanges();
}
Note: This is not tested. It's assuming that the child item collection is of type ICollection. (I usually have IList and then the code looks a bit different.) I've also stripped away all repository abstractions to keep it simple.
I don't know if that is a good solution, but I believe that some kind of hard work along these lines must be done to take care of all kinds of changes in the navigation collection. I would also be happy to see an easier way of doing it.
The reason you're facing this is due to the difference between composition and aggregation.
In composition, the child object is created when the parent is created and is destroyed when its parent is destroyed. So its lifetime is controlled by its parent. e.g. A blog post and its comments. If a post is deleted, its comments should be deleted. It doesn't make sense to have comments for a post that doesn't exist. Same for orders and order items.
In aggregation, the child object can exist irrespective of its parent. If the parent is destroyed, the child object can still exist, as it may be added to a different parent later. e.g.: the relationship between a playlist and the songs in that playlist. If the playlist is deleted, the songs shouldn't be deleted. They may be added to a different playlist.
The way Entity Framework differentiates aggregation and composition relationships is as follows:
For composition: it expects the child object to a have a composite primary key (ParentID, ChildID). This is by design as the IDs of the children should be within the scope of their parents.
For aggregation: it expects the foreign key property in the child object to be nullable.
So, the reason you're having this issue is because of how you've set your primary key in your child table. It should be composite, but it's not. So, Entity Framework sees this association as aggregation, which means, when you remove or clear the child objects, it's not going to delete the child records. It'll simply remove the association and sets the corresponding foreign key column to NULL (so those child records can later be associated with a different parent). Since your column does not allow NULL, you get the exception you mentioned.
Solutions:
1- If you have a strong reason for not wanting to use a composite key, you need to delete the child objects explicitly. And this can be done simpler than the solutions suggested earlier:
context.Children.RemoveRange(parent.Children);
2- Otherwise, by setting the proper primary key on your child table, your code will look more meaningful:
parent.Children.Clear();
This is a very big problem. What actually happens in your code is this:
You load Parent from the database and get an attached entity
You replace its child collection with new collection of detached children
You save changes but during this operation all children are considered as added becasue EF didn't know about them till this time. So EF tries to set null to foreign key of old children and insert all new children => duplicate rows.
Now the solution really depends on what you want to do and how would you like to do it?
If you are using ASP.NET MVC you can try to use UpdateModel or TryUpdateModel.
If you want just update existing children manually, you can simply do something like:
foreach (var child in modifiedParent.ChildItems)
{
context.Childs.Attach(child);
context.Entry(child).State = EntityState.Modified;
}
context.SaveChanges();
Attaching is actually not needed (setting the state to Modified will also attach the entity) but I like it because it makes the process more obvious.
If you want to modify existing, delete existing and insert new childs you must do something like:
var parent = context.Parents.GetById(1); // Make sure that childs are loaded as well
foreach(var child in modifiedParent.ChildItems)
{
var attachedChild = FindChild(parent, child.Id);
if (attachedChild != null)
{
// Existing child - apply new values
context.Entry(attachedChild).CurrentValues.SetValues(child);
}
else
{
// New child
// Don't insert original object. It will attach whole detached graph
parent.ChildItems.Add(child.Clone());
}
}
// Now you must delete all entities present in parent.ChildItems but missing
// in modifiedParent.ChildItems
// ToList should make copy of the collection because we can't modify collection
// iterated by foreach
foreach(var child in parent.ChildItems.ToList())
{
var detachedChild = FindChild(modifiedParent, child.Id);
if (detachedChild == null)
{
parent.ChildItems.Remove(child);
context.Childs.Remove(child);
}
}
context.SaveChanges();
I found this answer much more helpful for the same error.
It seems that EF does not like it when you Remove, it prefers Delete.
You can delete a collection of records attached to a record like this.
order.OrderDetails.ToList().ForEach(s => db.Entry(s).State = EntityState.Deleted);
In the example, all of the Detail records attached to an Order have their State set to Delete. (In preparation to Add back updated Details, as part of an Order update)
I've no idea why the other two answers are so popular!
I believe you were right in assuming the ORM framework should handle it - after all, that is what it promises to deliver. Otherwise your domain model gets corrupted by persistence concerns. NHibernate manages this happily if you setup the cascade settings correctly. In Entity Framework it is also possible, they just expect you to follow better standards when setting up your database model, especially when they have to infer what cascading should be done:
You have to define the parent - child relationship correctly by using an "identifying relationship".
If you do this, Entity Framework knows the child object is identified by the parent, and therefore it must be a "cascade-delete-orphans" situation.
Other than the above, you might need to (from NHibernate experience)
thisParent.ChildItems.Clear();
thisParent.ChildItems.AddRange(modifiedParent.ChildItems);
instead of replacing the list entirely.
UPDATE
#Slauma's comment reminded me that detached entities are another part of the overall problem. To solve that, you can take the approach of using a custom model binder that constructs your models by attempting to load it from the context. This blog post shows an example of what I mean.
If you are using AutoMapper with Entity Framework on the same class, you might hit this problem. For instance if your class is
class A
{
public ClassB ClassB { get; set; }
public int ClassBId { get; set; }
}
AutoMapper.Map<A, A>(input, destination);
This will try to copy both properties. In this case, ClassBId is non Nullable. Since AutoMapper will copy destination.ClassB = input.ClassB; this will cause a problem.
Set your AutoMapper to Ignore ClassB property.
cfg.CreateMap<A, A>()
.ForMember(m => m.ClassB, opt => opt.Ignore()); // We use the ClassBId
I had same problem, but I knew it had worked OK in other cases, so I reduced the problem to this:
parent.OtherRelatedItems.Clear(); //this worked OK on SaveChanges() - items were being deleted from DB
parent.ProblematicItems.Clear(); // this was causing the mentioned exception on SaveChanges()
OtherRelatedItems had a composite Primary Key (parentId + some local column) and worked OK
ProblematicItems had their own single-column Primary Key, and the parentId was only a FK. This was causing the exception after Clear().
All I had to do was to make the ParentId a part of composite PK to indicate that the children can't exist without a parent. I used DB-first model, added the PK and marked the parentId column as EntityKey (so, I had to update it both in DB and EF - not sure if EF alone would be enough).
Once you think about it, it's a very elegant distinction that EF uses to decide if children "make sense" without a parent (in this case Clear() won't delete them and throw exception unless you set the ParentId to something else/special), or - like in the original question - we expect the items to be deleted once they are removed from the parent.
I just had the same error.
I have two tables with a parent child relationship, but I configured a "on delete cascade" on the foreign key column in the table definition of the child table.
So when I manually delete the parent row (via SQL) in the database it will automatically delete the child rows.
However this did not work in EF, the error described in this thread showed up.
The reason for this was, that in my entity data model (edmx file) the properties of the association between the parent and the child table were not correct.
The End1 OnDelete option was configured to be none ("End1" in my model is the end which has a multiplicity of 1).
I manually changed the End1 OnDelete option to Cascade and than it worked.
I do not know why EF is not able to pick this up, when I update the model from the database (I have a database first model).
For completeness, this is how my code to delete looks like:
public void Delete(int id)
{
MyType myObject = _context.MyTypes.Find(id);
_context.MyTypes.Remove(myObject);
_context.SaveChanges();
}
If I hadn´t a cascade delete defined, I would have to delete the child rows manually before deleting the parent row.
This happens because the Child Entity is marked as Modified instead of Deleted.
And the modification that EF does to the Child Entity when parent.Remove(child) is executed, is simply setting the reference to its parent to null.
You can check the child's EntityState by typing the following code into Visual Studio's Immediate Window when the exception occurs, after executing SaveChanges():
_context.ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntries(System.Data.EntityState.Modified).ElementAt(X).Entity
where X should be replaced by the deleted Entity.
If you don't have access to the ObjectContext to execute _context.ChildEntity.Remove(child), you can solve this issue by making the foreign key a part of the primary key on the child table.
Parent
________________
| PK IdParent |
| Name |
|________________|
Child
________________
| PK IdChild |
| PK,FK IdParent |
| Name |
|________________|
This way, if you execute parent.Remove(child), EF will correctly mark the Entity as Deleted.
This type of solution did the trick for me:
Parent original = db.Parent.SingleOrDefault<Parent>(t => t.ID == updated.ID);
db.Childs.RemoveRange(original.Childs);
updated.Childs.ToList().ForEach(c => original.Childs.Add(c));
db.Entry<Parent>(original).CurrentValues.SetValues(updated);
Its important to say that this deletes all the records and insert them again.
But for my case (less then 10) it´s ok.
I hope it helps.
I ran into this problem today and wanted to share my solution. In my case, the solution was to delete the Child items before getting the Parent from the database.
Previously I was doing it like in the code below. I will then get the same error listed in this question.
var Parent = GetParent(parentId);
var children = Parent.Children;
foreach (var c in children )
{
Context.Children.Remove(c);
}
Context.SaveChanges();
What worked for me, is to get the children items first, using the parentId (foreign key) and then delete those items. Then I can get the Parent from the database and at that point, it should not have any children items anymore and I can add new children items.
var children = GetChildren(parentId);
foreach (var c in children )
{
Context.Children.Remove(c);
}
Context.SaveChanges();
var Parent = GetParent(parentId);
Parent.Children = //assign new entities/items here
You must manually clear the ChildItems collection and append new items into it:
thisParent.ChildItems.Clear();
thisParent.ChildItems.AddRange(modifiedParent.ChildItems);
After that you can call DeleteOrphans extension method which will handle with orphaned entities (it must be called between DetectChanges and SaveChanges methods).
public static class DbContextExtensions
{
private static readonly ConcurrentDictionary< EntityType, ReadOnlyDictionary< string, NavigationProperty>> s_navPropMappings = new ConcurrentDictionary< EntityType, ReadOnlyDictionary< string, NavigationProperty>>();
public static void DeleteOrphans( this DbContext source )
{
var context = ((IObjectContextAdapter)source).ObjectContext;
foreach (var entry in context.ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntries(EntityState.Modified))
{
var entityType = entry.EntitySet.ElementType as EntityType;
if (entityType == null)
continue;
var navPropMap = s_navPropMappings.GetOrAdd(entityType, CreateNavigationPropertyMap);
var props = entry.GetModifiedProperties().ToArray();
foreach (var prop in props)
{
NavigationProperty navProp;
if (!navPropMap.TryGetValue(prop, out navProp))
continue;
var related = entry.RelationshipManager.GetRelatedEnd(navProp.RelationshipType.FullName, navProp.ToEndMember.Name);
var enumerator = related.GetEnumerator();
if (enumerator.MoveNext() && enumerator.Current != null)
continue;
entry.Delete();
break;
}
}
}
private static ReadOnlyDictionary<string, NavigationProperty> CreateNavigationPropertyMap( EntityType type )
{
var result = type.NavigationProperties
.Where(v => v.FromEndMember.RelationshipMultiplicity == RelationshipMultiplicity.Many)
.Where(v => v.ToEndMember.RelationshipMultiplicity == RelationshipMultiplicity.One || (v.ToEndMember.RelationshipMultiplicity == RelationshipMultiplicity.ZeroOrOne && v.FromEndMember.GetEntityType() == v.ToEndMember.GetEntityType()))
.Select(v => new { NavigationProperty = v, DependentProperties = v.GetDependentProperties().Take(2).ToArray() })
.Where(v => v.DependentProperties.Length == 1)
.ToDictionary(v => v.DependentProperties[0].Name, v => v.NavigationProperty);
return new ReadOnlyDictionary<string, NavigationProperty>(result);
}
}
I've tried these solutions and many others, but none of them quite worked out. Since this is the first answer on google, I'll add my solution here.
The method that worked well for me was to take relationships out of the picture during commits, so there was nothing for EF to screw up. I did this by re-finding the parent object in the DBContext, and deleting that. Since the re-found object's navigation properties are all null, the childrens' relationships are ignored during the commit.
var toDelete = db.Parents.Find(parentObject.ID);
db.Parents.Remove(toDelete);
db.SaveChanges();
Note that this assumes the foreign keys are setup with ON DELETE CASCADE, so when the parent row is removed, the children will be cleaned up by the database.
I used Mosh's solution, but it was not obvious to me how to implement the composition key correctly in code first.
So here is the solution:
public class Holiday
{
[Key, Column(Order = 0), DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public int HolidayId { get; set; }
[Key, Column(Order = 1), ForeignKey("Location")]
public LocationEnum LocationId { get; set; }
public virtual Location Location { get; set; }
public DateTime Date { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
If you are using Auto mapper and facing the the issue following is the good solution, it work for me
https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/576393/Solutionplusto-aplus-Theplusoperationplusfailed
Since the problem is that we're mapping null navigation properties, and we actually don't need them to be updated on the Entity since they didn't changed on the Contract, we need to ignore them on the mapping definition:
ForMember(dest => dest.RefundType, opt => opt.Ignore())
So my code ended up like this:
Mapper.CreateMap<MyDataContract, MyEntity>
ForMember(dest => dest.NavigationProperty1, opt => opt.Ignore())
ForMember(dest => dest.NavigationProperty2, opt => opt.Ignore())
.IgnoreAllNonExisting();
This issue arise because we try to delete the parent table still child table data is present.
We solve the problem with help of cascade delete.
In model Create method in dbcontext class.
modelBuilder.Entity<Job>()
.HasMany<JobSportsMapping>(C => C.JobSportsMappings)
.WithRequired(C => C.Job)
.HasForeignKey(C => C.JobId).WillCascadeOnDelete(true);
modelBuilder.Entity<Sport>()
.HasMany<JobSportsMapping>(C => C.JobSportsMappings)
.WithRequired(C => C.Sport)
.HasForeignKey(C => C.SportId).WillCascadeOnDelete(true);
After that,In our API Call
var JobList = Context.Job
.Include(x => x.JobSportsMappings) .ToList();
Context.Job.RemoveRange(JobList);
Context.SaveChanges();
Cascade delete option delete the parent as well parent related child table with this simple code. Make it try in this simple way.
Remove Range which used for delete the list of records in the database
Thanks
I also solved my problem with Mosh's answer and I thought PeterB's answer was a bit of since it used an enum as foreign key. Remember that you will need to add a new migration after adding this code.
I can also recommend this blog post for other solutions:
http://www.kianryan.co.uk/2013/03/orphaned-child/
Code:
public class Child
{
[Key, Column(Order = 0), DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Heading { get; set; }
//Add other properties here.
[Key, Column(Order = 1)]
public int ParentId { get; set; }
public virtual Parent Parent { get; set; }
}
Using the solution of Slauma, I created some generic functions to help update child objects and collections of child objects.
All my persistent objects implement this interface
/// <summary>
/// Base interface for all persisted entries
/// </summary>
public interface IBase
{
/// <summary>
/// The Id
/// </summary>
int Id { get; set; }
}
With this I implemented these two functions in my Repository
/// <summary>
/// Check if orgEntry is set update it's values, otherwise add it
/// </summary>
/// <param name="set">The collection</param>
/// <param name="entry">The entry</param>
/// <param name="orgEntry">The original entry found in the database (can be <code>null</code> is this is a new entry)</param>
/// <returns>The added or updated entry</returns>
public T AddOrUpdateEntry<T>(DbSet<T> set, T entry, T orgEntry) where T : class, IBase
{
if (entry.Id == 0 || orgEntry == null)
{
entry.Id = 0;
return set.Add(entry);
}
else
{
Context.Entry(orgEntry).CurrentValues.SetValues(entry);
return orgEntry;
}
}
/// <summary>
/// check if each entry of the new list was in the orginal list, if found, update it, if not found add it
/// all entries found in the orignal list that are not in the new list are removed
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of entry</typeparam>
/// <param name="set">The database set</param>
/// <param name="newList">The new list</param>
/// <param name="orgList">The original list</param>
public void AddOrUpdateCollection<T>(DbSet<T> set, ICollection<T> newList, ICollection<T> orgList) where T : class, IBase
{
// attach or update all entries in the new list
foreach (T entry in newList)
{
// Find out if we had the entry already in the list
var orgEntry = orgList.SingleOrDefault(e => e.Id != 0 && e.Id == entry.Id);
AddOrUpdateEntry(set, entry, orgEntry);
}
// Remove all entries from the original list that are no longer in the new list
foreach (T orgEntry in orgList.Where(e => e.Id != 0).ToList())
{
if (!newList.Any(e => e.Id == orgEntry.Id))
{
set.Remove(orgEntry);
}
}
}
To use it i do the following:
var originalParent = _dbContext.ParentItems
.Where(p => p.Id == parent.Id)
.Include(p => p.ChildItems)
.Include(p => p.ChildItems2)
.SingleOrDefault();
// Add the parent (including collections) to the context or update it's values (except the collections)
originalParent = AddOrUpdateEntry(_dbContext.ParentItems, parent, originalParent);
// Update each collection
AddOrUpdateCollection(_dbContext.ChildItems, parent.ChildItems, orgiginalParent.ChildItems);
AddOrUpdateCollection(_dbContext.ChildItems2, parent.ChildItems2, orgiginalParent.ChildItems2);
Hope this helps
EXTRA: You could also make a seperate DbContextExtentions (or your own context inferface) class:
public static void DbContextExtentions {
/// <summary>
/// Check if orgEntry is set update it's values, otherwise add it
/// </summary>
/// <param name="_dbContext">The context object</param>
/// <param name="set">The collection</param>
/// <param name="entry">The entry</param>
/// <param name="orgEntry">The original entry found in the database (can be <code>null</code> is this is a new entry)</param>
/// <returns>The added or updated entry</returns>
public static T AddOrUpdateEntry<T>(this DbContext _dbContext, DbSet<T> set, T entry, T orgEntry) where T : class, IBase
{
if (entry.IsNew || orgEntry == null) // New or not found in context
{
entry.Id = 0;
return set.Add(entry);
}
else
{
_dbContext.Entry(orgEntry).CurrentValues.SetValues(entry);
return orgEntry;
}
}
/// <summary>
/// check if each entry of the new list was in the orginal list, if found, update it, if not found add it
/// all entries found in the orignal list that are not in the new list are removed
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of entry</typeparam>
/// <param name="_dbContext">The context object</param>
/// <param name="set">The database set</param>
/// <param name="newList">The new list</param>
/// <param name="orgList">The original list</param>
public static void AddOrUpdateCollection<T>(this DbContext _dbContext, DbSet<T> set, ICollection<T> newList, ICollection<T> orgList) where T : class, IBase
{
// attach or update all entries in the new list
foreach (T entry in newList)
{
// Find out if we had the entry already in the list
var orgEntry = orgList.SingleOrDefault(e => e.Id != 0 && e.Id == entry.Id);
AddOrUpdateEntry(_dbContext, set, entry, orgEntry);
}
// Remove all entries from the original list that are no longer in the new list
foreach (T orgEntry in orgList.Where(e => e.Id != 0).ToList())
{
if (!newList.Any(e => e.Id == orgEntry.Id))
{
set.Remove(orgEntry);
}
}
}
}
and use it like:
var originalParent = _dbContext.ParentItems
.Where(p => p.Id == parent.Id)
.Include(p => p.ChildItems)
.Include(p => p.ChildItems2)
.SingleOrDefault();
// Add the parent (including collections) to the context or update it's values (except the collections)
originalParent = _dbContext.AddOrUpdateEntry(_dbContext.ParentItems, parent, originalParent);
// Update each collection
_dbContext.AddOrUpdateCollection(_dbContext.ChildItems, parent.ChildItems, orgiginalParent.ChildItems);
_dbContext.AddOrUpdateCollection(_dbContext.ChildItems2, parent.ChildItems2, orgiginalParent.ChildItems2);
I was face same problem when I am going to delete my record than some issue was occur , for this issue solution is that when you are going to delete your record than you missing some thing before deleting header/master record you must write to code for delete its detail before header/Master I hope you issue will be resolve.
I had the same issue when I was trying to modify the scalar property of the targeted entity and realized I have accidentally referenced the target entity's parent:
entity.GetDbContextFromEntity().Entry(entity).Reference(i => i.ParentEntity).Query().Where(p => p.ID == 1).Load();
Just an advice by making sure the target entity does not reference any parent.
I've met this problem before several hours and try everything, but in my case the solution was diferent from the listed above.
If you use already retrieved entity from the database and try to modify it's childrens the error will occure, but if you get fresh copy of the entity from the database there should not be any problems.
Do not use this:
public void CheckUsersCount(CompanyProduct companyProduct)
{
companyProduct.Name = "Test";
}
Use this:
public void CheckUsersCount(Guid companyProductId)
{
CompanyProduct companyProduct = CompanyProductManager.Get(companyProductId);
companyProduct.Name = "Test";
}

Attaching Entities when using ObjectContext having lifetime of Http Request

I'm using .NET 3.5 SP1 in ASP.NET MVC application.
While using ObjectContext with Http Request lifetime, and trying to attach an entity ALREADY present in context, we get error:
"An object with the same key already exists in the ObjectStateManager. The ObjectStateManager cannot track multiple objects with the same key."
For Example, the code :
Category newCategory = new Category {CategoryId = CategoryIdSelected};
ctx.AttachTo("CategorySet", newCategory);
will give error if 'Category' with CategoryId = CategoryIdSelected exists in ObjectContext.
Modified code to check for existing entity:
Category newCategory = new Category {CategoryId = CategoryIdSelected};
ObjectStateEntry stateEntry = null;
if( ctx.ObjectStateManager.TryGetObjectStateEntry(newCategory, out stateEntry)){
//EntityObject already attached in context, get it
newCategory = (EntityObject)stateEntry.Entity;
}else{
ctx.AttachTo("CategorySet", newCategory);
}
The modified code is still giving same error:
"[System.InvalidOperationException] = {"An object with the same key already exists in the ObjectStateManager. The ObjectStateManager cannot track multiple objects with the same key."
Please advise ?
Thank You
QUESTION ADDENDUM:
More problems attaching Entities when using ObjectContext having lifetime of Http Request.
For Example, if we have 'AppUser','Category' and Department entities.
public class AppUser : System.Data.Objects.DataClasses.EntityObject{
public int Uid {get; set;}
public string UserName {get; set;}
public string Password {get; set;}
public Department Dept {get; set;}
public Category catg {get; set;}
...........
}
AppUser has relationship with Department and Category Entities.
Now when trying to attach 'user':
user = new AppUser{Uid=1,catg = new Category {categoryId=10}, Dept = new Department{departmentId=101}, ...}
var key = ctx.CreateEntityKey("AppUserSet", user);
if (ctx.ObjectStateManager.TryGetObjectStateEntry(key, out stateEntry)) {
will work ONLY if, in context :
there is NO Category with categoryId=10, and
there is NO Department with departmentId=101
One option, is to ensure context does not have attached entities by always retrieving using NOMERGE NoTracking option. BUT I found following problems with MergeOption.NoTracking:
Second call would still result in db hit
You don't get EntityKeys on EntityRefs. So EntityKey of XXXReference is null,which means NO FK Stub. Please see.
How to get EntityKey of Reference w/o loading both ends (both entities)?
Even though Entity are Detached, they have a reference to the DataContext (via entity._realtionships._context). Please see.
Please advise.
Thank You.
Your code is using two different contexts. You check one, and then attach to the other:
if( csContext. //...){
///
}else{
ctx. // ...
}
The entity appears to be in ctx, but not in csContext. My advice is to use only one context at a time whenever possible; it's much less confusing.
Update
OK, you've changed the code in your question.
My guess is that your stub object doesn't have an EntityKey, so TryGetObjectStateEntry is returning false. Try:
if( ctx.ObjectStateManager.TryGetObjectStateEntry(
new EntityKey("MyEntities.CategorySet", "CategoryId", CategoryIdSelected),
out stateEntry)){
Obviously, replace "MyEntities" with the actual model name.