Entity framework code first delete entities without parent - entity-framework

I have two entities Users and Phone. Relationship is one to one. Mapping is
public class User
{
public virtual Phone Phone { get; set;}
public virtual int PhoneId { get; set;}
}
public class Phone
{
public virtual string Number { get; set;}
}
My mapping for User is:
HasRequired(x => x.Phone).WithMany().HasForeignKey(x => x.PhoneId)
I have user with assigned phone.
f.e.
Phone oldPhone = new Phone();
Phone newPhone = new Phone();
User user = new User();
user.Phone = old;
///Save user with phone.
user.Phone = newPhone;
///Save user with phone.
Now I have user with assigned phone - newPhone and not assigned oldPhone row in the DB.
How can I setup mapping to delete entity without parent(oldPhone).
EDITED.
I have changed mapping according this article to
HasRequired(x => x.Phone).WithOptional();
For save I use this method:
public override void Save(TEntity entity)
{
if (entity == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("entity");
}
if (entity.Id > 0)
{
DbContext.Set<TEntity>().Attach(entity);
DbContext.Entry(entity).State = System.Data.EntityState.Modified;
}
else
{
DbContext.Set<TEntity>().Add(entity);
}
}
When I attached new entity old ones doesn`t deleted from DB, so in my example I have two entities in DB oldPhone and newPhone.

I don't know a way to do this through mapping in EF. For one of my projects I have made a Parent attribute, which I could check on Save. I think you could use it here to. I have made a blog post on this with code; extending entity framework 4 with parentvalidator.
It would require to add the User property to the Phone entity.
[Parent]
public virtual User User { get; set;}

Related

EF Core tracking problem when adding Entity to a List

I ran into a problem while developing my small Blazor WASM app.
A part of my app is where users can create teams, and invite other users to join their team. The relevant Entity Classes is:
Team.cs
public class Team
{
[Key]
public Guid TeamID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Abbreviation { get; set; }
public Guid? BadgeID { get; set; }
public Guid TownID { get; set; }
public Guid StatisticsID { get; set; }
public Guid CaptainID { get; set; }
public List<AppUserDTO> Players { get; set; } = new();
}
When a User accepts an invitation he should be added to the List<AppUserDTO> Players List, I do this this way on the client side:
private async Task AcceptInvite()
{
Team.Players.Add(Player);
await TeamDataService.UpdateTeam(Team);
}
public async Task UpdateTeam(Team team)
{
var teamJson =
new StringContent(JsonSerializer.Serialize(team), Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
await _httpClient.PutAsync("api/team", teamJson);
}
But I get the following exception on the server side when I'd like to save the changes to the server:
System.InvalidOperationException: The instance of entity type 'AppUserDTO' cannot be tracked because another instance with the same key value for {'ID'} is already being tracked. When attaching existing entities, ensure that only one entity instance with a given key value is attached.
With the server-side code being:
public Team UpdateTeam(Team team)
{
var updatedTeam = _appDbContext.Teams.Include(t => t.Players).FirstOrDefault(t => t.TeamID == team.TeamID);
if (updatedTeam == null) return null;
updatedTeam.TeamID = team.TeamID;
updatedTeam.Name = team.Name;
updatedTeam.Abbreviation = team.Abbreviation;
updatedTeam.TownID = team.TownID;
updatedTeam.StatisticsID = team.StatisticsID;
updatedTeam.Players = team.Players;
updatedTeam.CaptainID = team.CaptainID;
_appDbContext.SaveChanges();
return updatedTeam;
}
The exception pops up at the _appDbContext.SaveChanges() method.
What I noticed is the following: When I add an Entity to an empty list and save it, I get no exception, but if the list already has Entities I get this error.
What would be the solution for this, I believe is quite common what I try to do, but I didn't find a solution anywhere for this.
When you execute:
var updatedTeam = _appDbContext.Teams
..Include(t => t.Players).FirstOrDefault(t => t.TeamID == team.TeamID);
... you are retrieving existing Players from the Db and _appDbContext is tracking them (by "ID").
Now, when you set Players:
updatedTeam.Players = team.Players;
... I suspect that team.Players includes Players that are already being tracked by the _appDbContext. Hence your error.
You could try:
List<Player> playersToAdd = team.Players.Except(updatedTeam.Players);
updatedTeam.AddRange(playersToAdd);
In this way, you are not adding duplicate players to the context that are already being tracked from the initial database retrieval.

EF6:How to include subproperty with Select so that single instance is created. Avoid "same primary key" error

I'm trying to fetch (in disconnected way) an entity with its all related entities and then trying to update the entity. But I'm getting the following error:
Attaching an entity of type 'Feature' failed because another entity of the same type already has the same primary key value.
public class Person
{
public int PersonId { get; set; }
public string Personname { get; set }
public ICollection Addresses { get; set; }
}
public class Address
{
public int AddressId { get; set; }
public int PersonId { get; set; }
public string Line1 { get; set; }
public string City { get; set; }
public string State { get; set; }
public Person Person { get; set; }
public ICollection<Feature> Features { get; set; }
}
// Many to Many: Represented in database as AddressFeature (e.g Air Conditioning, Central Heating; User could select multiple features of a single address)
public class Feature
{
public int FeatureId { get; set; }
public string Featurename { get; set; }
public ICollection<Address> Addresses { get; set; } // Many-To-Many with Addresses
}
public Person GetCandidate(int id)
{
using (MyDbContext dbContext = new MyDbContext())
{
var person = dbContext.People.AsNoTracking().Where(x => x.PersonId == id);
person = person.Include(prop => prop.Addresses.Select(x => x.Country)).Include(prop => prop.Addresses.Select(x => x.Features));
return person.FirstOrDefault();
}
}
public void UpdateCandidate(Person newPerson)
{
Person existingPerson = GetPerson(person.Id); // Loading the existing candidate from database with ASNOTRACKING
dbContext.People.Attach(existingPerson); // This line is giving error
.....
.....
.....
}
Error:
Additional information: Attaching an entity of type 'Feature' failed because another entity of the same type already has the same primary key value.
It seems like (I may be wrong) GetCandidate is assigning every Feature within Person.Addresses a new instance. So, how could I modify the GetCandidate to make sure that the same instance (for same values) is bing assisgned to Person.Addresses --> Features.
Kindly suggest.
It seems like (I may be wrong) GetCandidate is assigning every Feature within Person.Addresses a new instance. So, how could I modify the GetCandidate to make sure that the same instance (for same values) is bing assisgned to Person.Addresses --> Features.
Since you are using a short lived DbContext for retrieving the data, all you need is to remove AsNoTracking(), thus allowing EF to use the context cache and consolidate the Feature entities. EF tracking serves different purposes. One is to allow consolidating the entity instances with the same PK which you are interested in this case, and the second is to detect the modifications in case you modify the entities and call SaveChanges(), which apparently you are not interested when using the context simply to retrieve the data. When you disable the tracking for a query, EF cannot use the cache, thus generates separate object instances.
What you really not want is to let EF create proxies which hold reference to the context used to obtain them and will cause issues when trying to attach to another context. I don't see virtual navigation properties in your models, so most likely EF will not create proxies, but in order to be absolutely sure, I would turn ProxyCreationEnabled off:
public Person GetCandidate(int id)
{
using (MyDbContext dbContext = new MyDbContext())
{
dbContext.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
var person = dbContext.People.Where(x => x.PersonId == id);
person = person.Include(prop => prop.Addresses.Select(x => x.Country)).Include(prop => prop.Addresses.Select(x => x.Features));
return person.FirstOrDefault();
}
}

EF many-to-many relationship and data duplication

I have a trouble with EF (6.1.3)
I have created next classes (with many-to-many relationship):
public class Record
{
[Key]
public int RecordId { get; set; }
[Required]
public string Text { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Tag> Tags { get; set; }
}
public class Tag
{
[Key]
public int TagId { get; set; }
[Required]
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Record> Records{ get; set; }
}
And method:
void AddTags()
{
Record[] records;
Tag[] tags;
using (var context = new AppDbContext())
{
records = context.Records.ToArray();
}//remove line to fix
tags = Enumerable.Range(0, 5).Select(x => new Tag()
{
Name = string.Format("Tag_{0}", x),
Records= records.Skip(x * 5).Take(5).ToArray()
}).ToArray();
using (var context = new AppDbContext()){ //remove line to fix
context.Tags.AddRange(tags);
context.SaveChanges();
}
}
If I use two contexts, the records (which were added to created tags) will be duplicated. If I remove marked rows - problem disappears.
Is there any way to fix this problem without using the same context?
If you can, better reload entities or not detach them at all. Using multiple context instances in application is overall making things much more complicated.
The problem for you comes from the Entity Framework entity change tracker. When you load entitites from your DbContext and dispose that context, entities get detached from entity change tracker, and Entity Framework has no knowledge of any changes made to it.
After you reference detached entity by an attached entity, it (detached entity) immediately gets into entity change tracker, and it has no idea that this entity was loaded before. To give Entity Framework an idea that this detached entity comes from the database, you have to reattach it:
foreach (var record in records) {
dbContext.Entry(record).State = EntityState.Unchanged;
}
This way you will be able to use records to reference in other objects, but if you have any changes made to these records, then all these changes will go away. To make changes apply to database you have to change state to Added:
dbContext.Entry(record).State = EntityState.Modified;
Entity Framework uses your mappings to determine row in database to apply changes to, specifically using your Primary Key settings.
A couple examples:
public class Bird
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Color { get; set; }
}
public class Tree
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class BirdOnATree
{
[Column(Order = 0), Key, ForeignKey("Bird")]
public int BirdId { get; set; }
public Bird Bird { get; set; }
[Column(Order = 1), Key, ForeignKey("Tree")]
public int TreeId { get; set; }
public Tree Tree { get; set; }
public DateTime SittingSessionStartedAt { get; set; }
}
Here's a small entity structure so that you could see how it works. You can see that Bird and Tree have simple Key - Id. BirdOnATree is a many-to-many table for Bird-Tree pair with additional column SittingSessionStartedAt.
Here's the code for multiple contexts:
Bird bird;
using (var context = new TestDbContext())
{
bird = context.Birds.First();
}
using (var context = new TestDbContext())
{
var tree = context.Trees.First();
var newBirdOnAtree = context.BirdsOnTrees.Create();
newBirdOnAtree.Bird = bird;
newBirdOnAtree.Tree = tree;
newBirdOnAtree.SittingSessionStartedAt = DateTime.UtcNow;
context.BirdsOnTrees.Add(newBirdOnAtree);
context.SaveChanges();
}
In this case, bird was detached from the DB and not attached again. Entity Framework will account this entity as a new entity, which never existed in DB, even though Id property is set to point to existing row to database. To change this you just add this line to second DbContext right in the beginning:
context.Entry(bird).State = EntityState.Unchanged;
If this code is executed, it will not create new Bird entity in DB, but use existing instead.
Second example: instead of getting bird from the database, we create it by ourselves:
bird = new Bird
{
Id = 1,
Name = "Nightingale",
Color = "Gray"
}; // these data are different in DB
When executed, this code will also not create another bird entity, will make a reference to bird with Id = 1 in BirdOnATree table, and will not update bird entity with Id = 1. In fact you can put any data here, just use correct Id.
If we change our code here to make this detached entity update existing row in DB:
context.Entry(bird).State = EntityState.Modified;
This way, correct data will be inserted to table BirdOnATree, but also row with Id = 1 will be updated in table Bird to fit the data you provided in the application.
You can check this article about object state tracking:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/dd456848(v=vs.100).aspx
Overall, if you can avoid this, don't use object state tracking and related code. It might come to unwanted changes that are hard to find source for - fields are updated for entity when you don't expect them to, or are not updated when you expect it.

ASP.NET MVC 4 error updating entity framework models with related entities

I feel like this should be a pretty common thing to do. I have a model with a related object on it. Let's say it's a User and a user has one Role.
public class User
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public virtual Role Role { get; set; }
/* other stuff that saves fine */
}
public class Role
{
public int Id {get;set;}
public string Name { get;set;}
}
So if I save a new user, or if I edit a user (but don't change his Role), I have no issues. If I have a user without a role, and add a role to him, again no problem (though I manually lookup the role and assign it). If I try and change a role, I get a modelstate error on the Role property that the ID is part of the object's key and can't be changed. So how do folks go about making updates like this? Whitelist the simple values and then manually update the Role?
My controller code in question is here:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Save(int id, FormCollection form)
{
var user = data.Users.FirstOrDefault(d=> d.Id == id);
if (user != null)
{
TryUpdateModel(user, form.ToValueProvider());
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
var messages = ModelState.Values.Where(m => m.Errors.Count() > 0).SelectMany(m=>m.Errors).Select(e => e.ErrorMessage);
if (Request.IsAjaxRequest())
return Json(new { message = "Error!", errors = messages });
return RedirectToAction("index"); // TODO: more robust Flash messaging
}
updateDependencies(user);
/* negotiate response */
}
}
I'll probably just do it manually for now, but it seems like a scenario that I would have expected to work out of the box, at least to some degree.
Your User model should have a foreign key:
public int? RoleId { get; set; }
public virtual Role Role { get; set; }
You can assign a Role.Id to this value, or make it null when the user does not have a role.
I'm also not sure if your Save function is correct. I'm always using this pattern (not sure if it is correct either...), but of course it depends on the data you post to the server:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Save(User model)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
// Save logic here, for updating an existing entry it is something like:
context.Entry(model).State = EntityState.Modified;
context.SaveChanges();
return View("Success");
}
return View("Edit", model);
}

Many to Many Relationships not saving

I have two entities with a fairly standard Many to Many relationship that I created in EF 5 Code First. These are Service and ServiceItem. The Service entity contains a collection of ServiceItems and the ServiceItem contains a collection of Services. I can create, change and save data to either of the entities basic properties with no problems. When I try to add a ServiceItem to a Service or a Service to a ServiceItem it seems to work, but nothing is saved. I have verified that all the proper database tables are created, including a ServiceItemService table with the cross keys. The database ServiceItemService table doesn't get any entry when I add the items. There is no error and everything else seems to work perfectly.
I am a bit stumped and could use some help. Below are the classes.
The Service class;
public class Service
{
//Default constructor
public Service()
{
//Defaults
IsActive = true;
ServicePeriod = ServicePeriodType.Monthly;
ServicePeriodDays = 0;
ServiceItems = new Collection<ServiceItem>();
}
public int ServiceID { get; set; }
public string Title { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public ICollection<ServiceItem> ServiceItems { get; set; }
public string TermsOfService { get; set; }
public ServicePeriodType ServicePeriod { get; set; }
public int ServicePeriodDays { get; set; }
public bool IsActive { get; set; }
}
The ServiceItem class;
public class ServiceItem
{
public ServiceItem()
{
IsActive = true;
}
public int ServiceItemID { get; set; }
public string Title { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public ICollection<Service> Services { get; set; }
public string UserRole { get; set; }
public bool IsActive { get; set; }
}
This is the Fluent mapping I did while trying to debug this issue. The same problem happened before and after adding this mapping.
public DbSet<Service> Services { get; set; }
public DbSet<ServiceItem> ServiceItems { get; set; }
protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
modelBuilder.Entity<Service>()
.HasMany(p => p.ServiceItems)
.WithMany(r => r.Services)
.Map(mc =>
{
mc.MapLeftKey("ServiceItemID");
mc.MapRightKey("ServiceID");
mc.ToTable("ServiceItemService");
});
}
Here is the code I use to save the Service item that includes 2-3 ServiceItems in the Service.ServiceItems collection. I have carefully verified that the ServiceItems were in the proper collection.
db.Entry(dbService).State = EntityState.Modified;
db.SaveChanges();
The dbService object doesn't seem to get affected in any way. The ServiceItems are still in the proper collection, but no update are made to the ServiceItemService database table. Any advice would be very welcome.
-Thanks
It is expected that nothing happens.
What you want to change or add is a relationship between the entities Service and ServiceItem. But you cannot manipulate relationships by setting the state of an entity to Modified. This only updates scalar and complex properties but no navigation properties (= relationships). (For example setting the state of a Service entity to Modified will mark Service.Title and Service.Description, etc. as modified and ensure that those properties are saved to the database. But it doesn't care about the content of Service.ServiceItems.)
The only exception where you can change a relationship by setting the state to Modified are Foreign Key Associations. These are associations that have foreign key properties exposed in your model entity and they can only occur for one-to-many or one-to-one associations. Many-to-many relationships are always Independent Associations which means they can never have a foreign key property in an entity. (Because the FKs are in the join table, but the join table is not an entity and "hidden" from your model classes.)
There is a way to directly manipulate relationships for a many-to-many association but it requires to go down to the ObjectContext and its RelationshipManager which is - in my opinion - pretty advanced and tricky.
The usual and straight-forward way to add and remove relationship entries to/from a many-to-many association is by just adding items to and removing items from the collections while the entities are attached to the context. EF's change tracking mechanism will recognize the changes you have done and generate the appropriate INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE statements when you call SaveChanges.
The exact procedure depends on if you also want to save Service and/or ServiceItem as new entities or if you only want to add relationships between existing entities. Here are a few examples:
service should be INSERTed, all serviceItems should be INSERTed and the relationships between the entities should be INSERTed into the join table as well:
using (var context = new MyContext())
{
var service = new Service();
var serviceItem1 = new ServiceItem();
var serviceItem2 = new ServiceItem();
service.ServiceItems.Add(serviceItem1);
service.ServiceItems.Add(serviceItem2);
context.Services.Add(service);
context.SaveChanges();
}
Adding the "root" service of the object graph is enough because EF will recognize that all other entities in the graph are not attached to the context and assume that they have to be INSERTed into the database.
service already exists and should NOT be INSERTed, all serviceItems should be INSERTed and the relationships between the entities should be INSERTed into the join table as well:
using (var context = new MyContext())
{
var service = new Service { ServiceID = 15 };
context.Services.Attach(service);
var serviceItem1 = new ServiceItem();
var serviceItem2 = new ServiceItem();
service.ServiceItems.Add(serviceItem1);
service.ServiceItems.Add(serviceItem2);
context.SaveChanges();
}
EF recognizes here (when SaveChanges is called) that service is attached but the other entities are not. No INSERT for service happens but the serviceItem1/2 will be INSERTed together with the relationship entries.
service already exists and should NOT be INSERTed, all serviceItems already exist and should NOT be INSERTed, but the relationships between the entities should be INSERTed into the join table:
using (var context = new MyContext())
{
var service = new Service { ServiceID = 15 };
context.Services.Attach(service);
var serviceItem1 = new ServiceItem { ServiceItemID = 23 };
context.ServiceItems.Attach(serviceItem1);
var serviceItem2 = new ServiceItem { ServiceItemID = 37 };
context.ServiceItems.Attach(serviceItem2);
service.ServiceItems.Add(serviceItem1);
service.ServiceItems.Add(serviceItem2);
context.SaveChanges();
}
For completeness: How to remove relationships between existing entities?
using (var context = new MyContext())
{
var service = context.Services
.Include(s => s.ServiceItems) // load the existing Items
.Single(s => s.ServiceID == 15);
var serviceItem1 = service.ServiceItems
.Single(s => s.ServiceItemID == 23); // query in memory, no DB query
var serviceItem2 = service.ServiceItems
.Single(s => s.ServiceItemID == 37); // query in memory, no DB query
service.ServiceItems.Remove(serviceItem1);
service.ServiceItems.Remove(serviceItem2);
context.SaveChanges();
}
The two relationship rows in the join table that link service 15 with serviceItem 23 and 37 will be deleted.
Alternativly instead of calling Attach you can load the existing entities from the database. It will work as well:
var service = context.Services.Single(s => s.ServiceID == 15);
And the same for existing ServiceItems.