Insert order of Entity Framework children - c#

I have a structure like this
public class Son {
public string Name {get;set;}
public int Age {get;set;}
}
public class Daughter {
public string Name {get;set;}
public int Age {get;set;}
}
public class Parent {
public Daughter[] Daughters {get;set;}
public Son[] Sons {get;set;}
}
Where there is a FK Parent -> Son and Parent -> Daughter
Currently when doing a Context.SaveChanges() on a parent object it saves the Parent, and then saves the Daughters and then saves the Sons. I need it to save the Sons before the Daughters because we have a database trigger that does validation of the Sons based on the Daughters (and will deny the whole thing if it doesnt meet a requirement)
This trigger is obviously outside the knowledge of EF.
How can I specify that Sons are dependent on Daughters in EF such that Sons get inserted first; or is there a specification or attribute that I can define insert order?
PS: Do not look too much into the contrived example (such as why we dont save it under one thing called Children). The real-world example is much more complicated but the idea of saving Sons before Daughters is there

I love a challenge!
Firstly a declaration: I'm not a fan of Triggers or building a requirement for making order of insert important. My first exercise would be to exhaust all options to remove such a requirement.
After a bit of tinkering from what I can see at least when adding entities, for instance a Parent with one or more Daughters and one or more Sons, the order of insert is consistently alphabetical based on the Entity names. For example with entities named "Parent", "Daughter", and "Son", the insert was always Parent > Daughter > Son. The order of the properties, configuration, inserts, or even the table names had no bearing on the operations, however renaming the entity class "Son" to "ASon" resulted in Sons being inserted before Daughters. I don't know if this will carry forward to edits, but it's something to consider without getting too hacky. (Though something like this would definitely need to be documented well in the system in case someone questions a naming convention to get something inserting before something else.)
That said, getting into the hacky fun business!
Using a Son entity called ASon to force Sons before Daughters, it is possible to get EF to reverse that insert order:
using (var context = new ParentDbContext())
{
var parent = context.Parents.Create();
parent.Name = "Steve";
parent.Daughters.Add(new Daughter { Name = "Elise" });
parent.Daughters.Add(new Daughter { Name = "Susan" });
parent.Sons.Add(new ASon { Name = "Jason" });
parent.Sons.Add(new ASon { Name = "Duke" });
context.Parents.Add(parent);
context.SaveChanges();
}
Out of the box this inserted Parent, Son, Son, Daughter, Daughter.
To reverse it, I overrode SaveChanges, looking for our Sons to defer saving until after everything else:
public override int SaveChanges()
{
var trackedStates = new[] { EntityState.Added, EntityState.Modified };
var trackedParentIds = ChangeTracker.Entries<Parent>().Where(x => trackedStates.Contains(x.State)).Select(x => x.Entity.ParentId).ToList();
var addedSons = ChangeTracker.Entries<ASon>().Where(x => x.State == EntityState.Added).ToList();
var modifiedSons = ChangeTracker.Entries<ASon>().Where(x => x.State == EntityState.Modified).ToList();
int tempid = -1;
int modifiedParentCount = addedSons.Select(x => x.Entity.Parent.ParentId)
.Where(x => trackedParentIds.Contains(x))
.Count();
List<Tuple<Parent, ASon>> associatedSons = new List<Tuple<Parent, ASon>>();
modifiedSons.ForEach(x => { x.State = EntityState.Unchanged; });
addedSons.ForEach(x =>
{
x.Entity.SonId = tempid--;
associatedSons.Add(new Tuple<Parent, ASon>(x.Entity.Parent, x.Entity));
x.Entity.Parent.Sons.Remove(x.Entity);
x.State = EntityState.Unchanged;
});
var result = base.SaveChanges();
addedSons.ForEach(x => { x.Entity.Parent = associatedSons.Single(a => a.Item2 == x.Entity).Item1; x.State = EntityState.Added; });
modifiedSons.ForEach(x => { x.State = EntityState.Modified; });
result += base.SaveChanges() - modifiedParentCount;
return result;
}
So what this is doing:
The first bit is easy, we find our added and modified sons. We also take a count of parents with both modified and added sons. These will get double-counted when this is done.
For modified sons, we just set their state to Unchanged.
For added sons, we need to do a bit of dirty work. We need to give them a temporary unique ID because to mark them as Unchanged, EF still wants to track their ID and when you add 2 sons it will fail here. Note that when we put them back as added, they will receive proper IDs from Identity columns, not these temporary negative ones. We also track the association of their added sons with their respective parent in a Tuple because we need to temporarily remove those sons from their parent. Finally the added son is also marked unchanged.
Now we call the base SaveChanges which will save our parents and their daughters.
For modified sons, we just need to update the state back to Modified.
For our added sons, we use our saved association to re-assign them to their parent, and then set their state back to added.
We call the base SaveChanges again, appending the affected row count to the first run, and subtract the duplicate parent references. (parents that were already counted due to being modified)
The sketchy bit is adjusting the result count for the double-save, this might not be 100% accurate but it should only be an issue if you happen to be using the result of SaveChanges. I can't say I've ever really paid much attention to that return value :)
Hopefully that gives you some ideas to play with.

Related

how to insert records to unrelated tables using EF

I have a Comment table which can be linked to many different entities that have comments, but for reasons, I have not linked those tables. Instead Comment contains TableReferenceId and EntryReferenceId. TableReferenceId is just an int that we can check in the app layer as to which entity/table that comment refers to, and EntryReferenceId is an int that refers to a particular entry in said entity/table to which the comment belongs.
Querying such comments by table and entry reference would be fine, but when inserting bulk data, I am drawing a blank. For example if I have Vehicle entity and a Vehicle can have many comments, when inserting the data, how would I link them since I don't have a VehicleId yet? Is this doable or is it better to just go many-to-many route for each of the tables that link to comments?
If you can avoid this situation, then you should try to, or you should try to avoid supporting a bulk insert. If you must do this though, then either of the following patterns may work for you.
Perform the Bulk Insert in 2 stages, before the normal import, maintain a map or dictionary of records and the comments that they are linked to, then after the first call to SaveChanges() the IDs will be available to insert.
You could store the mapped comments inside an unbound collection on the entity, after SaveChanges() if there are any entries in this collection, they should be inserted using the new record's Id.
Lets look at the first option:
var mappedComments = new Dictionary<Vehicle,Comment[]>();
// bulk processing, however you choose to do it
// importantly for each item, capture the record reference and the comments
foreach(var item in source)
{
Vehicle newItem;
... construct/parse the new Entity object
List<Comment> newComments = new List<Comment>();
... parse the comments records
// store the map
mappedComments.Add(newItem, newComments.ToArray());
// Add the entity to the context?
db.AddToVehicles(newItem);
}
db.SaveChanges();
foreach(var mapEntry in mappedComments)
{
var newVehicle = mapEntry.Key;
// replace this with your actual logic of course...
int vehicleTableReferenceId = db.TableReferences.Single(x => x.TableName == nameof(Vehicle));
foreach(var comment in mappEntry.Value)
{
comment.TableReferenceId = vehicleTableReferenceId;
comment.EntityReferenceId = newVehicle.Id; // the Id that is now populated
db.AddToComments(comment);
}
}
db.SaveChanges();
If you have a lot Entity types that exhibit this linking behaviour, then you could build this functionality into the Entities themselves, by embedding the mapped comments within the entity itself.
Define an Interface that describes an object that has a weak reference to these Comments
public interface ICommentsToInsert
{
// Only necessary if your convention is NOT to use a common name for the PK
int Id { get; }
ICollection<Comment> CommentsToInsert { get;set;}
}
Implement this interface and add an unmapped collection property to the entities to store the Comment Entries to insert against each record.
partial class Vehicle : ICommentsToInsert
{
[NotMapped]
int ICommentsToInsert.Id { get => Vehicle_Id; }
[NotMapped]
public ICollection<Comment> CommentsToInsert { get;set; } = new HashSet<Comment>();
}
In your bulk logic, add the Comment records into the Vehicle.CommentsToInsert collection, I'll leave that to you...
Override SaveChanges() to detect entities that have comments and re-process them after the save operation.
In this example I am storing the EntityState for all modified entries before the save, this is overkill for this particular example, but you only lose this state information during the save, keeping a record of it becomes useful for a whole range of other applications for post-processing logic.
public override int SaveChanges()
{
var beforeStates = BeforeSaveChanges();
int result = base.SaveChanges();
if (AfterSaveChanges(beforeStates);
result += base.SaveChanges();
return results;
}
private Dictionary<DbEntityEntry, EntityState> BeforeSaveChanges()
{
var beforeSaveChanges = new Dictionary<DbEntityEntry, EntityState>();
foreach( var entry in this.ChangeTracker.Entries())
{
//skip unchanged entries!
if (entry.State == EntityState.Unchanged)
continue;
// Today, only cache the ICommentsToInsert records...
if (entry.Entity is ICommentsToInsert)
beforeSaveChanges.Add(entry, entry.State);
}
return beforeSaveChanges;
}
private bool AfterSaveChanges(Dictionary<DbEntityEntry, EntityState> statesBeforeSaveChanges)
{
bool moreChanges = false;
foreach (var entry in statesBeforeChanges)
{
if (entry.Key.Entity is ICommentsToInsert hasComments)
{
if(hasComments.CommentsToInsert.Any())
{
moreChanges = true;
// Get the Id to the TableReference, based on the name of the Entity type
// you would normally cache this type of lookup, rather than hitting the DB every time
int tableReferenceId = db.TableReferences.Single(x =
> x.TableName == entry.Key.Entity.GetType().Name);
foreach (var comment in hasComments.CommentsToInsert)
{
comment.TableReferenceId = tableReferenceId;
comment.EntityReferenceId = hasComments.Id;
db.AddToComments(comment);
}
}
}
}
return moreChanges;
}
You can further evolve this by implementing DbTransaction scopes to rollback the whole lot if things fail, this code itself is para-phrased from my common routines that I use in production code, so whilst it may not work as is, the concept has served me well in many projects.

EntityFramework Index Insert at least one

couldn't think of any better title for my question, but the situation is really simple: I have my database (created using code first migration), I have my entity, it has two fields that has index contraint so I cannot insert duplicate records when those fields are same.
public class Entity
{
public int Id;
[Index("IndexName"), IsUnique = true, Order = 0]
[MaxLength(50)]
public string Name;
[Index("IndexName"), IsUnique = true, Order = 1]
public Guid CustomId;
}
For a short entity class example I made this (mine looks with more properties, getters, setters ;) )
I try to make this:
<...>
using (var ctx = new EntitiesDbContext())
{
var e1 = new Entity()
{
Name = "Bob",
CustomId = new Guid("068462F1-3557-E711-BA31-028037EC0200")
};
var e2 = new Entity()
{
Name = "Bob",
CustomId = new Guid("068462F1-3557-E711-BA31-028037EC0200")
};
ctx.Entities.Add(e1);
ctx.Entities.Add(e2);
await ctx.SaveChangesAsync(); // I get exception
}
<...>
Everything is fine, I cannot insert two records because of index, but my problem is, that it does not insert any value at all. Is it possible to make this situation, to add at least one value to DB (i.e. e1 object) ?
P.s. The problem came from more complex situation, my example is pretty obvious or stupid, but it shows the idea what I want to achieve. The problem was the system performance I guess, when two records were inserted into context and then when I context tried to save it, I got an exception.
In all versions of Entity Framework, whenever you execute
SaveChanges() to insert, update or delete on the database the
framework will wrap that operation in a transaction.
Source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn456843(v=vs.113).aspx
So you have to save every item seperatly because the behaviour of a transaction is to do no changes to your database in case of an error.
ctx.Entities.Add(e1);
ctx.SaveChanges();
ctx.Entities.Add(e2);
ctx.SaveChanges();
What I found interesting, I can check ctx.ChangesTracker object to get entities list that are changed.
So I just did simple check for changes count and if the count was 2 for example, I made those entities state to Unchanged.
ctx.ChangeTracker.Entries().First().State = EntityState.Unchanged
This solved my problem and pain that I was dealing with for several hours.

How do I get an identity value with Entity Framework(v5) before I save the record

I am new to entity framework and I have been searching a while for an answer to this question and I can't find anything that directally addresses this.
Here is the problem. I have a table in Oracle. In this table there are 2 fields(there are more but not important to this question). Card_Transaction_Id and Parent_Card_Transaction_ID. The Parent_Card_Transaction_Id field is constrained by the Card_Transaction_Id field and I am using a Oracle sequence via a trigger to populate the Card_Transaction_Id field.
In my code, I am using Entity Framework(Version 5) to connect using the Code First Approach.
The issue is when I try to create a new record. I need to know what the next sequence value is in order to populate the Parent_Card_Transaction_Id. My mapping for card transactions:
public class CardTransactionMap : EntityTypeConfiguration<CardTransaction>
{
public CardTransactionMap(string schema)
{
ToTable("CARD_TRANSACTION", schema);
// Mappings & Properties
// Primary Key
HasKey(t => t.CardTransactionId);
Property(t => t.CardTransactionId)
.HasColumnName("CARD_TRANSACTION_ID")
.HasDatabaseGeneratedOption(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity);
Property(t => t.ParentCardTransactionId)
.HasColumnName("PARENT_CARD_TRANSACTION_ID");
Property(t => t.CardProfileId)
.HasColumnName("CARD_PROFILE_ID");
}
}
The question is - is there any way to get the next sequence number before I save the record?
My current work arround is to use the following method:
public static decimal GetNextCardTransactionSequenceValue()
{
using (var context = new Context(new OracleConnectionFactory().GetConnection()))
{
var sequence = context.Database.SqlQuery<int>("select card_transaction_id from card_transaction").ToList();
return sequence[0];
}
}
Using that method, I get the next value and then just populate my table. This works but I don't like doing it this way. I feel that there must be a better way to do it.
Thanks in advance.
You have to do this by navigation properties.
By fetching the next value from a sequence before actually using it in the same session you create yourself a concurrency issue: another user can increment the index (by an insert) in the time between drawing its next value and assigning it to the child record. Now the child will belong to the other user's record!
If your CardTransaction class has a parent reference like this:
int ParentCardTransaction { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("ParentCardTransaction")]
CardTransaction ParentCardTransaction { get; set; }
you can create a parent and child in one go and call SaveChanges without worrying about setting FK values yourself:
var parent = new CardTransaction { ... };
var child = new CardTransaction { ParentCardTransaction = parent, ... };
SaveChanges();
Now EF wil fetch the new CardTransactionId from the parent and assign it to the FK of the child. So generating and getting the parent Id happens all in one session, so it is guaranteed to be the same value.
Apart from preventing concurrency issues, of course it is much easier anyway to let EF do the heavy lifting of getting and assiging key values.
Create a Stored Procedure or Query that will return you the next Value from the Table here is an Example
SELECT NVL(MAX(card_transaction_id + 1), 0) AS MAX_VAL
FROM card_transaction T;
or Create a Trigger - for OracleDB
Change your table definition to this :
CREATE TABLE t1 (c1 NUMBER GENERATED BY DEFAULT ON NULL AS IDENTITY,
c2 VARCHAR2(10));
as per the information in the link i provided in the comment.
after the update ef will automatically query the value for the id that is inserted, there is no need to fill in the id before the insert. ef will generate an insert sql query without id.

How to Create a Node with Neo4jClient in Neo4j v2?

Under Neo4j v1.9.x, I used the following sort of code.
private Category CreateNodeCategory(Category cat)
{
var node = client.Create(cat,
new IRelationshipAllowingParticipantNode<Category>[0],
new[]
{
new IndexEntry(NeoConst.IDX_Category)
{
{ NeoConst.PRP_Name, cat.Name },
{ NeoConst.PRP_Guid, cat.Nguid.ToString() }
}
});
cat.Nid = node.Id;
client.Update<Category>(node, cat);
return cat;
}
The reason being that the Node Id was auto generated and I could use it later for a quick look up, start bits in other queries, etc. Like the following:
private Node<Category> CategoryGet(long nodeId)
{
return client.Get<Category>((NodeReference<Category>)nodeId);
}
This enables the following which appeared to work well.
public Category CategoryAdd(Category cat)
{
cat = CategoryFind(cat);
if (cat.Nid != 0) { return cat; }
return CreateNodeCategory(cat);
}
public Category CategoryFind(Category cat)
{
if (cat.Nid != 0) { return cat; }
var node = client.Cypher.Start(new {
n = Node.ByIndexLookup(NeoConst.IDX_Category, NeoConst.PRP_Name, cat.Name)})
.Return<Node<Category>>("n")
.Results.FirstOrDefault();
if (node != null) { cat = node.Data; }
return cat;
}
Now the cypher Wiki, examples and bad-habits recommend using the .ExecuteWithoutResults() in all the CRUD.
So the question I have is how do you have an Auto Increment value for the node ID?
First up, for Neo4j 2 and onwards, you always need to start with the frame of reference "how would I do this in Cypher?". Then, and only then, do you worry about the C#.
Now, distilling your question, it sounds like your primary goal is to create a node, and then return a reference to it for further work.
You can do this in cypher with:
CREATE (myNode)
RETURN myNode
In C#, this would be:
var categoryNode = graphClient.Cypher
.Create("(category {cat})")
.WithParams(new { cat })
.Return(cat => cat.Node<Category>())
.Results
.Single();
However, this still isn't 100% what you were doing in your original CreateNodeCategory method. You are creating the node in the DB, getting Neo4j's internal identifier for it, then saving that identifier back into the same node. Basically, you're using Neo4j to generate auto-incrementing numbers for you. That's functional, but not really a good approach. I'll explain more ...
First up, the concept of Neo4j even giving you the node id back is going away. It's an internal identifier that actually happens to be a file offset on disk. It can change. It is low level. If you think about SQL for a second, do you use a SQL query to get the file byte offset of a row, then reference that for future updates? A: No; you write a query that finds and manipulates the row all in one hit.
Now, I notice that you already have an Nguid property on the nodes. Why can't you use that as the id? Or if the name is always unique, use that? (Domain relevant ids are always preferable to magic numbers.) If neither are appropriate, you might want to look at a project like SnowMaker to help you out.
Next, we need to look at indexing. The type of indexing that you're using is referred to in the 2.0 docs as "Legacy Indexing" and misses out on some of the cool Neo4j 2.0 features.
For the rest of this answer, I'm going to assume your Category class looks like this:
public class Category
{
public Guid UniqueId { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
Let's start by creating our category node with a label:
var category = new Category { UnqiueId = Guid.NewGuid(), Name = "Spanners" };
graphClient.Cypher
.Create("(category:Category {category})")
.WithParams(new { category })
.ExecuteWithoutResults();
And, as a one-time operation, let's establish a schema-based index on the Name property of any nodes with the Category label:
graphClient.Cypher
.Create("INDEX ON :Category(Name)")
.ExecuteWithoutResults();
Now, we don't need to worry about manually keeping indexes up to date.
We can also introduce an index and unique constraint on UniqueId:
graphClient.Cypher
.Create("CONSTRAINT ON (category:Category) ASSERT category.UniqueId IS UNIQUE")
.ExecuteWithoutResults();
Querying is now very easy:
graphClient.Cypher
.Match("(c:Category)")
.Where((Category c) => c.UniqueId == someGuidVariable)
.Return(c => c.As<Category>())
.Results
.Single();
Rather than looking up a category node, to then do another query, just do it all in one go:
var productsInCategory = graphClient.Cypher
.Match("(c:Category)<-[:IN_CATEGORY]-(p:Product)")
.Where((Category c) => c.UniqueId == someGuidVariable)
.Return(p => p.As<Product>())
.Results;
If you want to update a category, do that in one go as well:
graphClient.Cypher
.Match("(c:Category)")
.Where((Category c) => c.UniqueId == someGuidVariable)
.Update("c = {category}")
.WithParams(new { category })
.ExecuteWithoutResults();
Finally, your CategoryAdd method currently 1) does one DB hit to find an existing node, 2) a second DB hit to create a new one, 3) a third DB hit to update the ID on it. Instead, you can compress all of this to a single call too using the MERGE keyword:
public Category GetOrCreateCategoryByName(string name)
{
return graphClient.Cypher
.WithParams(new {
name,
newIdIfRequired = Guid.NewGuid()
})
.Merge("(c:Category { Name = {name})")
.OnCreate("c")
.Set("c.UniqueId = {newIdIfRequired}")
.Return(c => c.As<Category>())
.Results
.Single();
}
Basically,
Don't use Neo4j's internal ids as a way to hack around managing your own identities. (But they may release some form of autonumbering in the future. Even if they do, domain identities like email addresses or SKUs or airport codes or ... are preferred. You don't even always need an id: you can often infer a node based on its position in the graph.)
Generally, Node<T> will disappear over time. If you use it now, you're just accruing legacy code.
Look into labels and schema-based indexing. They will make your life easier.
Try and do things in the one query. It will be much faster.
Hope that helps!

Is there a way to find all Entities that have had their relationships deleted?

I am trying to not have my Business Logic know the inner workings of my Data Layer and vica versa.
But Entity Framework is making that hard. I can insert into a collection (in my Business Layer) without a reference to the ObjectContext:
order.Containers.Add(new Container { ContainerId = containerId, Order = order });
And that saves fine when it comes time to do a SaveChanges() in the Data Layer.
But to delete an item from a collection I need a reference to the ObjectContext. (I am case #1 in this guide to deleting EF Entities.) If I just do this:
delContainers.ForEach(container => order.Containers.Remove(container));
Then when I call SaveChanges() I get an exception telling me that I need to delete the object as well as the reference.
So, my options as I see it are:
To pass a delegate to my Business Logic that will call the Entity Framework ObjectContext Delete method.
Or (I am hoping) find a way to get all entities that have had their reference deleted and actually delete them. (Right before calling SaveChanges() in my data layer.)
Does anyone know a way to do that?
UPDATE:
I tried this:
// Add an event when Save Changes is called
this.ObjectContext.SavingChanges += OnSavingChanges;
...
void OnSavingChanges(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var objectStateEntries = ObjectContext.ObjectStateManager
.GetObjectStateEntries(EntityState.Deleted);
foreach (var objectStateEntry in objectStateEntries)
{
if (objectStateEntry.IsRelationship)
{
// Find some way to delete the related entity
}
}
}
But none even though I deleted a relationship, the set of deleted items is empty.
(I tried viewing all the items too and my relationship is not in there. Clearly there is something fundamental that I don't get about ObjectStateManager.)
The correct solution for EF is point 3. from the linked article. It means propagating FK to principal entity into PK for dependent entity. This will form something called identifying relation which automatically deletes dependent entity when it is removed from the parent entity.
If you don't want to change your model and still want to achieve that in persistence ignorant way you probably can but it will work only for independent associations. Some initial implementation which works at least for my simple tested solution:
public partial class YourObjectContext
{
public override int SaveChanges(SaveOptions options)
{
foreach (ObjectStateEntry relationEntry in ObjectStateManager
.GetObjectStateEntries(EntityState.Deleted)
.Where(e => e.IsRelationship))
{
var entry = GetEntityEntryFromRelation(relationEntry, 0);
// Find representation of the relation
IRelatedEnd relatedEnd = entry.RelationshipManager
.GetAllRelatedEnds()
.First(r => r.RelationshipSet == relationEntry.EntitySet);
RelationshipType relationshipType = relatedEnd.RelationshipSet.ElementType;
if (!SkipDeletion(relationshipType))
{
// Now we know that model is inconsistent and entity on many side must be deleted
if (!(relatedEnd is EntityReference)) // related end is many side
{
entry = GetEntityEntryFromRelation(relationEntry, 1);
}
if (entry.State != EntityState.Deleted)
{
context.DeleteObject(entry.Entity);
}
}
}
return base.SaveChanges();
}
private ObjectStateEntry GetEntityEntryFromRelation(ObjectStateEntry relationEntry, int index)
{
var firstKey = (EntityKey) relationEntry.OriginalValues[index];
ObjectStateEntry entry = ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntry(firstKey);
return entry;
}
private bool SkipDeletion(RelationshipType relationshipType)
{
return
// Many-to-many
relationshipType.RelationshipEndMembers.All(
r => r.RelationshipMultiplicity == RelationshipMultiplicity.Many) ||
// ZeroOrOne-to-many
relationshipType.RelationshipEndMembers.Any(
r => r.RelationshipMultiplicity == RelationshipMultiplicity.ZeroOrOne);
}
}
To make it work your entities must be enabled for dynamic change tracking (all properties must be virtual and entity must be proxied) or you must manually call DetectChanges.
In case of foreign key associations the situation will be probably much worse because you will not find any deleted relation in the state manager. You will have to track changes to collections or keys manually and compare them to find discrepancies (I'm not sure how to do it in generic way) Foreign key association IMHO requires the identifying relation. Using FK properties already means that you included additional persistence dependency into your model.
One way is to write a change handler in your data layer:
private void ContainersChanged(object sender,
CollectionChangeEventArgs e)
{
// Check for a related reference being removed.
if (e.Action == CollectionChangeAction.Remove)
{
Context.DeleteObject(e.Element);
}
}
There are many places you can wire this up -- in your object's constructor or repository get or SavingChanges or wherever:
entity.Containers.AssociationChanged += new CollectionChangeEventHandler(ContainersChanged);
Now you can remove the association from elsewhere and it will "cascade" to the entity.

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