Entity Framework 1 to Many creates new objects - c#

I'm using EntityFramework for my Microsoft Sql Data Base.
First entity is Product:
public class Product
{
public Product()
{
ProductStories = new HashSet<ProductStory>();
}
public int ProductId { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public bool Deleted { get; set; }
public HashSet<ProductStory> ProductStories { get; set; }
}
And another entity is ProductStory, which stores story about income or outcome of Products.
public class ProductStory
{
public int ProductStoryId { get; set; }
public virtual Product.Product Product { get; set; }
public int Count { get; set; }
public DateTime DateTime { get; set; }
}
So one Product could be in mane ProductStories, or in none.
I will not show all code(too big), so when I firstly create a single Product instance and save it in DB. Then I create a single ProductStory and reference to property Product to that instance of Product.
Then I save this ProductStory, there becomes 2 instances of ProductStory.
As I read, and I made this as virtual property:
public virtual Product.Product Product { get; set; }
How this problem could be solved?
I'm using EntityTypeConfiguration for tables configuration.
public class ProductMap : EntityTypeConfiguration<Product>
{
public ProductMap()
{
ToTable("Products").HasKey(x => x.ProductId);
Property(x => x.ProductId).IsRequired();
Property(x => x.Name).IsRequired().HasMaxLength(255).HasColumnName("Name");
//.HasColumnAnnotation("Index", new IndexAnnotation(new IndexAttribute("IX_Name") { IsUnique = true }));
Property(x => x.Description).IsOptional().HasColumnName("Description");
Property(x => x.Deleted).HasColumnName("Deleted");
}
}
And for ProductStory:
class ProductStoryMap: EntityTypeConfiguration<ProductStory>
{
public ProductStoryMap()
{
ToTable("ProductStories").HasKey(ps => ps.ProductStoryId);
Property(ps => ps.ProductStoryId).IsRequired();
//Property(ps => ps.ProductId).IsRequired().HasColumnName("ProductId");
Property(ps => ps.Count).HasColumnName("Count");
Property(ps => ps.DateTime).HasColumnName("DateTime");
}
}

You have some errors in your code:
//Change this:
public HashSet<ProductStory> ProductStories { get; set; }
//For this (virtual is needed here, also use ICollection rather than any specific implementation)
public virtual ICollection<ProductStory> ProductStories { get; set; }
//Change this:
public virtual Product.Product Product { get; set; }
//For this (virtual makes no sense here)
public Product.Product Product { get; set; }
And lastly, ProductStory needs a way to keep the reference to its parent Product. This is what creates the Foreign Key relationship in your database and allows Entity Framework to link the tables. So add this to ProductStory:
public int ProductId { get; set; }
If you are still getting a duplicated object (which may happen), ensure you are setting the ProductId to the ProductStory you are saving.

The solution was about Entity Framework "bug/feature".
As I add new ProductStory into DataBase, it attaches the whole graph(including all other entities references and recreates them).
So before commiting new ProductStory, I have to set to null all it's navigation properties to avoid recreating.

Related

EF Include Child Collection returning Nulls in list

I am having an issue with EF returning NULL values within a child list. Here is my model that I am trying to get:
public class CompoundIngredient : Ingredient
{
public List<MeasuredIngredient> MeasuredIngredients { get; set; }
public string UserId { get; set; }
public CompoundIngredient()
{
MeasuredIngredients = new List<MeasuredIngredient>();
IsPublic = true;
}
}
However, when I do this:
return await _dataContext.CompoundIngredients
.Include(a => a.MeasuredIngredients)
.ThenInclude(a => a.MeasurementType)
.Include(a => a.MeasuredIngredients)
.ThenInclude(a => a.Ingredient)
.ThenInclude(a => a.IngredientType)
.FirstOrDefaultAsync(c => c.DisplayValue == name);
I get back a collection of 4 items. 2 items are populated and 2 are NULL.
Here is the data in the DB
As you can see from the picture there are 4 entries in the table, 2 of which belong to CompoundIngredientId 6 which is the ID of the ingredient who matches the Name value.
Why am I getting 4 results back, 2 of which are null?
EDIT:
So here are the models
public class CompoundIngredient : Ingredient
{
public List<MeasuredIngredient> MeasuredIngredients { get; set; }
public string UserId { get; set; }
public CompoundIngredient()
{
MeasuredIngredients = new List<MeasuredIngredient>();
IsPublic = true;
}
}
public class Ingredient
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string DisplayValue { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public bool IsPublic { get; set; }
public IngredientType IngredientType { get; set; }
public int IngredientTypeId { get; set; }
public int CompanyId { get; set; }
public string UserName { get; set; }
public string CreatedBy { get; set; }
public DateTime CreatedDate { get; set; }
public string LastModifiedBy { get; set; }
public DateTime LastModifiedDate { get; set; }
}
public class MeasuredIngredient
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public decimal Amount { get; set; }
public int MeasurementTypeId { get; set; }
public MeasurementType MeasurementType { get; set; }
public int IngredientId { get; set; }
public Ingredient Ingredient { get; set; }
public int? UseId { get; set; }
public Use Use { get; set; }
}
public class Recipe
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string UserId { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public bool IsPublic { get; set; }
public int RecipeCategoryId { get; set; }
public RecipeCategory RecipeCategory { get; set; }
public int SocialMediaId { get; set; }
public SocialMedia SocialMedia { get; set; }
public virtual List<TimeTemp> TimeTemps { get; set; }
public virtual List<RecipeFuel> RecipeFuels{ get;set; }
public List<MeasuredIngredient> MeasuredIngredients { get; set; }
public List<RecipeStep> RecipeSteps { get; set; }
public string CreatedBy { get; set; }
public DateTime CreatedDate { get; set; }
public string LastModifiedBy { get; set; }
public DateTime LastModifiedDate { get; set; }
public Recipe()
{
MeasuredIngredients = new List<MeasuredIngredient>();
RecipeSteps = new List<RecipeStep>();
SocialMedia = new SocialMedia();
RecipeFuels = new List<RecipeFuel>();
TimeTemps = new List<TimeTemp>();
IsPublic = true;
}
}
As you can see Measured Ingredient isnt exclusive to CompoundIngredient. Recipe also has a List on it as well.
as far as configurations i dont have much
public class MeasuredIngredientConfiguration : IEntityTypeConfiguration<MeasuredIngredient>
{
public void Configure(EntityTypeBuilder<MeasuredIngredient> builder)
{
builder.Property(p => p.UseId).IsRequired(false);
}
}
public class IngredientConfiguration : IEntityTypeConfiguration<Ingredient>
{
public void Configure(EntityTypeBuilder<Ingredient> builder)
{
builder.Property(p => p.IsPublic).HasDefaultValue(true);
}
}
public class RecipeConfiguration : IEntityTypeConfiguration<Recipe>
{
public void Configure(EntityTypeBuilder<Recipe> builder)
{
builder.Property(p => p.IsPublic).HasDefaultValue(true);
}
}
here are the tables in the DB with FKs
I highly suspect the issue will stem from CompoundIngredient inheriting from Ingredient using TPH inheritance (One table with a Discriminator) then being referenced by MeasuredIngredient, and this relationship not being set up quite right. Which version of EF Core is this?
Overall the relationship between these entities/tables feels "odd". You have an ingredient, then a "compound" ingredient that is made up of one or more MeasuredIngredient. (which does not extend ingredient) A Measured ingredient contains one Ingredient, and optionally one CompoundIngredient.
Given a compound ingredient represents just a collection of measured ingredients, this just feels a bit off. It sounds like you want a recipe to contain a list of ingredients where each is associated with a measurement (The MeasuredIngredient) but that "ingredient" may be a combination of other ingredients (with associated measurements) where you may want to possibly avoid duplicating data.
I built a simple test with the core relationships in EF Core 5 and I was able to get the expected results. The important detail here was ensuring the relationship between the 3 classes (and possibly other related classes) is configured correctly. For example, cutting down the object model down to the core I came up with:
public class Ingredient
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class CompoundIngredient : Ingredient
{
public virtual ICollection<MeasuredIngredient> MeasuredIngredients { get; set; } = new List<MeasuredIngredient>();
}
public class MeasuredIngredient
{
public int Id { get; set; }
publi int IngredientId { get; set; }
public virtual Ingredient Ingredient { get; set; }
}
Creating test records with the relationships you showed and running EF Core 5 I wasn't able to reproduce the issue, but I honestly did not feel comfortable with leaving EF to sort out the discriminator and relationships.
The bits I didn't like were:
CompoundIngredient extends Ingredient while containing a Many relationship to MeasuredIngredient where there is no corresponding "One" relationship on MeasuredIngredient, but it does have a "One" relationship with Ingredient.
The discriminator here is implied, not configured.
What I am more comfortable with was:
public class Ingredient
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class CompoundIngredient : Ingredient
{
public virtual ICollection<MeasuredIngredient> MeasuredIngredients { get; set; } = new List<MeasuredIngredient>();
}
public class MeasuredIngredient
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public virtual Ingredient Ingredient { get; set; }
public virtual CompoundIngredient CompoundIngredient { get; set; }
}
Then explicitly mapping the relationships to ensure there is no confusion on FKs:
public class MeasuredIngredientConfiguration : IEntityTypeConfiguration<MeasuredIngredient>
{
public void Configure(EntityTypeBuilder<MeasuredIngredient> builder)
{
builder.Property(p => p.UseId).IsRequired(false);
builder.HasOne(p => p.Ingredient)
.WithMany()
.IsRequired()
.HasForeignKey("IngredientId");
builder.HasOne(p => p.CompoundIngredient)
.WithMany(p => p.MeasuredIngredients)
.IsRequired(false)
.HasForeignKey("CompoundIngredientId");
}
}
public class IngredientConfiguration : IEntityTypeConfiguration<Ingredient>
{
public void Configure(EntityTypeBuilder<Ingredient> builder)
{
builder.Property(p => p.IsPublic).HasDefaultValue(true);
builder.HasDiscriminator<string>("Discriminator")
.HasValue<Ingredient>("I")
.HasValue<CompoundIngredient>("C"); // Whichever discriminator values you want to use.
}
}
I generally do not have FKs exposed in entities for navigation properties, opting for shadow properties. This should work just as well with the FK fields mapped.
Now I had excluded this configuration and this example did work with EF Core 5. I was also trying to force a misconfiguration around possibly the CompoundIngredientId and IngredientId in the measured ingredient, but outside of generating specific configuration errors around missing assumed FKs I wasn't able to reproduce your issue. It could also be behaviour specific to the version of EF Core you are using.
You could try adding the explicit mapping to see if that solves or otherwise changes your results. Getting null entries in your collection smells like EF is trying to parse the CompoundIngredient -> MeasuredIngredient, but it is getting other measured Ingredients with the same Ingredient reference (1-2) but not the matching compound ingredient ID. It's definitely a weird one.
Otherwise I would look to temporarily eliminate all other references such as Recipe, measurement type, etc. down to the simplest possible example and data set that reproduces the problem. This becomes easier to investigate options to identify where/what is getting mixed up.
Hopefully this gives you some ideas on how to get to the bottom of the issue.
Turns out the issue is not with EF… after looking further into it EF is returning the proper counts and relations. The issue is higher up during the deserialization of the json being returned from the API. I created a new question for this
JsonSerializer.DeserializeAsync<> Creating Null Items in Collections

How can I create working lists and save them using the Entity Framework Core and ASP.NET Web API?

I am making a web app similar to google classroom in that you can join classes.
I have a class "Account" and inside that account I have a list that should hold the IDs of all the classes the account has joined. I tried to make the list a list of longs, but I couldn't do that because I got the error:
System.InvalidOperationException: 'The property
'Account._classesJoined' could not be mapped, because it is of type
'List' which is not a supported primitive type or a valid entity
type. Either explicitly map this property, or ignore it using the
'[NotMapped]' attribute or by using 'EntityTypeBuilder.Ignore' in
'OnModelCreating'.
The way I solved this problem is to create a class "JoinedClassId" to make a list of instead, with a property "classIdNumber". However, during testing, I noticed that the JoinedClassIds that I added to the the Account object were not saving. I think this is because I am not saving the database table for the JoinedClassId class.
Do I have to create a database context and controller for the JoinedClassId class? I don't want to be able to manipulate the JoinedClassId class from the API, I'm only using it as a data container. Is there a way I could either create a long list and save it or save the JoinedClassIds?
In EF Core "Many-to-many relationships without an entity class to represent the join table are not yet supported".
Book -> Category has many-to-may rel so this should create the 3 tables in DB :
Books, Category and BookCategory
public class Book
{
public int BookId { get; set; }
public string Title { get; set; }
//public ICollection<Category> Categories { get; set; } // cannot appear
// For the many-to-many rel
public List<BookCategory> BookCategories { get; set; }
}
public class Category
{
public int CategoryId { get; set; }
public string CategoryName { get; set; }
//public ICollection<Book> Books { get; set; } // cannot appear
// For the many-to-many rel
public List<BookCategory> BookCategories { get; set; }
}
// Class because of the many-to-many rel
public class BookCategory
{
public int BookId { get; set; }
public Book Book { get; set; }
public int CategoryId { get; set; }
public Category Category { get; set; }
}
public class MyContextDbContext : DbContext
{
public MyContextDbContext(DbContextOptions<MyContextDbContext> dbContextOptions)
: base(dbContextOptions)
{
}
protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
modelBuilder.Entity<BookCategory>()
.HasKey(t => new { t.BookId, t.CategoryId });
modelBuilder.Entity<BookCategory>()
.HasOne(bctg => bctg.Book)
.WithMany(ctg => ctg.BookCategories)
.HasForeignKey(book => book.CategoryId);
modelBuilder.Entity<BookCategory>()
.HasOne(bctg => bctg.Category)
.WithMany(ctg => ctg.BookCategories)
.HasForeignKey(ctg => ctg.BookId);
}
public DbSet<Book> Book { get; set; }
public DbSet<Category> Category { get; set; }
}

Stop AutoMapper initializing data model properties during mapping

I have a ClientDocument data model and mapping as follows:
public class ClientDocument : BaseEntity
{
public int DocumentOwnerId { get; set; }
public int ClientProfileId { get; set; }
public virtual ClientProfile ClientProfile { get; set; }
public int DocumentId { get; set; }
public virtual Document Document { get; set; }
}
public ClientDocumentMap(EntityTypeBuilder<ClientDocument> entityBuilder)
{
entityBuilder.HasKey(t => t.Id);
// One to Many with client profile
entityBuilder.HasOne(c => c.ClientProfile).WithMany(p => p.ClientDocuments).HasForeignKey(x => x.ClientProfileId).IsRequired();
// One to Many with document
entityBuilder.HasOne(c => c.Document).WithMany(p => p.ClientDocuments).HasForeignKey(x => x.DocumentId).IsRequired();
}
and a ClientDocumentViewModel as follows:
public class ClientDocumentViewModel
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int CreatedBy { get; set; }
public DateTime AddedDate { get; set; }
[HiddenInput]
public int ClientProfileId { get; set; }
public string ClientProfileName { get; set; }
public int SecondaryClientProfileId { get; set; }
[HiddenInput]
public string SecondaryClientProfileName { get; set; }
public int DocumentOwnerId { get; set; }
public int DocumentId { get; set; }
public DocumentViewModel Document { get; set; }
}
When i pass the ClientDocumentViewModel into the mapper and map the view model to the data model using:
var entity = _mapper.Map<ClientDocumentViewModel, ClientDocument>(model);
The properties from the ViewModel are all correctly getting mapped to the data model, however the mapper is also initializing an instance of ClientProfile which is stopping the insert using entity framework.
I have other data models and view models which use the same mapping pattern. When I debug them, the ClientProfile property isn't being initialized and the data entity is inserted successfully. I've gone through and compared the data models, entity framework maps, the foreign keys on the db, and the mapping profiles, and they all seem the same.
Does anyone have any ideas why this is occurring?
you can specify ClientProfile to ignore property in your mapping profile like this :
CreateMap<ClientDocumentViewModel, ClientDocument>()
.ForMember(x => x.ClientProfile, src => src.Ignore());

Independent child object with references from multiples parents in EF

I'm having quite the issue right now while trying to learn Entity Framework.
Let's say I have this entity:
public class BuildingGroup {
public int ID { get; set; }
public string NameOfManager { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Building> Buildings { get; set; }
}
And also this entity.
public class Architect {
public int ID { get; set; }
public string Email { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Building> BuildingsBeingWorkedOn { get; set; }
}
These two entities are completely unrelated. Here's the Building entity:
public class Building {
public int ID { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
}
My problem happens when I try to add a building to, say a BuildingGroup. In my domain model, I can modify the equivalent collection of buildings, by adding, modifying or removing buildings. However, when I try to update BuildingGroup through a repository, the buildings will not be updated.
public void Update(BuildingGroup buildingGroup) {
var buildingGroupEntity = _context.BuildingGroups.Single(b => b.ID == buildingGroup.ID);
// This will not map the Building collection
context.Entry(buildingGroupEntity).CurrentValues.SetValues(buildingGroup);
// My attempt at mapping the buildings
buildingGroupEntity.Buildings.Clear();
buildingGroup.Buildings.ToList().ForEach(b => buildingGroupEntity.Buildings.Add(_context.Buildings.Single(x => x.ID == b.ID)));
_context.Entry(buildingGroupEntity).State = EntityState.Modified;
}
This fails if the building were not saved in the database prior to the call to Update(), which is normal since buildings can live independently. It must also be done for every child collection of BuildingGroup (if there were more), and for child collections of these children, well...
I have noticed other people use a foreign key constraint in the child object (here, Building), but I can't really do that since many unrelated entities can point to a building: I'd have a lot of navigation properties.
Is there a graceful way to manage referencing objects that can also live independently from those who hold references to them?
If all the entities have to exist independently, yet have relationships with each other, it's better to use many-to-many relationship.
Change your model classes as follows, the Building should contain a couple of collections for architects and groups.
public class BuildingGroup
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public string NameOfManager { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Building> Buildings { get; set; }
}
public class Architect
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public string Email { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Building> BuildingsBeingWorkedOn { get; set; }
}
public class Building
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Architect> Architects { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<BuildingGroup> BuildingGroups { get; set; }
}
If you use entity type configuration, you could define the relationship as follows:
public class MyDbContext : DbContext
{
protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
modelBuilder.Entity<Building>().HasMany(it => it.Architects).WithMany(it => it.BuildingsBeingWorkedOn);
modelBuilder.Entity<Building>().HasMany(it => it.BuildingGroups).WithMany(it => it.Buildings);
base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);
}
}

EF5 Code first - Many to Many with extra fields

I'm trying to use the awsome EF5 with code first - where I need to make a many-to-many table with extra fields.
I've got a products table, orders table and need a table of products that are in orders with a "size" field.
What I've done is created a new class of "ProductOrder" that is the connection table between them, and made a reference.
It WORKS when creating a new order, but is not working when fetching an order - it doesn't get the connected orders (that are present in the DB after the insertion).
Ideas why? :)
My Classes are:
public class Order
{
public int ID { get; set; }
...
public ICollection<ProductOrder> Products { get; set; }
public Order()
{
Products = new HashSet<ProductOrder>();
}
}
public class Product
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public ICollection<ProductOrder> Orders { get; set; }
}
public class ProductOrder
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public int ProductID { get; set; }
public int OrderID { get; set; }
public int Size { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("OrderID")]
public Order order { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("ProductID")]
public Product product { get; set; }
}
and in onModelCreating
modelBuilder.Entity<Order>()
.HasMany(p => p.Products)
.WithRequired(o => o.order)
.HasForeignKey(o => o.OrderID);
modelBuilder.Entity<Product>()
.HasMany(o => o.Orders)
.WithRequired(p => p.product)
.HasForeignKey(p => p.ProductID);
Your navigational properties need to be virtual
From what I've seen, marking the navigational properties as virtual turns lazy loading on for those properties.
The other way to get this to work without lazy loading is to add .include() statements to your select. This tells EF to pull back the extra data that you want.

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