Context.saveChanges() modifies foreign key that has already been set - asp.net-mvc-4

I have two entities:
public class UserProfile
{
[Key]
[DatabaseGeneratedAttribute(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public int UserId { get; set; }
public string UserName { get; set; }
}
and
public class VideoModel
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string VideoFileName { get; set; }
public DateTime UploadedTime { get; set; }
public virtual UserProfile Owner { get; set; }
}
When i trying to persist VideoModel entity, the problem appears:
VideoModel video = db.VideoModels.Create();
video.VideoFileName = fileName;
video.Owner = usersContext.UserProfiles.Find(WebSecurity.CurrentUserId); // CurrentUserId = 3, ok
video.UploadedTime = DateTime.Now; // video.Owner.UserId = 3
db.VideoModels.Add(video); // still 3
db.SaveChanges(); // Problem! video.Owner.UserId = 10
And the new value assigned to UserId by SaveChanges() method is greater than the value assigned in previous attempt on 1. Of course the foreign key constraint is broken. Why the method behaves in such a strange way?

If EntityFramework finds the UserProfile that you have asked it to search for, then the behavior you are expecting is how it should behave as.
Instead what could be happening at the moment is EntityFramework cannot find the UserProfile that you are asking via usersContext.UserProfiles.Find(...); and instead returns null. It then creates a new UserProfile while creating the VideoModel in order to maintain the referential integrity. Since there are no requirements on Username (such as length should be at least 8 characters or more), it is able to create a new user without any exception being thrown anywhere.
In order to test this theory out, query your UserProfile table in the database immediately after your new VideoModel is created. I am pretty certain a new UserProfile is being created. If there is one being created, then please let me know what you find.

Related

Why EF core tries to add navigational property into DB and not only the Id of foreign model?

I was wondering why EF tries to add also foreign models.
Example:
public class Category
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name{ get; set; }
}
public class Content
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name{ get; set; }
public Category Category{ get; set; }
}
After creating "Content" using migrations, I have a table that includes the id of category. That's create. So I have three columns: Id, name and the categoryId. Seems EF "knows" that this should be just the primary key of Category, that needs to get stored.
Than I tried to add something with EF.
var cat = new Category {Id = 2, Name = "awesomeCat"})
var addContent = new Content({Name = "test", Category = cat})
Now I want to add a Content by using _context.Add(addContent). I was expecting a single insert into db that uses the name "test" and the categoryId 2. Id will be generated by DB.
But instead EF also tries to add a new Category into the category table.
So I took a deeper look and seems EF "does" not know it already exists and was not maintaining any transactions about the category model.
I gave it another try and used no new category, instead I was loading it before:
var cat = _context.findById("2");
and assigned this one instead. Now EF should know that this one already exists and does not have to add it in category table.
Could it be, that my model is just wrong.
Do I need to use it more like:
public class Content
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name{ get; set; }
public int? CategoryId{ get; set; }
[ForeignKey("CategoryId")]
public Category Category{ get; set; }
}
Won't I get two category references then?
You need to tell EF Core it's a primary key and to generate the key
public class Category
{
[Key]
[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class Content
{
[Key]
[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public Category Category { get; set; }
}
Then you don't need to mark [ForeignKey("CategoryId")], EF Core will turn the object reference into an ID in the database
If I misunderstood your question, ask again :)
EF Core has internal tracking of entities. When you simply new up a category, it's not being tracked. When you add the content, EF will track any related entities as well, which would include your category, which will by default be tracked as "Added". You have a few choices.
Don't "new up" an existing category, but rather, retrieve it from the database. If EF pulls it from the database, then it will be tracked, and will not be added again.
You can explicitly track the category instance you newed up and set it's state to "Unchanged".
_context.Attach(category);
_context.Entry(category).State = EntityState.Unchanged;
_context.Add(content);
The best method is to not deal with the reference property at all, and use an explicit foreign key property. Add a property to your content class:
public int CategoryId { get; set; }
Then, you can simply set this id, instead of the Category prop:
var addContent = new Content { Name = "test", CategoryId = 2 };
EF will backfill the reference property after save.

Linq takes more than 20 seconds to query a table with less than 100 records

Unfortunately I haven't found a good answer for this problem yet. The answers and questions I have seen so far in here are about big tables with a lot of records.
I'm trying to query a table called Tickets with the following code:
var Status = ticketStatusService.GetByName("New");
string StatusID = Status.Id;
var tickets = db.Tickets.Where(e =>
!e.Deleted &&
e.Project == null &&
e.Status != null &&
e.Status.Id == StatusID);
var list = tickets.ToList();
The table currently has less than 100 records, this query takes an average of 22 seconds to execute.
The code first model for it is as follows:
public class Ticket : Base
{
[Key]
[Required]
public Guid Id { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Date")]
public DateTime RowDate { get; set; } = DateTime.Now;
public bool Deleted { get; set; } = false;
[Index(IsUnique = true)]
public int? Number { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Ticket Subject")]
public string Subject { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Notes (Employees Only)")]
public string Notes { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "E-Mail")]
public string From { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Phone Number")]
public string Phone { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Secondary Phone Number")]
public string PhoneAlt { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Client Name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Message")]
public string Messages { get; set; }
[DataType(DataType.DateTime)]
public DateTime? OpenDate { get; set; }
[DataType(DataType.DateTime)]
public DateTime? CloseDate { get; set; }
[DataType(DataType.DateTime)]
public DateTime? AssignedDate { get; set; }
public bool? Origin { get; set; }
public virtual User AssignedUser { get; set; }
public virtual List<TicketFile> TicketFiles { get; set; }
public virtual List<Task> Tasks { get; set; }
public virtual Project Project { get; set; }
public virtual TicketStatus Status { get; set; }
public virtual TicketClosingCategory TicketClosingCategory { get; set; }
public virtual TicketGroup TicketGroup { get; set; }
public virtual TicketPriority TicketPriority { get; set; }
}
Any insight into this issue would be appreciated. Thank you very much!
Edit: Running the same query directly on SQL Server Management Studio also takes very long, about 9 to 11 seconds. So there might be an issue with the table itself.
I see several possible improvements.
For some reason you chose to deviate from the entity framework code fist conventions. One of them is the use of a List instead of an ICollection, another it that you omit to mention the foreign keys.
Use ICollection istead of List
Are you sure that Ticket.TicketFiles[4] has a defined meaning? And what would Ticket.TicketFiles.Insert(4, new TicketFile()) mean?
Better stick to an interface that prohibits usage of functions that have no defined meaning. Use ICollection<TicketFile>. This way you'll have only functions that have a proper meaning in the context of a database. Besides it gives entity framework the freedom to chose the most efficient collection type to execute its queries.
Let your classes represent the tables
Let your classes just be POCOs. Don't add any functionality that is not in your tables.
In entity framework the columns of a table are represented by non-virtual properties. The virtual properties represent the relations between the tables (one-to-many, many-to-many, ...)
Let entity framework decide what's the most efficient to initialize the data in your sequences. Don't use a constructor where you create a List, which will be immediately thrown away by entity framework to replace it with its own ICollection. Don't automatically initialize property Deleted, if entity framework immediately replaces it with its own value.
You will probably have only one procedure where you will add a Ticket to the database. Use this function to properly initialize the field of any "newly added Ticket"
Don't forget the foreign keys
You defined several relations between your tables (one-to-many, or many-to-many?) but you forgot to define the foreign keys. Because of your use of virtual entity framework can understand that it needs foreign keys and will add them, but in your query you need to write e.Status != null && e.Status.Id == statusId, while obviously you could just use the foreign key e.StatusId == statusId. For this you don't have to join with the Statuses table
Another reason to specify the foreign keys: they are real columns in your tables. If you define that these classes represent your tables, they should be in these classes!
Only select the properties you actually plan to use
One of the slower parts of a database query is the transport of the selected data from the database management system to your local process. Hence it is wise to select only the data you actually plan to use.
Example. There seems to be a one-to-many between a User and a Ticket: every User has zero or more Tickets, every Ticket belongs to exactly one User. Suppose User 4 has 20 Tickets. Every Ticket will have a UserId with a value 4. If you fetch these 20 Tickets without a proper Select you will fetch all properties of the same User 4 once per Ticket, and you will transport the data of this same User 20 times (with all his properties, and maybe all his relations). What a waste of processing power!
Always use Select to query your data and Select only the properties you actually plan to use. Only use Include if you plan to updated the Included data.
var tickets = dbContext.Tickets.Where(ticket => !ticket.Deleted
// improvement: use foreign keys
&& ticket.ProjectId == 0 (or == null, if ProjectId nullable)
&& ticket.StatusId == statusId) // no Join with Statuses needed
.Select(ticket => new
{
...
}

Querying data from a child table in .Net Mobile service

I have two simple models in .net backend based Azure Mobile Service Project, as shown below & I am not able to query the child table (querying parent table, UserItem, works just fine)
(The Id is nvarchar(128) & is autogenerated as newId by DB)
public class AnswerItem: EntityData
{
public string Content { get; set; }
public UserItem By { get; set; }
public QuestionItem ForQuestion { get; set; }
public double Rating { get; set; }
public string Comment { get; set; }
}
& a child to this UserItem Table as shown below
public class QuestionItem: EntityData
{
public string Content { get; set; }
public bool IsAnswered { get; set; }
public int NumberOfAnswers {get; set;}
public UserItem By { get; set; }
public string ById { get; set; }
public string AtLocation { get; set; }
}
As you notice, the QuestionItem has a FK relationship to UserItem table on ById field (Referencing Id field in UserItem Table)
The issue is I am getting a Bad Request error when I try to query the data from child table
Following are some queries that I tried
private IMobileServiceTable<QuestionItem> questionTable = App.MobileService.GetTable<QuestionItem>();
questions = await questionTable.Where(x=>x.IsAnswered==true).ToCollectionAsync(); (Does not Work)
questions = await questionTable.Where(x=>x.ById="UserIdGoesHere").ToCollectionAsync(); (Does Not Work)
questions = await questionTable.Where(x=>x.Content.StartsWith("q")).ToCollectionAsync(); (This Works)
questions = await questionTable.ToCollectionAsync(); (This Works as well)
If I fire a TSQL query in Sql Server Object explorer they all return correct values.
I am at my wits end on what could be wrong with my approach.
Any help is really appreciated.
Thanks
Supreet
Investigating further the Request it was generating was like this
192.168.2.4:50002/tables/QuestionItem?$filter=(byid eq 'myUniqueGuId')
analyzing fiddler output shows this error
"The query specified in the URI is not valid. Could not find a property named 'byid' on type 'x2Service.DataObjects.QuestionItem'"
Off course there is no fields in the table by the name of 'byid' the one I have is called 'ById' Its the JsonProperty adorner that changed it [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "byid")] In my client class.
Removed the Json Property & it worked just fine

Is there a plural issue for models database context y to ies in mvc4 EF

I keep getting error when I try to access a model from an edit or details action.
The model backing the 'InjuriesContext' context has changed since the
database was created. Consider using Code First Migrations to update
the database (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=238269).
First I tried adding a migration even though I was sure I hadn't changed anything. Still recieved the same error after an update-database.
Then I removed all the migrations and the database and started a clean database with an inital migration and update. Same error. Nothing was changed.
Model is:
public class InjuriesContext : DbContext
{
public InjuriesContext()
: base("DBCon")
{
}
public DbSet<Patient> Patients { get; set; }
public DbSet<Injury> Injuries { get; set; }
}
public class Injury
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Type { get; set; }
public int PatientId { get; set; }
}
Here is controller --
public ActionResult Edit(int id = 0)
{
Injury injury = db.Injuries.Find(id);
if (injury == null)
{
return HttpNotFound();
}
return View(injury);
}
It errors on the injuries.find. I do not have any injuries entered so I expect it to return a 404 like my other controllers but it doesn't like something about this. The only difference between this and my other models is the y to ies for plural. Does Entity Framework not handle this?
There should not be any plural restriction, as you defined everything clearly in your classes anyway.
Have you created the Injuries table?
I belive the table Injury will get created automatically. the variable injury might be a bit close, but I have to test this myself.
Rather try:
public class Injury
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
[Required]
public string Type { get; set; }
[Required]
public int PatientId { get; set; }
}
private InjuriesContext db = new InjuriesContext();
Injury objInjury = db.Injuries.Find(id);
if (objInjury == null)
{
return HttpNotFound();
}
return View(objInjury);
Hope this helps
It turns out my issue was with multiple contexts. I thought you had to create a separate context for each model class. Apparently Entity Framework needs one context. I went through and created a class for my context and put all my DBsets in that class.
public class ProjContexts : DbContext
{
public ProjContexts()
: base("ProjDBCon")
{
}
public DbSet<Patient> Patients { get; set; }
public DbSet<PreHosp> PreHosps { get; set; }
public DbSet<UserProfile> UserProfiles { get; set; }
public DbSet<Injury> Injuries { get; set; }
}
}
Then I removed all the migrations as per this post and enabled the migrations again did an add migration and update then I got the expected result.
Bottom Line--- Don't have multiple context classes in your project. Not sure if this is possible but after changing the above everything is working as expected. Not sure why it was working when I had two separate contexts and added the third? Maybe because they had foreign keys with one another?

How do I implement Denormalized References in RavenDB

I would like to have a reference between two entities stored in the RavenDB document database. Since this is not a relational db I know that I am supposed to use the Denormalized Reference technique described on RavenDBs documentation. Whilst at first this seems fine, once I start to create a real-world domain ‘hierarchy’ including bidirectional references the effort of keeping all those references up to date feels disproportionate. I feel I may be going wrong somewhere.
Can you explain the best / simplest way to model a reasonably complex domain hierarchy using RavenDB?
Thanks
I am not sure whether this will go far enough to answer your question but here is how I go about creating a Denormalized Reference in RavenDB (this is taken from real code with non-essentials removed for clarity)
Domain
public class User : IUserIdentity
{
public string UserName { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<string> Claims { get; set; }
public string Id { get; set; }
public Guid FormsAuthenticationGuid { get; set; }
}
public class Assessment
{
public string Id { get; set; }
public UserReference User { get; set; }
public AssessmentState State { get; set; }
}
You can see that I have a Assessment class that references a User. This user reference are managed using the UserReference class below.
Denormalized Reference
public class UserReference
{
public string Id { get; set; }
public string UserName { get; set; }
public static implicit operator UserReference(User user)
{
return new UserReference
{
Id = user.Id,
UserName = user.UserName
};
}
}
Note how the reference class also carries the UserName. This value will not change very often but it may change so we need a way to update the UserName property in the UserReference property held in the Assessment class. To make the change we must first find the correct Assessment instances from RavenDB and for that we need an index.
Raven Index
public class Assessment_ByUserId : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Assessment>
{
public Assessment_ByUserId()
{
Map = assessments => from assessment in assessments
select new
{
User_Id = assessment.User.Id
};
}
}
This index needs to be invoked whenever a User's UserName value is updated. I have a UserService class that helps me co-ordinate all my User related functions, so that is where I put this code.
I reuse this code for other references so it has been abstracted out a little. This may help you create the more complex hierarchies (or perhaps 'domain graph' is a better description) you want.
UserService
public static void SetUserName(IDocumentSession db, string userId, string userName)
{
var user = db.Load<User>(userId);
user.UserName = userName;
db.Save(user);
UpdateDenormalizedReferences(db, user, userName);
}
private static void UpdateDenormalizedReferences(IDocumentSession db, User user, string userName)
{
db.Advanced.DatabaseCommands.UpdateByIndex(
RavenIndexes.IndexAssessmentByUserId,
GetQuery(user.Id),
GetUserNamePatch(userName),
allowStale: true);
}
private static IndexQuery GetQuery(string propertyValue, string propertyName = "User_Id")
{
return new IndexQuery {Query = string.Format("{0}:{1}", propertyName, propertyValue)};
}
private static PatchRequest[] GetUserNamePatch(string referenceValue, string referenceName = "User")
{
return new[]
{
new PatchRequest
{
Type = PatchCommandType.Modify,
Name = referenceName,
Nested = new[]
{
new PatchRequest
{
Type = PatchCommandType.Set,
Name = "UserName",
Value = referenceValue
}
}
}
};
}
That is it. And you know, now that I lay it all out I can see what you mean. It is a lot of work just to update a reference. Perhaps the Service code can be made more DRY and reused for different relationship types, but I don't see how to get away from writing lots of indexes, one per referenced type.