EF 4.1 byte[] not being loaded from the DbContext - .net-4.0

Question

I have 2 entities.
public class Foo
{
public virtual int FooId {get; set; }
public virtual IList<Bar> Bars { get; set; }
public virtual DateTime Date { get; set; }
}
public class Bar
{
public virtual int BarId { get; set;}
public virtual byte[] Value { get; set; }
public virtual DateTime Date { get; set; }
public virtual IList<Foo> Foos { get; set; }
}
When I load Foo from the database by FooId, it is completely hydrated, when I navigate to Bar, it has the correct BarId and Date from the database, but Value is always a byte[0].
Why?
The database is a varbinary(300) column.
The value in the database if I do select * from Bar in Management Studio shows
BarId Value Date
1 0x20CF30467ABD 10/19/2011
Thoughts?
My mapping:
public class FooConfiguration : EntityTypeConfiguration<Foo>
{
public FooConfiguration()
{
ToTable("Foo");
HasKey(m => m.FooId);
Property(m => m.Date);
HasMany(m => m.Bars)
.WithMany(l => l.Foos)
.Map(m =>
{
m.ToTable("FooBars");
m.MapLeftKey("FooId");
m.MapRightKey("BarId");
});
}
}
public class BarConfiguration : EntityTypeConfiguration<Bar>
{
public BarConfiguration()
{
ToTable("Bar");
HasKey(m => m.BarId);
Property(m => m.Value);
Property(m => m.Date);
HasMany(m => m.Foos)
.WithMany(l => l.Bars)
.Map(m =>
{
m.ToTable("FooBars");
m.MapLeftKey("BarId");
m.MapRightKey("FooId");
});
}
}

Answer 1

I refactored your code a bit but I can't see your problem.
public class Foo
{
public Foo()
{
Bars = new List<Bar>();
}
#region Public Properties
public virtual IList<Bar> Bars { get; set; }
public virtual DateTime Date { get; set; }
public virtual int FooId { get; set; }
#endregion
}
public class Bar
{
#region Public Properties
public virtual int BarId { get; set; }
public virtual DateTime Date { get; set; }
public virtual IList<Foo> Foos { get; set; }
public virtual byte[] Value { get; set; }
#endregion
}
public class FooConfiguration : EntityTypeConfiguration<Foo>
{
public FooConfiguration()
{
HasKey(m => m.FooId);
HasMany(m => m.Bars)
.WithMany(l => l.Foos)
.Map(m =>
{
m.ToTable("FooBars");
m.MapLeftKey(f => f.FooId, "FooId");
m.MapRightKey(b => b.BarId, "BarId");
});
}
}
public class BarConfiguration : EntityTypeConfiguration<Bar>
{
public BarConfiguration()
{
HasKey(m => m.BarId);
}
}
When I do this I get the byte[] back from the database
using(var context = new FooBarContext())
{
var foo = new Foo();
foo.Date = DateTime.Now;
var bar = new Bar();
bar.Date = DateTime.Now;
bar.Value = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("string");
foo.Bars.Add(bar);
context.Foos.Add(foo);
context.SaveChanges();
}
using(var context = new FooBarContext())
{
var foos = context.Foos.Where(f => f.FooId == 1).ToList();
}
Make sure you are using the latest of EF.