How can I make Entity Framework only update object dependencies? - sql-server

I'd like to know how can I make Entity Framework update an object instead of always inserting a new one for each new main object.
For example:
I have these objects:
Main Object:
public class ExtraArticleAttributes
{
[Key]
public int extraarticleattributes_id { get; set; }
virtual public WorldData world_data { get; set; }
}
Its dependencie:
public class WorldData
{
[Key]
public int worlddata_id { get; set; }
public string country { get; set; }
So, how can I make Entity Framework when inserting a new ExtraArticleAttributes verify if already exists a WorldData object and only update it?
I've been reading some articles about it and I notice that Entity Framework identify an existing object in DB with a HASH code, so when I get it from an API, and try to insert It in the DB, even though the object has the same data, the Entity Framework doesn't recognize like an existed object in DB. Does exist a way of make It, without spending request to the DB to verify if the object exists, if true get It.

Set the entity state to Modified:
using System.Data.Entity;
// Assuming that there is already an existing WorldData record in the database with id 1 and country 'foo', and you want to change the country to 'bar'
using (var context = new MyContext())
{
var extraArticleAttributes = new ExtraArticleAttributes
{
world_data = new WorldData
{
worlddata_id = 1,
country = "bar"
}
};
db.ExtraArticleAttributes.Add(extraArticleAttributes);
db.Entry<WorldData>(extraArticleAttributes.world_data).State = EntityState.Modified;
db.SaveChanges();
// world data 1 country is now 'bar'
}

Related

map key value pair with entity properties in entity framework

Below is my code for entity and a function where I need to map entity TblEmployee from a key value pair.
In foreach loop I am getting values based on keys, what should be the best approach to do it?
public class TblEmployee
{
public int EmployeeId { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public int Create()
{
tblEmployee employee = new tblEmployee();
using (var ctx = new theparkeee_testEntities())
{
foreach (string key in HttpContext.Current.Request.Form.AllKeys)
{
string value = HttpContext.Current.Request.Form[key];
//how to map value from key value pair to entity employee.
}
}
}
You can use System.Reflection to get the Properties of an object by their name with Type.GetProperty(string name). After you got the PropertyInfo, you can use SetValue to assign a value to it.
foreach (string key in HttpContext.Current.Request.Form.AllKeys) {
// note that "value" is a reserved word, do not use it as variable name
string val = HttpContext.Current.Request.Form[key];
var propertyInfo = typeof(TblEmployee).GetProperty(key); // can maybe be moved outside of the loop
if (propertyInfo != null) {
propertyInfo.SetValue(employee, val);
}
}
This will work for string properties. If the property is of another type, you have to find the correct type (again, using reflection) and cast the string value before assigning it.
Note that this is not the correct approach to store data in MVC. You should not work with the Request.Form directly, instead your POST action should accept a ViewModel that can be mapped (e.g. using Automapper) to the DB entity. I.e. let the ASP ModelBinder do its work, instead of reinventing the wheel!
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Submit(MyViewModel postData) {
var employee = Mapper.Map<TblEmployee>(postData);
_ctx.Employees.Add(employee);
_ctx.SaveChanges();
return new HttpStatusCodeResult((int)HttpStatusCode.OK);
}

Dapper control dates

This question is meant to bring some light around control date times using Dapper.
These controls are used to audit the information in a data storage and figure out when a particular row has been created / updated. I couldn't manage to find any information on GitHub's project, either here in StackOverflow, so I would like this post to become a central source of truth to help others or even to turn into a future extension of the library.
Any answer, resource or best practice will be appreciated.
I've ran into a case where I was working with a database that was consumed by both Rails and Dapper. Rails was managing created_at and updated_at, not the database. So with the .net application I had to implement a solution that managed these and provided the ability to add additional business logic at these layers such as events.
I've included a basic example of how I handled this with a wrapper around Dapper Simple Crud for inserts and updates. This example does not include exposing the other critical methods from dapper and simplecrud such as Query, GET, Delete, etc. You will need to expose those at your discresion.
For safety ensure that you decorate your models created_at property with the attribute [Dapper.IgnoreUpdate]
[Table("examples")]
public partial class example
{
[Key]
public virtual int id { get; set; }
[Required(AllowEmptyStrings = false)]
[StringLength(36)]
public virtual string name { get; set; }
[Dapper.IgnoreUpdate]
public virtual DateTime created_at { get; set; }
public virtual DateTime updated_at { get; set; }
}
public class ExampleRepository : IExampleRepository
{
private readonly IYourDapperWrapper db;
public PartnerRepository(IYourDapperWrapper yourDapperWrapper){
if (yourDapperWrapper == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(yourDapperWrapper));
db = yourDapperWrapper;
}
public void Update(example exampleObj)
{
db.Update(exampleObj);
}
public example Create(example exampleObj)
{
var result = db.Insert(exampleObj);
if (result.HasValue) exampleObj.id = result.value;
return exampleObj;
}
}
public class YourDapperWrapper : IYourDapperWrapper
{
private IDbConnectionFactory db;
public YourDapperWrapper(IDbConnectionFactory dbConnectionFactory){
if (dbConnectionFactory == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(dbConnectionFactory));
db = dbConnectionFactory;
}
public int Insert(object model, IDbTransaction transaction = null, int? commandTimeout = null)
{
DateUpdate(model, true);
var results = Db.NewConnection().Insert(model, transaction, commandTimeout);
if (!results.HasValue || results == 0) throw new DataException("Failed to insert object.");
return results;
}
public int Update(object model, IDbTransaction transaction = null, int? commandTimeout = null)
{
DateUpdate(model, false);
var results = Db.NewConnection().Update(model, transaction, commandTimeout);
if (!results.HasValue || results == 0) throw new DataException("Failed to update object.");
return results;
}
private void DateUpdate(object model, bool isInsert)
{
model.GetType().GetProperty("updated_at")?.SetValue(model, DateTime.UtcNow, null);
if (isInsert) model.GetType().GetProperty("created_at")?.SetValue(model, DateTime.UtcNow, null);
}
}

Entity Framework Upsert but not by Primary Key

I store animals in an SQL Server database table created by Entity Framework Code First. This is the POCO for it:
[Table("Animal")]
public class Animal
{
[Key]
[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public int ID { get; set; }
public string SomeData { get; set; }
public byte[] OtherData { get; set; }
public int ExternalSourceId { get; set; }
public string ExternalSourceAnimalId { get; set; }
}
Some animals are regularly updated by an external source (there are a few sources but a specific animal is updated from maximum 1 source). Also when an external source has a new animal it needs to be inserted. Some animals are maintained locally, these have no external source.
An external source have the Animal identified by the ExternalSourceAnimalId. These are unique for one source but there are chances of 2 sources using overlapping IDs, so ExternalSourceId is also there to make the 2 of them a combined natural key.
So I get a huge list of animals from an external source and I need to insert or update them in the local database depending on the existence of the specific external key in our datebase.
This is my current solution on doing this (in a class inheriting form SharpRepository):
public void InsertOrUpdateAnimal(ExternalAnimal exAnimal, int externalSourceId)
{
var animal = DbSet.SingleOrDefault(o => o.ExternalSourceId == externalSourceId && o.ExternalSourceAnimalId == exAnimal.Id);
if (animal != null)
{
CopyData(exAnimal, animal); // copies the properties from exAnimal to animal
this.Update(animal);
}
else
{
animal = new Animal();
CopyData(exAnimal, animal);
this.Add(animal);
}
}
Since this is a bulk operation and takes quite some time I was wondering if there is a faster solution for this. For example if there is a way to upsert in a single database operation.

Is there an equivalent to "NotMapped" for Dapper.Net and the Dapper.Net extensions?

I've started to play with Dapper.Net, and am really loving it so far - however, I have run into one problem.
Say that I have a POCO class like:
public class Person
{
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
public string FullName { get { return FirstName + " " + LastName; } }
}
Now, using Dapper.Net and the Dapper.Net extensions, I want to simply load all instances of that data type from the DB by doing this:
string connectionString = CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("DBConnection");
using (SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
{
cn.Open();
IEnumerable<Types.Person> entities = cn.GetList<Types.Person>();
var forceMe = entities.ToList();
}
This works fine in the Linq setup, but when it hits the line with the .ToList(), which forces the evaluation, it blows up with "invalid column names" on FullName. Thinking that it might respect the Entity Framework DataAnnotations stuff for NotMapped, I tried adding a NotMapped attribute (after adding EF 5 to the project). This didn't work.
So, the question is, how do I tell Dapper.Net that a column isn't to be expected from the DB? Is this a problem with the extensions, trying to map a DB column for everything it sees in the model POCO? Do I need to revert to writing SQL, and explicitly ask for the columns that I want only, or is there a way to get an equivalent to NotMapped on the column?
I think the only way to to ignore certain properties from being mapped is to implement an auto class mapper, where you can specify your custom field mappings. For example:
public class CustomMapper : ClassMapper<Foo>
{
public CustomMapper()
{
Table("FooTable");
Map(f => f.Id).Column("FooId").Key(KeyType.Identity);
Map(f => f.DateOfBirth).Column("BirthDate");
Map(f => f.FirstName).Column("First");
Map(f => f.LastName).Column("Last");
Map(f => f.FullName).Ignore();
Map(f => f.Calculated).ReadOnly();
}
}
public class Foo
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public DateTime DateOfBirth { get; set; }
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
public string FullName
{
get { return string.Format("{0} {1}", FirstName, LastName); }
}
}
In the above example, FullName is being ignored.
The auto-mapper also allows you to adjust table names, in case your POCO class names do not match table names.
Also, keep in mind that you must keep your custom maps in the same assembly as your POCO classes. The library uses reflection to find custom maps and it only scans one assembly.
Hope this helps,
Good luck

RIA services how do I return a single column?

I have a autocompletebox that is used to select a destination for a car booking program. For the itemssource of the autocomplete box I am trying to set it to all the previous destinations entered. The problem is that I can't work out how to return a single column 'Destination' of distinct destination values from my Booking class, e.g.
var query = from bk in ObjectContext.Bookings select new DestinationDTO { Destination = bk.Destination };
return query.Distinct();
. I have tried creating a shared DestinationDTO class to return just the single column but can't work out how to get this to inherit from Entity!!
Any ideas?
You need to have a property with a [Key] attribute in your DestinationDTO class. Then RIA services will be able to generate a corresponding class on the client side.
public class DestinationDTO
{
[Key]
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Destination { get; set; }
}
Then just do this:
var query = from bk in ObjectContext.Bookings
select new DestinationDTO { Destination = bk.Destination, Id = Guid.NewGuid() };
return query.Distinct();

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