Linq to Entities over WCF query help - silverlight

Im using WCF data services to get my data from a Silverlight application, and I have a query of which I dont know how to write.
I have 2 tables, Resources and UnavailableResources they join on Resource.id and UnavailableResources.resource_id
the UnavailableResources table holds a record of a day that a resource is not available, so it is assumed that if there is no record in the table for a given date, the resource is available.
I would like to do a query for a date range (i.e. a given week) where for each day, I get all resources (if they are available or not), and, if they are unavailable, then get the status code (inside the UnavailableResources table which joins to a status table)
How can I do this?

From what I understood from your question:
var svcContext = new ServiceContext(svcURI);
var LeftJoin = from res in svcContext.Resources
join un_res in svcContext.UnavaialableResources
on res.id equals un_res.resource_id into joinedResources
from res in joinedResources.DefaultIfEmpty()
select new
{
// Properties you need
Status = GetStatus(isAvailable,res.id)
};
You can do more joins on the LeftJoin query to get what you want.
Let me know if I got your question right.

Related

Query archaic DB with entity framework

I have inherited a very old DB and I'm just starting out with .NET Core 3 (preview) to see if I can create a proof-of-concept WebApi that uses EF Core to query the DB.
So my problem is that in this DB, much of the data is untrimmed (so has lots of white space around values). There's a mix of varchar(n) and char(n) fields. And no, I'm not in a position to re-engineer this.
So my challenge is that the WebApi will receive a query which will contain a List<People>, and I need to return all relevant data about those people.
If I were doing this in SQL I guess I would do something like:
SELECT *
FROM Table1
INNER JOIN Table2
ON RTRIM(LTRIM(Table1.[P1])) = RTRIM(LTRIM(Table2.[P9]))
I need to be able to do something similar using Entity Framework where I would join the DB table with the .NET List<People>. However, I'm a) not sure how best to go about this with the necessary trims and b) the number of rows in this DB is very large and so it has to be a set-based operation performed on the SQL Server - I can't bring everything back to the DB and join in-memory.
[EDIT (24th June)]
To add some examples of what I've tried, and to re-focus the question onto the approach I should be employing:
1 - I attempted this using a JOIN
var y = from a in query
join b in request.Items
on new { a.Prop1, a.Prop2 } equals new { b.Prop1, b.Prop2 }
select new { a.Prop1, a.Prop2, a.Prop3 };
return await y.ToListAsync().ConfigureAwait(false);
The compile error returned is:
The type of one of the expressions in the join clause is incorrect.
Type inference failed in the call to 'Join'.
Not sure why, but I suspect that this is because I'm trying to join strings to DB char fields.
Also tried:
var y = from a in query
from b in request.Items
where a.Prop1 == b.Prop1 && a.Prop2 == b.Prop2
select new {a.Prop1, a.Prop2, a.Prop3};
return await y.ToListAsync().ConfigureAwait(false);
This compiles, but gives run-time error:
System.InvalidOperationException: 'collection selector was not
NavigationExpansionExpression'
So, yes, I do need to be able to ensure that I'm trimming the data when doing the "join", but I think the main problem is that this needs to be a server-side operation (because of the size of the data sets) but I'd doing a join with a DB table against an in-memory List on the Client.
Not sure what the best approach is here (with EF Core 3).

Avoid multiple db calls to SQL Server

I have a list of n records and for each record id, I need to fetch a list of integers (partids) from the database.
Currently from the app, I have to loop n times passing the main id to fetch each list from db.
Obviously this is affecting the performance of the app (.NET Winforms app using vb.net).
Is there any way that I can avoid multiple calls?
Like can I send a list of ids n get my desired result as output?
Example
input : record1 having id 100
output: id 100, partid 1, 2, 3
Same for n rows
I don't know how.. any help please
If you share your query your using we'll be able to give you feedback. Assuming however you have a query like
SELECT PartId FROM tblParts WHERE CategoryId = 100
You can use
SELECT CategoryId, PartId FROM tblParts WHERE CategoryId in (100,101,102 etc)
to query the database and return the relevant records all at once. (or even omit the WHERE clause to return everything in the table).
Then in the local datatable that you get back you can use the method .Select("CategoryId=101") to execute a local query against your data and then process your data as normal.

How to use MS Sync Framework to filter client-specific data?

Let's say I've got a SQL 2008 database table with lots of records associated with two different customers, Customer A and Customer B.
I would like to build a fat client application that fetches all of the records that are specific to either Customer A or Customer B based on the credentials of the requesting user, then stores the fetched records in a temporary local table.
Thinking I might use the MS Sync Framework to accomplish this, I started reading about row filtering when I came across this little chestnut:
Do not rely on filtering for security.
The ability to filter data from the
server based on a client or user ID is
not a security feature. In other
words, this approach cannot be used to
prevent one client from reading data
that belongs to another client. This
type of filtering is useful only for
partitioning data and reducing the
amount of data that is brought down to
the client database.
So, is this telling me that the MS Sync Framework is only a good option when you want to replicate an entire table between point A and point B?
Doesn't that seem to be an extremely limiting characteristic of the framework? Or am I just interpreting this statement incorrectly? Or is there some other way to use the framework to achieve my purposes?
Ideas anyone?
Thanks!
No, it is only a security warning.
We use filtering extensively in our semi-connected app.
Here is some code to get you started:
//helper
void PrepareFilter(string tablename, string filter)
{
SyncAdapters.Remove(tablename);
var ab = new SqlSyncAdapterBuilder(this.Connection as SqlConnection);
ab.TableName = "dbo." + tablename;
ab.ChangeTrackingType = ChangeTrackingType.SqlServerChangeTracking;
ab.FilterClause = filter;
var cpar = new SqlParameter("#filterid", SqlDbType.UniqueIdentifier);
cpar.IsNullable = true;
cpar.Value = DBNull.Value;
ab.FilterParameters.Add(cpar);
var nsa = ab.ToSyncAdapter();
nsa.TableName = tablename;
SyncAdapters.Add(nsa);
}
// usage
void SetupFooBar()
{
var tablename = "FooBar";
var filter = "FooId IN (SELECT BarId FROM dbo.GetAllFooBars(#filterid))";
PrepareFilter(tablename, filter);
}

Adding a projection to an NHibernate criteria stops it from performing default entity selection

I'm writing an NHibernate criteria that selects data supporting paging. I'm using the COUNT(*) OVER() expression from SQL Server 2005(+) to get hold of the total number of available rows, as suggested by Ayende Rahien. I need that number to be able to calculate how many pages there are in total. The beauty of this solution is that I don't need to execute a second query to get hold of the row count.
However, I can't seem to manage to write a working criteria (Ayende only provides an HQL query).
Here's an SQL query that shows what I want and it works just fine. Note that I intentionally left out the actual paging logic to focus on the problem:
SELECT Items.*, COUNT(*) OVER() AS rowcount
FROM Items
Here's the HQL:
select
item, rowcount()
from
Item item
Note that the rowcount() function is registered in a custom NHibernate dialect and resolves to COUNT(*) OVER() in SQL.
A requirement is that the query is expressed using a criteria. Unfortunately, I don't know how to get it right:
var query = Session
.CreateCriteria<Item>("item")
.SetProjection(
Projections.SqlFunction("rowcount", NHibernateUtil.Int32));
Whenever I add a projection, NHibernate doesn't select item (like it would without a projection), just the rowcount() while I really need both. Also, I can't seem to project item as a whole, only it's properties and I really don't want to list all of them.
I hope someone has a solution to this. Thanks anyway.
I think it is not possible in Criteria, it has some limits.
You could get the id and load items in a subsequent query:
var query = Session
.CreateCriteria<Item>("item")
.SetProjection(Projections.ProjectionList()
.Add(Projections.SqlFunction("rowcount", NHibernateUtil.Int32))
.Add(Projections.Id()));
If you don't like it, use HQL, you can set the maximal number of results there too:
IList<Item> result = Session
.CreateQuery("select item, rowcount() from item where ..." )
.SetMaxResult(100)
.List<Item>();
Use CreateMultiCriteria.
You can execute 2 simple statements with only one hit to the DB that way.
I am wondering why using Criteria is a requirement. Can't you use session.CreateSQLQuery? If you really must do it in one query, I would have suggested pulling back the Item objects and the count, like:
select {item.*}, count(*) over()
from Item {item}
...this way you can get back Item objects from your query, along with the count. If you experience a problem with Hibernate's caching, you can also configure the query spaces (entity/table caches) associated with a native query so that stale query cache entries will be cleared automatically.
If I understand your question properly, I have a solution. I struggled quite a bit with this same problem.
Let me quickly describe the problem I had, to make sure we're on the same page. My problem came down to paging. I want to display 10 records in the UI, but I also want to know the total number of records that matched the filter criteria. I wanted to accomplish this using the NH criteria API, but when adding a projection for row count, my query no longer worked, and I wouldn't get any results (I don't remember the specific error, but it sounds like what you're getting).
Here's my solution (copy & paste from my current production code). Note that "SessionError" is the name of the business entity I'm retrieving paged data for, according to 3 filter criterion: IsDev, IsRead, and IsResolved.
ICriteria crit = CurrentSession.CreateCriteria(typeof (SessionError))
.Add(Restrictions.Eq("WebApp", this));
if (isDev.HasValue)
crit.Add(Restrictions.Eq("IsDev", isDev.Value));
if (isRead.HasValue)
crit.Add(Restrictions.Eq("IsRead", isRead.Value));
if (isResolved.HasValue)
crit.Add(Restrictions.Eq("IsResolved", isResolved.Value));
// Order by most recent
crit.AddOrder(Order.Desc("DateCreated"));
// Copy the ICriteria query to get a row count as well
ICriteria critCount = CriteriaTransformer.Clone(crit)
.SetProjection(Projections.RowCountInt64());
critCount.Orders.Clear();
// NOW add the paging vars to the original query
crit = crit
.SetMaxResults(pageSize)
.SetFirstResult(pageNum_oneBased * pageSize);
// Set up a multi criteria to get your data in a single trip to the database
IMultiCriteria multCrit = CurrentSession.CreateMultiCriteria()
.Add(crit)
.Add(critCount);
// Get the results
IList results = multCrit.List();
List<SessionError> sessionErrors = new List<SessionError>();
foreach (SessionError sessErr in ((IList)results[0]))
sessionErrors.Add(sessErr);
numResults = (long)((IList)results[1])[0];
So I create my base criteria, with optional restrictions. Then I CLONE it, and add a row count projection to the CLONED criteria. Note that I clone it before I add the paging restrictions. Then I set up an IMultiCriteria to contain the original and cloned ICriteria objects, and use the IMultiCriteria to execute both of them. Now I have my paged data from the original ICriteria (and I only dragged the data I need across the wire), and also a raw count of how many actual records matched my criteria (useful for display or creating paging links, or whatever). This strategy has worked well for me. I hope this is helpful.
I would suggest investigating custom result transformer by calling SetResultTransformer() on your session.
Create a formula property in the class mapping:
<property name="TotalRecords" formula="count(*) over()" type="Int32" not-null="true"/>;
IList<...> result = criteria.SetFirstResult(skip).SetMaxResults(take).List<...>();
totalRecords = (result != null && result.Count > 0) ? result[0].TotalRecords : 0;
return result;

Hitting the 2100 parameter limit (SQL Server) when using Contains()

from f in CUSTOMERS
where depts.Contains(f.DEPT_ID)
select f.NAME
depts is a list (IEnumerable<int>) of department ids
This query works fine until you pass a large list (say around 3000 dept ids) .. then I get this error:
The incoming tabular data stream (TDS) remote procedure call (RPC) protocol stream is incorrect. Too many parameters were provided in this RPC request. The maximum is 2100.
I changed my query to:
var dept_ids = string.Join(" ", depts.ToStringArray());
from f in CUSTOMERS
where dept_ids.IndexOf(Convert.ToString(f.DEPT_id)) != -1
select f.NAME
using IndexOf() fixed the error but made the query slow. Is there any other way to solve this? thanks so much.
My solution (Guids is a list of ids you would like to filter by):
List<MyTestEntity> result = new List<MyTestEntity>();
for(int i = 0; i < Math.Ceiling((double)Guids.Count / 2000); i++)
{
var nextGuids = Guids.Skip(i * 2000).Take(2000);
result.AddRange(db.Tests.Where(x => nextGuids.Contains(x.Id)));
}
this.DataContext = result;
Why not write the query in sql and attach your entity?
It's been awhile since I worked in Linq, but here goes:
IQuery q = Session.CreateQuery(#"
select *
from customerTable f
where f.DEPT_id in (" + string.Join(",", depts.ToStringArray()) + ")");
q.AttachEntity(CUSTOMER);
Of course, you will need to protect against injection, but that shouldn't be too hard.
You will want to check out the LINQKit project since within there somewhere is a technique for batching up such statements to solve this issue. I believe the idea is to use the PredicateBuilder to break the local collection into smaller chuncks but I haven't reviewed the solution in detail because I've instead been looking for a more natural way to handle this.
Unfortunately it appears from Microsoft's response to my suggestion to fix this behavior that there are no plans set to have this addressed for .NET Framework 4.0 or even subsequent service packs.
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=475984
UPDATE:
I've opened up some discussion regarding whether this was going to be fixed for LINQ to SQL or the ADO.NET Entity Framework on the MSDN forums. Please see these posts for more information regarding these topics and to see the temporary workaround that I've come up with using XML and a SQL UDF.
I had similar problem, and I got two ways to fix it.
Intersect method
join on IDs
To get values that are NOT in list, I used Except method OR left join.
Update
EntityFramework 6.2 runs the following query successfully:
var employeeIDs = Enumerable.Range(3, 5000);
var orders =
from order in Orders
where employeeIDs.Contains((int)order.EmployeeID)
select order;
Your post was from a while ago, but perhaps someone will benefit from this. Entity Framework does a lot of query caching, every time you send in a different parameter count, that gets added to the cache. Using a "Contains" call will cause SQL to generate a clause like "WHERE x IN (#p1, #p2.... #pn)", and bloat the EF cache.
Recently I looked for a new way to handle this, and I found that you can create an entire table of data as a parameter. Here's how to do it:
First, you'll need to create a custom table type, so run this in SQL Server (in my case I called the custom type "TableId"):
CREATE TYPE [dbo].[TableId] AS TABLE(
Id[int] PRIMARY KEY
)
Then, in C#, you can create a DataTable and load it into a structured parameter that matches the type. You can add as many data rows as you want:
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
dt.Columns.Add("id", typeof(int));
This is an arbitrary list of IDs to search on. You can make the list as large as you want:
dt.Rows.Add(24262);
dt.Rows.Add(24267);
dt.Rows.Add(24264);
Create an SqlParameter using the custom table type and your data table:
SqlParameter tableParameter = new SqlParameter("#id", SqlDbType.Structured);
tableParameter.TypeName = "dbo.TableId";
tableParameter.Value = dt;
Then you can call a bit of SQL from your context that joins your existing table to the values from your table parameter. This will give you all records that match your ID list:
var items = context.Dailies.FromSqlRaw<Dailies>("SELECT * FROM dbo.Dailies d INNER JOIN #id id ON d.Daily_ID = id.id", tableParameter).AsNoTracking().ToList();
You could always partition your list of depts into smaller sets before you pass them as parameters to the IN statement generated by Linq. See here:
Divide a large IEnumerable into smaller IEnumerable of a fix amount of item

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