Check Lazy Load property has loaded in EF6 - entity-framework-6

I'm using class properties by reflection in some operations so when using DynamicProxy instance it causes to load entire DB. (700+ classes are related with each other).
Is it possible to check if lazy load property loaded or not? Disabling dynamic proxy generation (ProxyCreationEnabled = false) is not usable in my case.
Customer oCustomer = context.get(1);
if(oCustomer.Location.HasLoaded)
do smt..
public class Customer
{
public decimal? Id {get; set;}
public virtual CustomerLocation Location{get; set;}
}
public class CustomerLocation
{
public decimal? Id {get; set;}
public string Detail {get; set;}
}

Looks like you are seeking for DbReferenceEntry<TEntity, TProperty>.IsLoaded or DbReferenceEntry.IsLoaded property:
if (context.Entry(oCustomer).Reference(e => e.Location).IsLoaded)
or
if (context.Entry(oCustomer).Reference("Location").IsLoaded)
For collection type navigation properties, just use .Collection instead of .Reference.

Related

Should I inherit from a Model when creating a ViewModel

I want to create a ViewModel, which is almost identical to the underlying Model, but with 2 added attributes. As an example, I have a Model named Person and the ViewModel would then look like:
public class PersonVM : Person
{
public string Subscription {get; set;}
public int? OtherAttribute {get; set;}
}
Is this the most optimal scenario or should I not inherit, but include it in the class like this?
public class PersonVM
{
public Person Person {get; set;}
public string Subscription {get; set;}
public int? OtherAttribute {get; set;}
}
The advantage of inheritance would be maintainability and ease of coding. When calling an attribute in the first scenario would be direct e.g. PersonVM.LastName, while in the second scenario the same call would be longer and potentially confusing: PersonVM.Person.LastName. What should be the considerations when choosing between these alternatives?

Entity Framework using foreign key as only primary key in one to many

I am using Entity Framework code first to design the database.
I have 2 models with One to Many relationship. One "Foo" can have many "FooData" as follows -
public class Foo {
[Key]
public string serialNumber{get; set;}
public int someNumber {get; set;}
public string someName {get; set;}
// Many more properties
// Navigation Collection
public virtual ICollection<FooData> FooDatas{get; set;}
}
public class FooData{
[Key]
[ForeignKey("foo")]
public string SerialNum {get; set;}
public DateTime SomeTime {get; set;}
public byte[] SomeData {get; set;}
// Navigation property
public virtual Foo foo {get; set;}
}
When I try to add a controller for "Foo" in MVC, using "Foo" as a scaffolding model, it gives me this error - "Multiplicity is not valid in Role. Because the Dependent Role refers to the key properties, the upper bound of the multiplicity of the Dependent Role must be 1".
I would appreciate some help here.
Thank you
Because of how you have it defined the same key is used in both so it is a 1-to-1 relationship. If you want a real one to many you will need to add/create another field and set them up as a composite key on the FooData table/entity.
public class Foo {
[Key]
public string serialNumber{get; set;}
public virtual ICollection<FooData> FooDatas{get; set;}
}
public class FooData {
[Key, Column(Order = 0),ForeignKey("foo")]
public string SerialNum {get; set;}
[Key,Column(Order=1)]
public int DataId {get;set;}
public virtual Foo foo {get; set;}
}

Usage of entities and DTOs when performing read and create/update on a database

What is the proper usage of entities and DTOs when performing database actions? My mindset is that it seems best to use DTOs when reading from a database and entities when creating/updating to a database. As a small example let's consider teh following:
Book Class
public class Book/Entity
{
public int Id {get; set;}
public string Title {get; set;}
public int AuthorId {get; set;}
public Author Author {get; set;}
}
Author Class/Entity
public class Author
{
public int Id {get; set;}
public string Name {get; set;}
public int BookId {get; set;}
public Book Book {get; set;}
}
BookAuthorDto Class
public class BookAuthorDto
{
public string Title {get; set;}
public string Name {get; set;}
}
Now, let's say we have a WebApi Book controller.
public class BookController : ApiController
{
public IHttpActionResult GetBook(int id)
{
var BADto = context.Book.Where(book => book.ID == id)
.Select(book => new BookAuthorDto
{
Title = book.Title,
Name = book.Author.Name
});
return Ok<BookAuthorDto>(BADto);
}
public IHttpActionResult PostBookEntity(Book book)
{
// Code for saving book to DB
}
public IHttpActionResult PostBookDto(BookAuthorDto BADto)
{
// Code for creating entities from DTO
// Code for saving the created entities to Database
}
}
Which method is considered more "proper" the PostBookEntity method, or the PostBookDto Method?
Actually it is a good idea to separate queries from data modifications (insert, update, delete) - this is called Command Query Responsibility Segregation pattern (CQRS).
Here are some great posts from experts
An introduction to CQRS by M.Fowler
Some good reasoning on why Entities + Dto's are better than just using Entities for all cases
Entities pretty much are DTOs. Use the entity for all database access, and use view models in your actions.

Is there a design pattern to standardise the display of multiple models into a single view?

I've tinkered with derived classes, interfaces and viewmodels, but I haven't been able to create quite what I need.
Say we're building a CMS with the following models:
ArticleItem
Title
Summary
Content
NewsItem
Headline
PublishDate
Summary
Content
EventItem
EventTitle
StartDate
EndDate
Content
I'm looking for a way to standardise the display of these into one format / view (e.g. so we can display them all in the same RSS feed). The standardized view might be called HTMLItem and have 3 fields:
Title
Summary
Content
The ArticleItem would translate directly to the HTMLItem, that's straightforward.
For the NewsItem I would like to join the PublishDate and the first 100 characters of the content to create Summary field of HTMLItem.
For the EventItem I would like to combine the StartDate and EndDate to create the Summary field of HTMLItem.
Ultimately I'm looking for the easiest, most efficient way to be able to pass the 3 models into a single view that has been designed to display HTMLItem. My best shot so far has been to create a 'convertor' class for each model, but I can't help feeling that there is a better way to do this.
Any experience, expertise and advice would be much appreciated!
Make a ViewModel with the standarized properties and a constructor for each specialized class:
public class HtmlItemViewModel {
//Properties
public string Title {get; set;}
public string Summary {get; set;}
public string Content {get; set;}
//Constructor inside HtmlItemViewModel for each one of the specialized classes:
public HtmlItemViewModel(ArticleItem item)
{
this.Title = item.Title;
this.Summary = item.Summary;
this.Content = item.Content;
}
public HtmlItemViewModel(NewsItem item)
{
this.Title = item.Headline;
this.Summary = String.Format("{0} - {1}", item.PublishDate, item.Summary.Substring(0,1000));
this.Content = item.Content;
}
public HtmlItemViewModel(EventItem item)
{
this.Title = item.EventTitle;
this.Summary = String.Format("{0} - {1}", item.StartDate, item.EndDate);
this.Content = item.Content;
}
}
Then, on the method you use for your RSS Feed simply pass each entity to the constructor on each individual query. Like this:
//Example controller
public class RssController : Controller {
public ActionResult GetRssFeed(){
//Assuming you have a service for each item type
var articleList = ArticleService.GetArticles().Select(s => new HtmlItemViewModel(s));
var newsItemList = NewsItemService.GetNewsItems().Select(s => new HtmlItemViewModel(s));
var eventItemList = EventItemService.GetEvents().Select(s => new HtmlItemViewModel(s));
articleList.AddRange(newsItemList);
articleList.AddRange(eventItemList);
return articleList;
}
}
You can use Viewmodel Pattern in your project
Models and ViewModels are different. Don't confuse the ViewModel with
the MVVM pattern.
The use of a view model can make the interaction between model and
view more simple. A model can sometimes be over complicated having
other model objects as members, which could have model objects as
member etc..
By using a view model you have a good way to simplify what the view
deals with. This will also filter down what can be seen in
intellisense, so if you have different people developing the models
than those working on the views, creating a simple view model can make
it much easier for those just dealing with the UI.
The simple and most common solution to this is to create a composite view model class. This can be a composed class (containing references to your domain models), or a flattened class, referencing properties from each class individually.
So you could do this:
public class HtmlItemViewModel
{
public ArticleItem ArticleItem {get; set;}
public NewsItem NewsItem {get; set;}
public EventItem EventItem {get; set;}
}
Or this:
public class HtmlItemViewModel
{
//Article Item Properties
public string ArticleTitle {get; set;}
public string ArticleContent {get; set;}
public string ArticleSummary {get; set;}
//News Item Properties
public string Headline {get; set;}
public DateTime PublishDate {get; set;}
public string NewsItemSummary {get; set;}
public string NewsItemContent {get; set;}
//Event Item Properties
public string EventTitle {get; set;}
public DateTime StartDate {get; set;}
public DateTime EndDate {get; set;}
public string EventContent {get; set;}
}
Then, whichever way you choose to construct the view model, you will map the view model properties to the domain model(s) in the controller. You can do this mapping manually
HtmlItemViewModel.ArticleTitle = ArticleItem.ArticleTitle;
//and so on...
Or you can use a third party tool like AutoMapper
I tend to favor the flattened view model in most scenarios as it allows me to only send the data I need, no more, no less. And it also allows me to put my data annotations for input validation on the view model instead of the domain model.

ASP.NET MVC Field naming convention for nested objects

I am using ASP.NET MVC 1.0.
I am creating a view to Create a new object of the following class
public class ClassOne
{
public string Name {get; set;}
public string Id {get; set; }
public CaptionItem Caption {get; set;}
}
public class CaptionItem
{
public string CaptionSet {get; set;}
public string Text {get; set;}
}
The view will have fields to input Name, Id and the Text of the caption. On submitting the form the ClassOne object is sent to the controller which is supposed to persist the object in the database.
The question is; what should be the naming conventions used so that I can send the object to the controller as
public ActionResult SaveObject(ClassOne objectToSave)
The challenge is the Caption object
you're right, to get to Text field you have to type Caption.Text :)

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