I have a scenario where I know the primary key of an entity (retrieved from an unrelated source), and I want to update just 1 property (db column). I have NOT already retrieved the entity from the database. If possible I would like to not have to make this extra round trip.
I create the entity using manager.createEntity.
I update one of the properties.
Then set the entityAspect to setModified();
When saving changes, all the properties that were not updated are set to their default values, and the generated SQL UPDATE statement attempts to update all mapped columns.
Is there a way to tell breeze to only generate SQL for specific properties/columns?
thanks
As you discovered, the properties of the originalValuesMap guide the Breeze server's ContextProvider as it prepares the save request. This is documented in the ContextProvider topic.
In your example, you call setModified after you've changed the property. All that does is change the EntityState; it doesn't create an entry in the client entity's entityAspect.originalValuesMap ... therefore the originalValuesMap sent to the server is empty.
I'm a little surprised that the EFContextProvider.SaveChanges prepared an EF update of the entire entity. I would have guessed that it simply ignored the entity all together. I'm making a mental note to investigate that myself. Not saying the behavior is "right" or "wrong".
You do not have to manipulate the originalValuesMap to achieve your goal. Just change the sequence. Try this:
var foo = manager.createEntity('Foo', {
id = targetId
}, breeze.EntityState.Unchanged); // create as if freshly queried
foo.bar = 'new value'; // also sets 'originalValues' and changes the EntityState
manager.saveChanges(); // etc.
Let us know if that does the trick.
Related
i would like to create new entities which use the default values defined in the model.
i've checked the retrieved metadata, and the default values are there:
{"name":"LastName","type":"Edm.String","maxLength":"50","unicode":"true","fixedLength":"false","defaultValue":"admin:
Nachname"},
however they are not taken into consideration when creating a new entity.
This is a bug in Breeze that should be fixed in the next release, out in about week. When this fix gets in then breeze will honor any defaultValues it finds in the EntityFramework data model.
One problem though is while it is easy to get 'defaultValues' into a Model First Entity Framework model via the properties editor, it's actually difficult to get it into a Code First EF model, unless you use fluent configuration. Unfortunately, EF ignores the [DefaultValue] attribute when constructing Code First model metadata.
One workaround that you can use now is to poke the 'defaultValue' directly onto any dataProperty. Something like:
var customerType = myEntityManager.metadataStore.getEntityType("Customer");
var fooProperty = customerType.getProperty("foo");
fooProperty.defaultValue = 123;
I'm sure I've created my own pain here, but I'm struggling to understand the correct sequence of events to manage creating new entities in my scenario.
In my model I have two objects, ObjectA and ObjectB that both inherit from BaseObject, obviously each with their own additional properties.
In my view, as most of the information is the same, I want the user to be able to just select an option as to which one to create. So they fill out SharedProperty1 and SharedProperty2 (which is a collection navigation property), select an option as to if they want an A or B object, and then fill in a final page which has the last object specific properties.
As I didn't know which entity to create until the user had selected this option, I built a an object in the viewmodel to handle this temporary data. As part of that while they are filling out SharedProperty2 (the collection), as they add new ChildObjects, I create them with entityManager.createEntity('ChildObject'). Then when they reach the end, I create either ObjectA or ObjectB entity and add the child entitites (and other properties) and then try and save.
The problem is it never saves correctly, but I get different results depending on which approach I take. So because the user could just abort the new object process, I was creating the ChildObjects with EntityState.Detached because I thought that would be easier if they got thrown away. I realised though that all the entities created in this way get the id key 0. So then I fixed the keys while I was adding the ChildEntites to the parent (either ObjectA or ObjectB), by assigning them decreasing negative numbers (ie: -1, -2, etc). This resulted in some crazy server-side behaviour with only some entities being saved to the db and complaints of conflicting foreign keys.
This also had a bad smell that I hadn't understood this correctly, and I'd made a mess of it. So now I tried just creating the entities normally (ie: without the Detached flag), and they all get their own unique keys (again breeze appears to follow -1, -2, etc), but now when I try to copy them from my temporary viewmodel collection to the parent object collection, I get the error that an entity with this key is already attached. So now I can't even build up the correct model to save.
I still think I've not understood quite correctly how to handle this, so some pointers would be deeply appreciated.
To head off what I suspect will be a question, why I didn't use RejectChanges to handle the entities being thrown away. Basically a user can add a ChildObject (object gets created by breeze entityManager, added to viewmodel collection, bound to UI), and then decide to just remove it again (currently just gets removed from viewmodel collection) before they save their data. If I used reject changes I would throw away other important entites. I think I'm now going to be a good boy and use the proper detach method if someone removes the ChildObject in the view.
If I understand your question correctly, you are trying to create some properties and then add them to a parent objects collection when saving. Correct me if I am wrong, but Breeze not only supports this, but does so very efficiently. Having come from .NET and C# it was very difficult for me to grasp how easy this can be, but this is what I would do if I were you -
var childA = ko.observable();
var childB = ko.observable();
childA(entityManager.createEntity('ChildObject')); // populate your children
childB(entityManager.createEntity('ChildObject')); // populate your children
Then you can edit them in your view, and when you are ready to save simply add them to the collection.
var save = function() {
isSaving(true);
var parent = ko.observable();
return entityManager.getParent(parent, parentId)
.then(setParents)
.fail(catchError);
function setParents() {
childA().parent(parent());
childB().parent(parent());
entityManager.saveChanges()
.then(complete)
.fail(catchError);
function complete() {
isSaving(false);
return Q.resolve(); // Don't know if you have any unresolved conflicts
}
}
};
Basically in this manner we are -
A : Creating the entities
B : Editing them without performing any changes
C : When we call save we are setting their parent navigation property. In my prior ways (be it right or wrong) I would have simply set ParentId(parentId) and let EF figure out how to navigate but (pardon the pun) this is a breeze with Breeze. We could also just as easily pass in a parent observable and not have to go get it from the manager, it just depends on whether we have it already or not.
Another way you could do this if you want to manage the entities separately is to save a single entity at a time with entityManager.saveChanges([childA]) as they are ready. Just pass in an array with a single entity that you want to save. This may be useful if you are working on multiple entities but they aren't all ready for saving and you need to navigate around your app. Unless you call cancelChanges() Breeze will just keep the entity in cache until you are ready to use it again. In this manner, just make a call for entities in the isAdded() state and you can pull 'em back in and edit again.
I can't find any info about this in the documentation, so I will ask here. How does breeze handle database column defaults? I have required columns in my database, but there are also default static values supplied for these in the database column definitions. Normally, I can insert null into these columns, and the new records will get the default. However, breeze doesn't seem to be aware of database column defaults, and the entities that have null in these columns fail validation on saving.
Thanks,
Mathias
Try editing the edmx xml by adding StoreGeneratedPattern = "Computed" attribute to the column with default value in the DB.
Edit:
Actually, before doing editing the xml, try setting the StoreGeneratedPattern property to Computed in the model editor itself.
Update:
This was fixed in Breeze 1.4.6 ( or later), available now.
Original Post:
There is currently in a bug in Breeze that should be fixed in the next release, out in about week. When this fix gets in then breeze will honor any defaultValues it finds in the EntityFramework data model.
One problem though is while it is easy to get 'defaultValues' into a Model First Entity Framework model via the properties editor, it's actually difficult to get it into a Code First EF model, unless you use fluent configuration. Unfortunately, EF ignores the [DefaultValue] attribute when constructing Code First model metadata.
One workaround that you can use now is to poke the 'defaultValue' directly onto any dataProperty. Something like:
var customerType = myEntityManager.metadataStore.getEntityType("Customer");
var fooProperty = customerType.getProperty("foo");
fooProperty.defaultValue = 123;
I'm using Entity Framework (DbContext with database first) with MVC. When user save from a form, I have a condition in the controller that send the entity to the update of insert method depending of some internal flag of mine.
When sending entity to the update method, I flag it to modified using context.Entry(myEntity).State = EntityState.Modified;, I call saveChanges() and everything work well.
When sending the entity to the insert method, I flag it to added using context.Entry(myEntity).State = EntityState.Added; but when calling saveChanges() I receive error about 2 fields that are required...
The problem is that thoses 2 fields are not empty and they effectively contain valid data just before saving... I have even try to force new values to thoses 2 fields just before saving but same error.
It may be usefull to mention that I'm using Devart DotConnect For PostgreSQL as db provider.
Any idea how to debug this problem?
EDIT:
Here is the error:
Validation failed for one or more entities. See 'EntityValidationErrors' property for more details.
When looking for this EntityValidationErrors I receive the 2 following specific errors:
The flg_actif field is required
The user_creation field is required
As mentionned before, those fields are filled with data just before saving so I don't understand what is happening.
I'm using EF v4.0.30319 (system.data.entity=> v4.0 and EntityFramework=> v4.4)
EDIT2:
Just to clarify a little bit more: The entity I'm trying to insert already exist in database. The form show the data of this database row. When saving, I decide if I update the row (this work well) but sometime, I need to insert the edited row as a new register instead of updating it to keep an history of the change in database.
Could you verify if the EntityKey property is set or null on the items you are trying to save?
If it already has a key, the context is already aware of the item, and you should use Attach instead of setting the state to added manually.
EDIT: To summarise the point from below. It looks like what you are doing is inserting a new copy of a row already associated with a context. That is almost certainly your problem. Try creating a fresh object based on your original row (i.e. copy the variable values or use a copy constructor), then add that new object.
Additionally, you should not need to set the state manually on a newly added object. You are trying to force the state here because the context doesn't see that item as a new one.
I'm using Entity Framework with an AS.NET MVC application. I need to allow the user to create new records and modify existing ones. I am able to fetch existing records no problem, but when I pass back in the edited entity and try to save it it creates a new one and saves it and leaves the original unmodified.
I am getting the object from EF using the primary key (e.g. ID number for an employee record). I successfully retrieve it, and set the MergeOption like so:
Context.Sector.MergeOption = MergeOption.NoTracking;
I am able to trace that the object has the correct data (using the key of the original record) all the way down to the point where I call:
Context.SaveChanges();
However, after that, the new record is created instead of modifying the existing one.
Is there something obvious I am missing here? I would have thought that retrieving the object and changing some of its values (not the ID) and saving it would just work, but obviously not.
Thanks,
Chris
"NoTracking means that the ObjectStateManager is bypassed and therefore every access to the Entity Objects results in a fetch from the database and the creation of new objects."
-- http://blog.dynatrace.com/2009/03/11/adonet-entity-framework-unexpected-behaviour-with-mergeoptions/
I don't think NoTracking is what you want.
From your comment: "distributed across various tiers and some proprietary libraries"
Are you new()ing up a ObjectContext, closing it or losing the reference to it, and then trying to save your object to a new() or different ObjectContext?
If so your losing all of your change tracking information. If this is the case then you want to call the Attach() method to reattach the entity to the context, ApplyPropertyChanges() and then finally SaveChanges().
Julie Lerman has a pretty good blog post that outlines all the different change tracking options and techniques that are available. You should also check out this MSDN article on the same subject.