how to get an unsaved entity on server but not for saving? - breeze

Question

i need to send my unsaved entity from the client to the server but not for saving changes
but inorder to do a process using the data on the entity and then change some of it's values and pass it back to the client
is this possible?
if not what are my options?
i tried to export the entity and then send it to a method on the webapi controller that gets a JObject but didn't find a way to deserialize it to the server entity

Answer 1

We did have a similar problem and found a solution as follows:
You need to take into consideration the way breeze manages it's objects.
1.Create custom saveBundle.
Consider complex order object.You need to fill your save bundle with each nested object inside order.
Like:
var saveBundle = new Array();
saveBundle.push(order.SaleAccountingInfo);
saveBundle.push(order.CostAccountingInfo);
saveBundle.push(order);
2.Create custom save options, where you can point to your custom Save Method on server
Like:
var so = new breeze.SaveOptions({ resourceName: "BookOrder" });
3.Call standard breeze function and pass it created params
manager.saveChanges(saveBundle, so).fail(function () {
// manager.rejectChanges();TODO check what needed
deferred.resolve(true);
});
On server you need to have you custom function ready and hook some breeze delegates
[HttpPost]
public SaveResult BookOrder(JObject orderBundle)
{
context.BeforeSaveEntityDelegate = OrderBeforeSaveEntity;
context.BeforeSaveEntitiesDelegate = SaveOrder;
context.AfterSaveEntitiesDelegate = BookOrderAfterSave;
try
{
return context.SaveChanges(orderBundle);
}
catch (Exception)
{
throw;
}
}
You can a lot of stuff in first two delegates but it is the last one you are looking for
private void BookOrderAfterSave(Dictionary<Type, List<EntityInfo>> orderSaveMap, List<KeyMapping> orderKeyMappings)
{
var orderEntity = orderSaveMap.Where(c => c.Key == typeof(BL.Orders.Order)).Select(d => d.Value).SingleOrDefault();
BL.Orders.Order order = (BL.Orders.Order)orderEntity[0].Entity; //your entity
//logic here
}
Hope it points to right direction.

Answer 2

we are doing something similar here. it'll save the entity so i'm not sure if this fits your question.
you can do:
entity.entityAspect.setModified()
then issue a saveChange()
then you can do your calculations on the server.
in our case we are using breeze.webapi so we are doing this in the beforeSave(entity) method.
breeze by design sends the changed entity then back to the client where the cache gets updated with your changes done on the server.