Breeze with second controller - breeze

I need to get some data from a different database (different server, actually), so I've created a second datacontext pointing to a second Breeze controller, repository, and edmx. I also created second model and entityManagerFactory since data I'll need to be getting is substantial and wanted to separate it from the base functionality. In my new EntityManagerFactory, if I have:
breeze.NamingConvention.none.setAsDefault();
all works well, but I don't get camel casing. If I have:
breeze.NamingConvention.camelCase.setAsDefault();
or if I don't call it at all (since it's just setting the app-wide default which is already set) I get this error:
[myDatacontext] [HT Error] Error retrieving dataMetadata query failed for: breeze/Vsp/Metadata. Unable to either parse or import metadata: NamingConvention for this server property name does not roundtrip properly:name-->Name; [object Object]Error: Metadata query failed for: breeze/Vsp/Metadata. Unable to either parse or import metadata: NamingConvention for this server property name does not roundtrip properly:name-->Name; [object Object]
There's not even a "name" or "Name" property on class I'm getting.
What am I missing?
By the way, I do get the metadata from the server. The client just doesn't like it.

I suppose that since you've posted this you found a solution.
But I also had this problem, it is because I use Entity-Framework ADO .Net 6.0, it takes into account stored procedure, views or tables that are not camelcase, so you have to unselect them before generating the model / context.

Related

SqlEntityConnection configured with a local schema file

I want to use the SqlEntityConnection type provider in f# to query and update a db.
It works well when I use it with the connection string pointing to a live SQL Server DataBase.
type EntityConnection = SqlEntityConnection<"Data Source=myServer;Initial Catalog=myDb;...", Pluralize=true>
Now I want to get rid of the dependency with the live DB and, instead, use a local schema file. Given what I read on msdn, I gave a try to the following line:
type private EntityConnection = SqlEntityConnection<LocalSchemaFile="mySchemaFile.ssdl", Pluralize=true>
Unfortunately, it doesn't compile and the compiler's message is:
Error 46 The type provider 'Microsoft.FSharp.Data.TypeProviders.DesignTime.DataProviders' reported an error: When using this provider you must specify either a connection string or a connection string name. To specify a connection string, use SqlEntityConnection<"...connection string...">.
So what should I do? If I leave the connection string, I have the feeling that I don't really turn off the dependency to the DB. For instance, if I try to switch the Data Source with a non-existing server, it doesn't compile.
You can provide a connection string name, along with a connection string in the configuration file.
You can still provide a localschemafile that will be used to cache locally the schema.
If you put the schema file under source control, the connection string will only be used as a default when calling GetDataContext() without parameter, but not when building or editing code.
You also need to set the parameter ForceUpdate to False.

Breeze.JS for SharePoint 2013 error saving changes

The object extraMetadata is undefined and throwing an error on line 247 of breeze.labs.dataservice.sharepoint.js
rawEntity.__metadata = { 'type': aspect.extraMetadata.type };
I suspect it is because I have not defined the type found in __metadata object on my entity definitions for breeze. Any suggestions on how to define my type correctly would be very welcome! Here is my type definition for one of the objects.
models.Project = {
name: 'Project',
defaultResourceName: 'getbytitle(\'Projects\')/items',
dataProperties: {
ID: {
type: breeze.DataType.Int32
},
Title: {
nullable: false
},
StatusId: {
type: breeze.DataType.Int32,
nullable: false
},
SelectedApproverId: {
type: breeze.DataType.Int32,
nullable: false
},
Created: {
type: breeze.DataType.DateTime
},
Modified: {
type: breeze.DataType.DateTime
}
},
navigationProperties: {
Status: {
type: "Status",
foreignKeyNames: ['StatusId'],
hasMany: false
},
SelectedApprover: {
type: "User",
foreignKeyNames: ["SelectedApproverId"]
}
}
};
UPDATE: 11/11/2013
If I run the following query:
return breeze.EntityQuery
.from(metadataStore.getEntityType('Project').defaultResourceName)
.orderBy('Created desc')
.using(manager)
.execute()
.then(function (data) {
console.log(data.results);
return data.results;
});
the results are an array of simple JavaScript objects, not Breeze Entities, that lack an __metadata properties. I'm trying to figure out why this is the case.
Update: 11/12/2014
I have confirmed that this issue presents itself when I have multiple entities defined under navigationProperties.
Please be sure you are using BreezeJS v.1.4.12 or later.
To be clear, the code to which you refer is on line 147 (not 247) of the breeze.labs.dataservice.sharepoint.js file in my possession.
It's located within the _createChangeRequest where it is preparing to save a modified entity. I'll assume that you have queried a Product entity, made changes to it, and are saving it back when the error occurs.
I don't believe the problem will be traced to how you defined the metadata for your Product type.
You should NOT define a __metadata property for your type. The __metadata property is something we expect SharePoint (any OData source in fact) to add to the JSON entity data that it sends to the client when you query that OData source for entities.
__metadata wouldn't be defined for results returned by a projection but then your issue concerns a modified entity so I'm assuming that you acquired this entity through a normal query ... one that did not have a select clause.
I'd like to know if you see the __metadata property in the JSON payload of a query that retrieved the entity you were modifying. Please examine the network traffic from the query request. If you don't see it there, we have to find out why the server didn't send it.
Background
The __metadata property on the JSON node is a crucial part of the contract with the SharePoint OData server. That's how the Breeze client learns about the entity's type and its etag.
Look at the jsonResultsAdapter.visitNode and updateEntityNode methods. You'll see how the adapter uses __metadata to determine the EntityType for that data. You'll also see that the adapter moves the __metadata to the adapter result's extraMetadata property. BreezeJS subsequently moves that "extra metadata" from this result object to the entity's entityAspect.extraMetadata property.
Does this seem tortured? It is tortured. OData requires extra information to be carried around with the entity (specifically the etag) without which the server simply will not update or delete the entity. We have to squirrel that info away somewhere, out of your hair, and then bring it back when we make save requests to the server. We put it on the entityAspect in keeping with that property's role as the keeper of the "entity-ness" that has nothing to do with your object's business purpose and everything to do with how it is persisted.
So much for the why. Where is the bug?
The bug
The underlying bug is that this __metadata from the SharePoint OData source has disappeared. We don't know how it disappeared yet. But we're in big trouble without it.
The sharepoint adapter should give a better message when extraMetadata is missing. We actually look for that problem a few lines later; see adjustUpdateDeleteRequest:
var extraMetadata = aspect.extraMetadata;
if (!extraMetadata) {
throw new Error("Missing the extra metadata for an update/delete entity");
}
That test appears too late. I'll make a note to move the test up.
But such a fix will only cause the save to fail with a better message. It won't tell you how to fix it.
So let's work on finding where the __metadata disappeared ... starting with whether it ever arrived in the first place.
I await your report.
Update 17 July 2014
I'm still waiting to hear if you are seeing the __metadata property in the payload of the response to the original entity query.
Meanwhile, I checked the OData specs (plural) for references to the __metadata property. It appears that the __metadata property has always been optional. It follows that an OData provider need not send or honor the etag ... and we know that this is possible because Web API 2 OData didn't support etags ... a defect soon to be corrected.
See the OData v.2 spec where it describes JSON format. Search for the term "__metadata".
The OData v.3 spec also calls for the __metadata property in a JSON response (at least a JSON verbose response).
But ... heavy sigh ... it appears that the __metadata property is gone from the v.4 spec and that the metadata information is supplied entirely through JSON annotations. The DataJS library (used by many but not all BreezeJS OData adapters) may map those annotations into the node's __metadata property but I can't confirm it yet. We have some work to do coping with all of these variations.
In the meanwhile, I think all BreezeJS OData dataservice adapters should take a more defensive position regarding extra metadata and should simply ignore the omission rather than throw exceptions.
We'll make these defensive changes very soon.
Of course the server will reject your update or delete request if the OData service actually requires an etag or other metadata. I don't know what we can do about that just yet.
There hasn't been a post in a while but I am going to share what I found as the problem and how I resolved it for me (because it took me a long time).
Basically the breeze.labs.dataservice.sharepoint adapter has a function serverTypeNameToClientDefault() that expects the SharePoint custom list type as returned by REST/OData in the __metadata "type" field to be in the exact format of:
SP.Data.**mylistname**sListItem** (notice the "sListItem" suffix; ; Ex. SP.Data.CustomersListItem)
This function does a string regex to extract the Breeze entity name from the SharePoint type and uses that name to look up the entity in the metadata store ("Customer" in the above example). If there is no match, Breeze will not find your entity and will return a basic object instead of a Breeze entity. Therefore your REST JSON result returned from SharePoint, even though it does have the __metadata property is not converted into a Breeze entity that contains the property entityAspect.extraMetadata, among other things. This is what leads to the error "Unable to get property 'type' of undefined or null reference"
For my solution, since in my case I don't care as much what the URL of my custom lists are, I just made sure that when my custom list was provisioned by SharePoint that it resulted in a name according to what Breeze expects. You accomplish this by setting the Url attribute of the ListInstance element like this:
<ListInstance
Title="My Customers"
OnQuickLaunch="TRUE"
TemplateType="10000"
Url="Lists/Customers" <!-- List/Customer will not work -->
Description="My List Instance">
...
The better solution would be to make the serverTypeNameToClientDefault() function more robust or fix it to my needs locally but hopefully this can be addressed in a future version of the adapter.
Note that I have tested this solution with the following configurations (not all dependencies listed):
Breeze.Client 1.4.9 with Breeze.DataService.SharePoint 0.2.3
Breeze.Client 1.5.0 with Breeze.DataService.SharePoint 0.3.2
Also note that the 0.3.2 version of the adapter now displays a better error message when this happens as mentioned above -- "Missing the extra metadata for an update/delete entity"; but it doesn't fix the problem.
Hope this helps someone.
For breeze v1.4.14 and breeze labs sharepoint 2013 v0.2.3 i am using small fix in file breeze.labs.dataservice.sharepoint.js.
At the end of function
function visitNode(node, mappingContext, nodeContext)
just before
return result;
i just set property extraMetadata like this:
result.extraMetadata = node.__metadata;
This seems to fix problem when i try to save modified entity back to sharepoint.
Sorry folks for the long overdue aspect of this, but I got the bug with the extra "s" resolved today... FINALLY. You can track the issue here: https://github.com/andrewconnell/breeze.js.labs/issues/6
This all stemmed from a very incorrect assumption I made. It's been fixed in version 0.6.2 of the data service adapter for SharePoint. Note that you MUST use the same name for your entity when creating it in the metadata store as the list where the data is coming from.
I resolved my issue with multiple navigationProperties on an entity by editing line 319 of breeze.labs.dataservice.sharepoint.js v.0.10.0
I changed:
if (entityType._mappedPropertiesCount <= Object.keys(node).length - 1)
to:
if (entityType.dataProperties.length <= Object.keys(node).length - 1)
It looks like the _mappedPropertiesCount includes the navigationProperties count too. e.g. dataProperties.length + navigationProperties.length
The query node was then thought to not contain a full set of properties for the entity (it was assumed to be the result of a partial projection).
It therefore wasn't being treated as an entity, its metadata wasn't being set, and it ultimately wasn't being added to the cache.
It worked with only one navigationProperty as there were two extra items in Object.keys(node), __Metadata and ID. So it would still pass the test with one navigationProperty, but not two or more.

multiple deserialization of same object should or not create new instances?

In my scenario i've a MVC on iis serializing objects from entity framework where i've overridden GetHashCode and Equal methods since the Id of those objects is immutable once committed to the database.
i also have some client, who can't reach the database, but connect to iis to get those entities serialized via json and deserialize them locally using newtonsoft.json.
When i deserialize them in the clients for a second time, to refresh the data in them, i was expecting the existing instances to be updated automatically.
I'm expecting a little too much?
Should i write some clone method to copy properties and check a cache for existing ids?
Did i wrote something wrong in the Equal and GetHashCode methods?
For instance:
I've a blog entity with a title in the database
The client connect to iis
get a json string containing {"Id" : 1, "Name" : "blogName"}
deserialize it and store it locally
add post to the blog in the same way to an observable collection in the class blog i've used client side
Someone or something Change the blog name in the database
The client try to refresh
get the json string containing {"Id" : 1, "Name" : "newBlogName"}
deserialize it to a new instance of class blog, with same id
What's next? copy the new instance name to the old one, ore there's a better way?
Yes, you expect too much. You can attach new entity (because entity framework context doesn't know about this entity, because you get it from somewhere outside dbcontext) and then save it.
Answer here
//This place is where you can deserialize your entity
var existingBlog = new Blog { BlogId = 1, Name = "ADO.NET Blog" };
using (var context = new BloggingContext())
{
context.Blogs.Attach(existingBlog);
// Do some more work...
context.SaveChanges();
}
I think the best solution is to have two database one server side and one client side, with the same shared entity framework but different connection strings, json.net with the keep object reference setted and use the network only to sync the databases and then query it client side.

Breeze manage NODB EntityTypes with DB EntityTypes

i´m using the Papa's course CCJS code to investigate Breeze.js and SPA. Using this code i´m trying to manage aditional information that cames from server but that is not an Entity contained in the Metadata that cames from EntityFramework.
So i created a NO-DB class called Esto and a Server method like Lookups:
[HttpGet]
public object Informacion()
{
var a = new Esto(....);
var b = new Esto(.....);
var c = new Esto(......);
return new {a,b,c};
}
then in model.js inside configureMetadataStore i call:
metadataStore.addEntityType({
shortName: "Esto",
namespace:"CodeCamper",
dataProperties:{
id: {dataType: breeze.DataType.Int32,isPartOfKey: true},
name: {dataType: breeze.DataType.String}
}
};
and also define in the model entityNames array: esto:'Esto' as an Entity
now in the context.js i load this creating a server side method like getLookups but called getInformacion:
function getInformacion(){
return EntityQuery.from('Informacion')
.using(manager).execute()
}
and then inside primeData in the success method call this:
datacontext.informacion = {
esto: getLocal('Esto',nombre)};
where getLocal is:
function getLocal(resource, ordering)
{
var query = EntityQuery.from(resource).orderBy(ordering);
return manager.executeQueryLocally(query);
}
I get an error in the query contained in the getLocal that states that Can not find EntityType for either entityTypeName: 'undefined' or resourceName:'Esto'.
What i´m doing wrong?
Thanks
You were almost there! :-) Had you specified the target EntityType in the query I think it would have worked.
Try this:
var query = EntityQuery.from(resource).orderBy(ordering).toType('Esto');
The toType() method tells Breeze that the top-level objects returned by this query will be of type Esto.
Why?
Let's think about how Breeze interprets a query specification.
Notice that you began your query, as we usually do, by naming the resource which will supply the data. This resource is typically a path segment to a remote service endpoint, perhaps the name of a Web API controller method ... a method named "Foos".
It's critical to understand that the query resource name is rarely the same as the EntityType name! They may be similar - "Foos" (plural) is similar to the type name "Foo" (singular). But the resource name could be something else. It could be "GetFoos" or "GreatFoos" or anything at all. What matters is that the service method returns "Foo" entities.
Breeze needs a way to correlate the resource name with the EntityType name. Breeze doesn't know the correlation on its own. The toType() method is one way to tell Breeze about it.
Why do remote queries work without toType()?
You generally don't add toType() to your queries. Why now?
Most of the time [1], Breeze doesn't need to know the EntityType until after the data arrive from the server. When the JSON query results includes the type name (as they do when they come from a Breeze Web API controller for example), Breeze can map the arriving JSON data into entities without our help ... assuming that these type names are in metadata.
Local cache queries are different
When you query the cache ... say with executeQueryLocally ... Breeze must know which cached entity-set to search before it can query locally.
It "knows" if you specify the type with toType(). But if you omit toType(), Breeze has to make do with the query's resource name.
Breeze doesn't guess. Instead, it looks in an EntityType/ResourceName map for the entity-set that matches the query resource name.
The resource name refers to a service endpoint, not a cached entity-set. There is no entity-set named "Informacion", for example. So Breeze uses an EntityType/ResourceName map to find the entity type associated with the query resource name.
EntityType/ResourceName
The EntityType/ResourceName map is one of the items in the Breeze MetadataStore. You've probably never heard of it. That's good; you shouldn't have to think about it ... unless you do something unusual like define your own types.
The map of a new MetadataStore starts empty. Breeze populates it from server metadata if those metadata contain EntityType/Resource mappings.
For example, the Breeze EFContextProvider generates metadata with mappings derived from DbSet names. When you define a Foo class and exposed it from a DbContext as a DbSet named "Foos", the EFContextProvider metadata generator adds a mapping from the "Foos" resource name to the Foo entity type.
Controller developers tend to use DbSet names for method names. The conventional Breeze Web API controller "Foo" query method looks like this:
[Get]
public IQueryable<Foo> Foos() {...}
Now if you take a query such as this:
var query = EntityQuery.from('Foos').where(...);
and apply it to the cache
manager.query.executeLocally(query).then(...);
it just works.
Why? Because
"Foos" is the name of a DbSet on the server
The EFContextProvider generated metadata mapping ["Foos" to Model.Foo]
The Web API Controller offers a Foos action method.
The BreezeJS query specifies "Foos"
The executeLocally method finds the ["Foos"-to-Model.Foo] mapping in metadata and applies the query to the entity-set for Foo.
The end-to-end conventions work silently in your favor.
... until you mention a resource name that is not in the EntityType/ResourceName map!
Register the resource name
No problem!
You can add your own resource-to-entity-type mappings as follows:
var metadataStore = manager.metadataStore;
var typeName = 'some-type-name';
var entityType = metadataStore.getEntityType(typeName);
metadataStore.setEntityTypeForResourceName(resource, entityType);
Breeze is also happy with just the name of the type:
metadataStore.setEntityTypeForResourceName(resource, typeName);
In your case, somewhere near the top of your DataContext, you could write:
var metadataStore = manager.metadataStore;
// map two resource names to Esto
metadataStore.setEntityTypeForResourceName('Esto', 'Esto');
metadataStore.setEntityTypeForResourceName('Informacion', 'Esto');
Don't over-use toType()
The toType() method is a good short-cut solution when you need to map the top-level objects in the query result to an EntityType. You don't have to mess around with registering resource names.
However, you must remember to add toType() to every query that needs it. Configure Breeze metadata with the resource-to-entity-type mapping and you'll get the desired behavior every time.
Notes
[1] "Most of the time, Breeze doesn't need to know the EntityType until after the data arrive from the server." One important exception - out of scope for this discussion - is when the query filter involves a Date/Time.
I think that the problem here is that you are assuming that entity type names and resource names are the same thing. A resource name is what is used to execute a query
var q = EntityQuery.from(resourceName);
In your case the "resourceName" is "Informacion" and the entityType is actually "Esto". Breeze is able to make this connection on a remote query because it can examine the results returned from the server as a result of querying "Informacion" and seeing that they are actually "Esto" instances. This is not possible for a local query because Breeze doesn't know what local collection to start from.
In this case you need to give Breeze a little more information via the MetadataStore.setEntityTypeForResourceName method. Something like this:
var estoType = manager.metadataStore.getEntityType("Esto");
manager.metadataStore.setEntityTypeForResourceName("Informacion", estoType);
Note that this is not actually necessary if the resource was defined via Entity Framework metadata, because Breeze automatically associates all EF EntitySet names to resource names, but this information isn't available for DTO's.
Note also that a single entity type can have as many resourceNames as you like. Just make sure to register the resourceNames before you attempt a local query.

EF - generic "AddOrUpdate" method suddenly breaks

I am using Entity Framework 4 (database-first approach) in my ASP.NET 4.0 Webforms app.
What I'm basically doing is fetching the entity to be edited from my ObjectContext, and displaying the fields the user should enter data into (or modify existing data) on a web form.
When time comes to store the data back, I'm reading out the values from the web form, building up a new Entity instance, and then I have a generic method called AddOrUpdate that detects whether this is a new entity (so it needs to insert it), or if it's an existing one (so it needs to update the existing data).
My method using the EntityKey and checks to see if the object context already knows about this object - very similar to what Cesar de la Torre of Microsoft shows here in his blog post:
public static void AddOrUpdate(ObjectContext context, EntityObject objectDetached)
{
if (objectDetached.EntityState == EntityState.Detached)
{
object currentEntityInDb = null;
if (context.TryGetObjectByKey(objectDetached.EntityKey, out currentEntityInDb))
{
// attach and update the existing entity
}
else
{
// insert new entity into entity set
context.AddObject(objectDetached.EntityKey.EntitySetName, objectDetached);
}
}
}
This worked just fine - for the longest time. But today, suddenly, out of the blue, I keep getting exceptions like this on the context.TryGetObjectByKey statement:
System.InvalidOperationException: Object mapping could not be found for Type with identity 'MyEntityType'
I cannot remember having changed anything in this core code at all - and the entity type is defined, the ID value that's stored in the EntityKey does indeed exist in the database... everything should be fine - but it keeps failing on me...
What on earth happened here??
I did find a few blog and forum posts on the topic, but none could really enlighten me or help me fix the issue. I must have messed up something - bad - but I really cannot see the forest for the trees - any hints?
Generally this sort of issue happens when EF cant find the assembly that has the type. With out seeing the full exception is difficult to figure out exactly but it seems your recent changes and the way you are using EF seems to be the cause.
EF ususally picks the type directly from the type itself when it has to access it using ObjectSet on the context. In the other cases where the type is not available from the context of the call it looks at the calling assembly and any dll's referenced by the calling assembly. Id it cant find it it throws the error message.
You can use the LoadFromAssembly method in the MetadataWorkspace of the context.
ObjectContext.MetadataWorkspace.LoadFromAssembly(assembly).
This way EF will know where to look for your types.

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