PagedList in MVC3 with IQueryable - asp.net-mvc

Question

I can't understand what i'm doing wrong. Every time I'm getting this error:
The entity or complex type 'BusinessLogic.CompanyWithDivisionCount' cannot be constructed in a LINQ to Entities query.
I need to get info from 'Company' table and divisions count of each company from 'Division' table, and then make PagedList. Here is my 'Company' table:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using BusinessLogic.Services;
using BusinessLogic.Models.ValidationAttributes;
namespace BusinessLogic.Models
{
public class Company
{
public Company()
{
Country = "US";
Status = true;
}
public int Id { get; set; }
[Required]
[UniqueCompanyName]
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Street { get; set; }
public string City { get; set; }
public string State { get; set; }
public int Zip { get; set; }
public string Country { get; set; }
public string ContactInfo { get; set; }
[Required]
public DateTime EffectiveDate { get; set; }
public DateTime TerminationDate { get; set; }
public bool Status { get; set; }
[Required]
public string URL { get; set; }
public string EAP { get; set; }
public string EAPCredentials { get; set; }
public string BrandingColors { get; set; }
public string Comments { get; set; }
}
}
Here is my domain model:
public class Company
{
public Company()
{
Country = "US";
Status = true;
}
public int Id { get; set; }
[Required]
[UniqueCompanyName]
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Street { get; set; }
public string City { get; set; }
public string State { get; set; }
public int Zip { get; set; }
public string Country { get; set; }
public string ContactInfo { get; set; }
[Required]
public DateTime EffectiveDate { get; set; }
public DateTime TerminationDate { get; set; }
public bool Status { get; set; }
[Required]
public string URL { get; set; }
public string EAP { get; set; }
public string EAPCredentials { get; set; }
public string BrandingColors { get; set; }
public string Comments { get; set; }
}
public class CompanyWithDivisionCount: Company // I'm using this
{
public int DivisionCount { get; set; }
}
Here is my controller:
public ActionResult CompaniesList(int? page)
{
var pageNumber = page ?? 1;
var companies = companyService.GetCompaniesWithDivisionsCount2();
var model = companies.ToPagedList(pageNumber, PageSize);
return View(model);
}
And here is my service part:
public IQueryable<CompanyWithDivisionCount> GetCompaniesWithDivisionsCount2()
{
return (from c in dataContext.Companies.AsQueryable()
select new CompanyWithDivisionCount
{
Id = c.Id,
Name = c.Name,
Status = c.Status,
EffectiveDate = c.EffectiveDate,
URL = c.URL,
EAP = c.EAP,
EAPCredentials = c.EAPCredentials,
Comments = c.Comments,
DivisionCount = (int)dataContext.Divisions.Where(b => b.CompanyName == c.Name).Count()
});
}
}
Thanks for help!!!

Answer 1

Creator of PagedList here. This has nothing to do with PagedList, but rather is an Entity Framework issue (I'm no expert on Entity Framework, so can't help you there). To confirm that this is true, write a unit test along the following lines:
[Test]
public void ShouldNotThrowAnException()
{
//arrange
var companies = companyService.GetCompaniesWithDivisionsCount2();
//act
var result = companies.ToList();
//assert
//if this line is reached, we win! no exception on call to .ToList()
}

Answer 2

I would consider changing you data model if possible so that instead of relating Companies to Divisions by name strings, instead use a properly maintained foreign key relationship between the two objects (Divisions should contain a CompanyID foreign key). This has a number of benefits (including performance and data integrity) and will almost certainly make your life easier moving forward if you need to make further changes to you app (or if any company ever decides that it may re-brand it's name).
If you create a proper foreign key relationship then your domain model could look like
public class Company
{
...
public virtual ICollection<Division> Divisions{ get; set; }
public int DivisionCount
{
get
{
return this.Divisions.Count()
}
}
...
}