Clean way to get related entities based on selection - entity-framework-4

I am using C# and EF 4. I have a Actor repository. The entity Actor has many to many relationship with Movie.
So in the ActorReposity i'd like to have a method example GetActors whose salary is greater than 100 and also in the results i would like to include the movies that this actor has been in whose director is Doe.(director is property on the movie)
the signiture of the method i have in the repository is IQueryable GetActors(). In this case i am just simpifying the signiture, After i get this to work then i can refactor to pass in parameters.

public class ActorRepository
{
public List<Actor> GetActors(int minimumSalary, string directorName)
{
return _ctx.Actors
.Include("Movies")
.Where(x => x.Salary > minimumSalary)
.Select(x => new
{
Actor = x,
Movies = x.Movies.Where(y => y.DirectorName == directorName)
})
.ToList()
.Select(x => new Actor
{
// copy scalar properties from anon to Actor, e.g:
ActorName = x.ActorName,
// then set the Movies navigational property to the filtered type
Movies = x.Movies
}).ToList()
}
}

Related

Trying to use Entity Framework method for multiple adds to database

I have an ASP.NET MVC app using Entity Framework from our SQL Server backend.
Goal is to create ~18 WPackage entries via a foreach loop:
foreach (var dbitem in dbCList)
The code works for a single WPackage entry, but we have a request from the customer to create 300+ WPackages, so trying to use the Entity Framework code for a single "Add" and loop to create 300+ adds.
The T-SQL would be very challenging as there are many keys created on the fly/at row creation, so for activities >> resources, we'd have to insert the activity, grab or remember the activity key, then add resources with that newly created activity key.
Each WPackage (this is the main parent table) could have one or more of the following child table entries:
1+ activities
each activity would have 1+ resource
1+ budgets
1+ Signatures
1+ CostCodes
Our schema or model diagram would be:
WPackage
--Activities
-----Resources (child of Activities)
--CostCodes
--Budgets
--Signatures
The following code fails on:
dbContextTransaction.Commit();
with an error:
The transaction operation cannot be performed because there are pending requests working on this transaction.
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Copy([Bind(Include = "ID,WBSID,...***fields excluded for brevity")] Package model)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
try
{
using (var dbContextTransaction = db.Database.BeginTransaction())
{
var dbCList = db.Packages.Join(db.WBS,
*expression omitted for brevity*)
// this dbClist will build about 18 items in the collection for below loop
foreach (var dbitem in dbCList)
{
int testWPID = dbitem;
WPackage prvWP = db.WPackages.Find(dbitem);
int previousWPID = dbitem;
WPackage previousWP = db.WPackages.Find(dbitem);
model.ID = dbitem;
db.WPackages.Add(model);
db.SaveChanges();
var budgets = db.Budgets.Where(i => i.WPID == previousWPID);
foreach (Budget budget in budgets)
{
budget.WPID = model.ID;
db.Budgets.Add(budget);
}
var costCodes = db.CostCodes.Where(i => i.WPID == previousWPID);
foreach (CostCode costCode in costCodes)
{
costCode.WPID = model.ID;
db.CostCodes.Add(costCode);
}
var activities = db.Activities.Where(i => i.WPID == previousWPID);
// *code excluded for brevity*
var previousActivityID = activity.ID;
db.Activities.Add(activity);
db.SaveChanges();
var resources = db.Resources.Where(i => i.ActivityID == previousActivityID);
foreach (Resource resource in resources)
{
resource.WPID = model.ID;
resource.ActivityID = activity.ID;
resource.ActivityNumber = activity.ActivityNumber;
db.Resources.Add(resource);
db.SaveChanges();
}
}
var signatures = db.RolesAndSigs
.Where(i => i.KeyId == previousWPID && i.Type == "WPL")
.OrderBy(i => i.Role)
.OrderBy(i => i.Person);
foreach (RolesAndSig signature in signatures)
{
db.RolesAndSigss.Add(signature);
}
db.SaveChanges();
dbContextTransaction.Commit();
}
}
}
}
I've also tried to have the Commit() run outside the foreach dbitem loop like:
db.SaveChanges();
//dbContextTransaction.Commit();
}
dbContextTransaction.Commit();
...but this returns error of:
[EXCEPTION] The property 'ID' is part of the object's key information and cannot be modified.
The code you posted has some issues that don't make sense, and probably aren't doing what you think they are doing. The crux of the issue you are facing is that Entity Framework tracks all references to entities it loads and associates:
Firstly this code:
int testWPID = dbitem;
WPackage prvWP = db.WPackages.Find(dbitem);
int previousWPID = dbitem;
WPackage previousWP = db.WPackages.Find(dbitem);
prvWP and previousWP will be pointing to the exact same reference, not two copies of the same entity. Be careful when updating either or any other reference retrieved or associated with that same ID. They all point to the same instance. If you do want a stand-alone snaphot reference you can use AsNoTracking().
Next, when you do something like this in a loop:
model.ID = dbitem;
db.WPackages.Add(model);
In the first iteration, "model" is not an entity. It is a deserialized block of data with the Type of the Package entity. As soon as you call .Add(model) that reference will now be pointing to a newly tracked entity reference. In the next loop you are telling EF to change that tracked entity reference's ID to a new value, and that is illegal.
What it looks like you want to do is create a copy of this model for each of the 18 expected iterations. For that what you want to do would be something more like:
foreach (var dbitem in dbCList)
{
var newModel = new WPackage
{
ID = dbItem,
WBSID = model.WBSID,
/// copy across all relevant fields from the passed in model.
};
db.WPackages.Add(newModel);
// ...
}
It would be quite worthwhile to leverage navigation properties for the related entities rather than using explicit joins and trying to scope everything in an explicit transaction with multiple SaveChanges() calls. EF can manage all of the FKs automatically rather than essentially using it as a wrapper for individual ADO CRUD operations.
You will need to be explicit between when you want to "clone" an object reference vs. "copy" a reference. For example, if I have a Customer that has an Address, and Addresses have a Country reference, when I clone a Customer, I will want to clone a new Address record for that Customer, however ensure that the Country reference is copied across. If I have a record for Jack at an 123 Apple Street, London in England, and go to clone Jack to make a record for Jill at the same address, they might be at the same location now, but not always, so I want them to point at different Address records in case Jill moves out. Still, there should only be one record for "England". (Jill may move to a different country, but her address record would just point at a different Country Id)
Wrong:
var jill = context.Customers.Single(c => c.Name == "Jack");
jill.Name = "Jill";
context.Customers.Add(jill);
This would attempt to rename Jack into Jill, then "Add" the already tracked instance, resulting in an exception.
Will work, but still Wrong:
var jack = context.Customers.AsNoTracking().Single(c => c.Name == "Jack");
var jill = jack;
jill.Name = "Jill";
context.Customers.Add(jill);
This would technically work by loading Jack as an untracked entity, and would save Jill as a new record with a new Id. However this is potentially very confusing. Depending on how the AddressId/Address is referenced we could end up with Jack and Jill referencing the same single Address record. Bad if you want Jack and Jill to have different addresses.
Right:
var jack = context.Customers
.Include(c => c.Address)
.ThenInclude(a => a.Country)
.Single(c => c.Name == "Jack");
var jill = new Customer
{
Name = "Jill",
// copy other fields...
Address = new Address
{
StreetNumber = jack.Address.StreetNumber,
StreetName = jack.Address.StreetName,
Country = jack.Address.Country
}
};
context.Customers.Add(jill);
The first detail is to ensure when we load Jack that we eager load all of the related details we will want to clone or copy references to. We then create a new instance for Jill, copying the values from Jack, including setting up a new Address record. The Country reference is copied across as there should only be ever a single record for "England".
Edit: For something like a roll-over scenario if you have a package by year, let's use the example of a Package class below:
public class Package
{
[Key]
public int PackageId { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("PackageType")]
public int PackageTypeId { get; set; }
public int Year { get; set; }
// .. More package related details and relationships...
public virtual PackageType PackageType { get; set; }
}
A goal might be to make a new Package and related data for Year 2022 from the data from 2021, and apply any changes from a view model passed in.
Find is a poor choice for this because Find wants to locate data by PK. If you're method simply passes an entity to be copied from (I.e. the data from 2021) then this can work, however if you have modified that data from 2021 to represent values you want for 2022 that could be dangerous or misleading within the code. (We don't want to update 2021's data, we want to create a new record set for 2022) To make a new Package for 2022 we just need the updated data to make up that new item, and a way to identify a source for what to use as a template. That identification could be the PK of the row to copy from (ProductId), or derived from the data passed in. (ProductTypeId, and Year-1) In both cases if we want to consider related data with the "copy from" product then it would be prudent to eager load that related data in one query rather than going back to the database repeatedly. Find cannot accommodate that.
For instance if I want to pass data to make a new product I pass a ProductTypeId, and a Year along with any values to use for the new structure. I can attempt to get a copy of the existing year to use as a template via:
var existingProduct = context.Products
.Include(x => x.Activities) // Eager load related data.
.Include(x => x.CostCodes)
// ...
.Single(x => x.ProductTypeId == productTypeId && x.Year = year - 1);
or if I passed a ProductId: (such as if I could choose to copy the data from a selected year like 2020 instead)
var existingProduct = context.Products
.Include(x => x.Activities)
.Include(x => x.CostCodes)
// ...
.Single(x => x.ProductId == copyFromProductId);
Both of these examples expect to find one, and only one existing product. If the request comes in with values that it cannot find a row for, there would be an exception which should be handled. This would fetch all of the existing product information that we can copy from, alongside any data that was passed into the method to create a new Product.

Using IQueryable<T> with LINQ join tables

I have a method of type IQueryable<T> and here is it's implementation:
public IQueryable<T> Get()
{
return db.Set<T>();
}
I must write LINQ query where I want to join two tables (left join). It is Identtiy table Users and my custom table PersonalInformation which extend User registration fields and now I want to call this method in my LINQ query and it is good. Here is my Linq:
IRepository<PersonalInformation> personRepository;
IRepository<ApplicationUser> usersRepository;
var query = personRepository.Get();
var test = usersRepository.Get()
.GroupJoin(query,
n => n.Id,
m => m.UserId,
(n, ms) => new { n, ms = ms.DefaultIfEmpty() })
.SelectMany(z => z.ms.Select(m => new PersonalInfoModel
{
Name = m.Name,
LastName = m.LastName,
Email = z.n.Email
}));
But I have an error in
var test = usersRepository.Get() - System.NotSupportedException. So method Get from personRepository called good but usersRepository method return null. Where I did the mistake?? Thanks
It looks likely that you are having an error combining queries from two different database contexts. Your custom PersonalInformation is probably in a custom DBContext while Users is in the IdentityDBContext. See this related question. You can either:
Move all of your tables into the same context.
Avoids future confusion between these tables
More efficient if you end up with lots of associations across contexts.
A more involved solution just to get this one example working.
Query your tables separately and combine in memory.
Less scalable if you have a huge number of users.
These operators will cause EF to return the results so you can process in memory.
var people = personRepository.Get().ToList();
var users = usersRepository.Get().ToList();
var infoModels = users.GroupJoin(people,
u => u.Id,
p => p.UserId,
(u, mp) => new { n, ms = ms.DefaultIfEmpty() })
.SelectMany(z => z.ms.Select(m => new PersonalInfoModel
{
Name = m.Name,
LastName = m.LastName,
Email = z.n.Email
}));

Neo4jClient : C# query to fetch collection with multiple columns

How one can fetch multiple columns data using neo4jClient -
For eq. the example shown on link
Cyper query to fetch multiple column collection
The sample shown above passes properties of event node for collection instead of complete event node.
The query I am constructing takes few properties from the event node and few properties from the relation.
For eq. The relation attribute "registerd_on" needs to be added.
So how to pass multiple properties for collection ?
It's not very nice, but if you look at what is returned by doing a collection you get an array of arrays, but these arrays don't have properties as such, so you can only really parse them as string.
Using the :play movies dataset as a base:
var query = gc.Cypher
.Match("(p:Person {name:'Tom Hanks'})-->(m:Movie)")
.With("p, collect([m.title, m.released]) as collection")
.Return((p, collection) => new
{
Person = p.As<Person>(),
Collection = Return.As<IEnumerable<IEnumerable<string>>>("collection")
});
where Person is :
public class Person
{
public string name { get; set; }
}
You can then access the data like so:
foreach (var result in results)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Person: {result.Person.name}");
foreach (var collection in result.Collection)
{
foreach (var item in collection)
{
Console.WriteLine($"\t{item}");
}
}
}
which is not nice :/

Getting a list of distinct entities projected into a new type with extra field for the count

I'm designing an interface where the user can join a publicaiton to a keyword, and when they do, I want to suggest other keywords that commonly occur in tandem with the selected keyword. The trick is getting the frequency of correlation alongside the properties of the suggested keywords.
The Keyword type (EF) has these fields:
int Id
string Text
string UrlString
...and a many-to-many relation to a Publications entity-set.
I'm almost there. With :
var overlappedKeywords =
selectedKeyword.Publications.SelectMany(p => p.Keywords).ToList();
Here I get something very useful: a flattened list of keywords, each duplicated in the list however many times it appears in tandem with selectedKeyword.
The remaining Challenge:
So I want to get a count of the number of times each keyword appears in this list, and project the distinct keyword entities onto a new type, called KeywordCounts, having the same fields as Keyword but with one extra field: int PublicationsCount, into which I will populate the count of each Keyword within overlappedKeywords. How can I do this??
So far I've tried 2 approaches:
var keywordCounts = overlappingKeywords
.Select(oc => new KeywordCount
{
KeywordId = oc.Id,
Text = oc.Text,
UrlString = oc.UrlString,
PublicationsCount = overlappingKeywords.Count(ok2 => ok2.Id == oc.Id)
})
.Distinct();
...PublicationsCount is getting populated correctly, but Distinct isn't working here. (must I create an EqualityComarer for this? Why doesn't the default EqualityComarer work?)
var keywordCounts = overlappingKeywords
.GroupBy(o => o.Id)
.Select(c => new KeywordCount
{
Id = ???
Text = ???
UrlString = ???
PublicationsCount = ???
})
I'm not very clear on GroupBy. I don't seem to have any access to 'o' in the Select, and c isn't comping up with any properties of Keyword
UPDATE
My first approach would work with a simple EqualityComparer passed into .Distinct() :
class KeywordEqualityComparer : IEqualityComparer<KeywordCount>
{
public bool Equals(KeywordCount k1, KeywordCount k2)
{
return k1.KeywordId== k2.KeywordId;
}
public int GetHashCode(KeywordCount k)
{
return k.KeywordId.GetHashCode();
}
}
...but Slauma's answer is preferable (and accepted) because it does not require this. I'm still stumped as to what the default EqualityComparer would be for an EF entity instance -- wouldn't it just compare based on primary ids, as I did above here?
You second try is the better approach. I think the complete code would be:
var keywordCounts = overlappingKeywords
.GroupBy(o => o.Id)
.Select(c => new KeywordCount
{
Id = c.Key,
Text = c.Select(x => x.Text).FirstOrDefault(),
UrlString = c.Select(x => x.UrlString).FirstOrDefault(),
PublicationsCount = c.Count()
})
.ToList();
This is LINQ to Objects, I guess, because there doesn't seem to be a EF context involved but an object overlappingKeywords, so the grouping happens in memory, not in the database.

Entity Framework - Programmatically add Includes to ObjectQuery

I have a Entity Framework model where I have a user which has the following relationships:
User 1-* Test
Each Test has the following relationships:
Test 1-1 Course
Test 1-* TestEvent
I have a service that returns a user and at different points in my application I want to eagerly fetch various relationships. I am fetching all the relationships at present:
var result = (from appUser in context.AppUsers.Include("Tests.Course")
.Include("Tests.TestEvents")
where appUser.Login.ToLower() == loginName.ToLower() &&
appUser.IsDeleted == false
select appUser).FirstOrDefault();
I do not want to always return the Course linked to a Test or the TestEvents. How can I build an ObjectQuery and dynamically add the Include statements as required rather than having a series of if else statements.
Well, since Include returns an IQueryable<T> (LINQ chainable), i would use a simple extension method:
public static IQueryable<T> WithIncludes<T>(this IQueryable<T> source, string[] associations)
{
var query = (ObjectQuery<T>)source;
foreach (var assoc in associations)
{
query = query.Include(assoc);
}
}
Then your query looks like this:
var inclusions = new[] { "Tests.Course", "Tests.TestEvents" };
var result = ctx.AppUsers
.WithIncludes(inclusions)
.Where(x => x.Login.ToLower() == loginName.ToLower())
.Where(x => !x.IsDeleted)
.FirstOrDefault();
To get some strong-typing into the otherwise magic-string nature of include, i have specialized enums for all associations, so i pass an [] of those through and convert the enum to the string include.
The thing is, your methods should define what inclusions are required. So first thing you do in the method is declare what associations are required, then pass that to your extension method.
Is that what your after?

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