Update only the changed values on Entity object - asp.net-mvc

how can i automatically update my entity objects changed values and save them to db.
I hava an Action like that
public ActionResult Update()
{
User userToUpdate = new User();
TryUpdateModel<User>(userToUpdate,ValueProvider);
BaseRepository.Context.AttachTo("User",userToUpdate);
BaseRepository.Context.SaveChanges();
return Json("");
}
ValuProvider : has the items that come
from the client as post data.
The problem on this code is the code update all the values but i want to update only the changed values.
How can i find the changed values on my entity object.

You should check out the ObjectContext.ApplyPropertyChanges Method
it is suppose to do what your asking for...
msdn

Two options:
On the View you could know the values that were changed by using Javascript and then you could pass that information to your controller.
You could simply compare the previous values (which you already have since you populated a view) and check each value before updating the DB.
I prefer last option, since at this point you could also check for data validation.

This is really a problem for your data access code, not anything to do with your controller. Pick an ORM that handles this for you and forget about the problem.

Related

Modify entity without tracking it

I have a method named GetAll() in service class which returns entities from entity framework. The method is as follows:
public ActionResult List()
{
var tasklogs = _timeLogService.GetAll()
.Select(l=>{
l.StartTime.Value.AddHours(1);
return l;
});
return PartialView(tasklogs);
}
I want to show data in the view modified as per some logic, in this example, I add one hour to the original date.
The issue is, if I refresh the page, I see the hours increasing for each page refresh i.e GetAll() method returns the last modified value, all though its not the same in database, i.e. I don't save date modification in database but GetAll returns modified dates.
I read somewhere that for this to work I need to detach entities.
So, my question is, is there a better way to do it in service layer, as I have to do it in many places. The root causue of modifying date is I save dates in UTC in db, but when I display it in views, I convert it to local timezone in controller actions.
I hope I made it clear.
Thanks
As written in my comment, issue is resolved after I changed DbContext instance creation to per request.

Best way to have a single Entity using Magicalrecord

I'm looking for the best solution to implement this behavior:
I have an Entity called Customer and this will have only a single entry on Core Data, because the Customer will be only ONE.
What's the best solution to implement this? Is everytime check if the Entity exists before creating?
Many thanks
As mentioned, you can use for single object [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults].
But if you prefer use CoreData, write this:
Customer* customer = [Customer MR_findFirst];
if (customer != nil)
{
//do something with it
} else
{
[Customer MR_importFromObject:JSONToImport];
}
BDW:
MR_importFromObject method automatically check if exists entity with specific id (for id key it use attribute of your entity name plus "ID". (in your case "customerID") or key that named "mappedKeyName".
And if entity with this key already exist - Magical Record just update this entity.
So, if you specify this value it in your entity, just write:
[Customer MR_importFromObject:JSONToImport];
If there's only a single instance, the best solution is usually to not put it in Core Data. It gives you very little, and adds complexities like the one you're seeing. Save the necessary information in a property list, or even in user defaults.
Checking the entity exists before creating a new one is a good idea.
You can fetch all entities of your customer entity type and delete them all before adding a new one is another method.
You could also have a simple method that gets the current customer or creates one and then update all it's properties.
It sort of depends on how you get the data and what you want to happen with the related objects.

Hydrating Database

I am new to learning and understanding how Hydration works, just wanted to point that out first. I'm currently able to Hydrate Select and Insert queries without any problems.
I am currently stuck on trying to Hydrate Update queries now. In my entity I have setup the get/set options for each type of column in my database. I've found that the ObjectProperty() Hydrator works best for my situation too.
However whenever I try to update only a set number of columns and extract via the hydrator I am getting errors because all the other options are not set and are returning null values. I do not need to update everything for a particular row, just a few columns.
For example in my DB Table I may have:
name
phone_number
email_address
But I only need to update the phone_number.
$entity_passport = $this->getEntityPassport();
$entity_passport->setPrimaryPhone('5551239876');
$this->getTablePassport()->update($this->getHydrator()->extract($entity_passport), array(
'employeeid' => '1'
));
This returns an error because setName() and setEmailAddress() are not included in this update and the query returns that the values cannot be null. But clearly when you look at the DB Table, there is data already there. The data that is there does not need to be changed either, only in this example does the PrimaryPhone() number.
I've been looking and reading documentation all over the place but I cannot find anything that would explain what I am doing wrong. I should note that I am only using Zend\Db (Not Doctrine).
I'm assuming I've missed something someplace due to my lack of knowledge with this new feature I'm trying to understand.
Perhaps you don't Hydrate Update queries... I'm sort of lost / confused. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
I think you're having a fundamental misconception of hydration. A hydrator simply populates an entity object from data (hydrate) and extracts data from an entity object (extract). So there are no separate hydrators for different types of queries.
In your update example you should first retrieve the complete entity object ($entity_passport) and then pass it to the TableGateway's update method. You would retrieve the entity by employeeid, since that's the condition you're using to update. So something like this:
$entity_passport = $passportMapper->findByEmployeeId(1);
$entity_passport->setPrimaryPhone('5551239876');
$this->getTablePassport()->update($this->getHydrator()->extract($entity_passport), array(
'employeeid' => $entity_passport->getId()
));
This is assuming you have some sort of mapper layer. Otherwise you could use your passport TableGateway (I assume that's what getTablePassport() returns, no?).
Otherwise, if you think retrieving the object is too much overhead and you just want to run the query you could use just a \Zend\Db\Sql\Sql object, ie:
$sql = new \Zend\Db\Sql\Sql($dbAdapter);
$update = $sql->update('passport')
->set(array('primary_phone' => $entity_passport->getPrimaryPhone()))
->where(array('employeeid' => $employeeId));
Edit:
Maybe it was a mistake to bring up the mapper, because it may cause more confusion. You could simply use your TableGateway to retrieve the entity object and then hydrate the returned row:
$rows = $this->getTablePassport()->select(array('employeeid' => 1));
$entity_passport = $this->getHydrator($rows->current());
[...]
Edit 2:
I checked your gist and I noticed a few things, so here we go:
I see that your getTablePassport indeed does return an object which is a subclass of TableGateway. You have already set up this class for it to use a HydratingResultset. This means you don't need to do any manual hydrating when retrieving objects using the gateway.
You also already implemented a Search method in that same class, so why not just use that? However I would change that method, because right now you're using LIKE for every single column. Not only is it very inefficient, but it will also give you wrong results, for example on the id column.
If you were to fix that method then you can simply call it in the Service object:
$this->getTablePassport->Search(array('employeeid' => 1));
Otherwise you could just implement a separate method in that tablegateway class, such as
public function findByEmployeeId($employeeId)
{
return $tableGateway->select(array('employeeid' => $employeeId));
}
This should already return an array of entities (or one in this specific case). P.S. make sure to debug and check what is actually being returned when you retrieve the entity. So print_r the entity you get back from the PassportTable before trying the update. You first have to make sure the retrieval code works well.

Hydrate related objects

I am looking for a simple way to hydrate a related object. A Note belongs to a Document and only owners of a Document can add Notes so when a user tries to edit a Note, I need to hydrate the related Document in order to find out if the user has access to it. In my Service layer I have the following:
public void editNote(Note note)
{
// Get the associated Document object (required for validation) and validate.
int docID = noteRepository.Find(note.NoteID).DocumentID;
note.Document = documentRepository.Find(docID);
IDictionary<string, string> errors = note.validate();
if (errors.Count > 0)
{
throw new ValidationException(errors);
}
// Update Repository and save.
noteRepository.InsertOrUpdate(note);
noteRepository.Save();
}
Trouble is, noteRepository.InsertOrUpdate(note) throws an exception with "An object with the same key already exists in the ObjectStateManager." when the repository sets EntityState.Modified. So a number of questions arise:
Am I approaching this correctly and if so, how do I get around the exception?
Currently, the controller edit action takes in a NoteCreateEditViewModel. Now this does have a DocumentID field as this is required when creating a new Note as we need to know which Document to attach it to. But for edit, I cannot use it as a malicious user could provide a DocumentID to which they do have access and thus edit a Note they don't own. So should there be seperate viewmodels for create and edit or can I just exclude the DocumentID somehow on edit? Or is there a better way to go about viewmodels such that an ID is not required?
Is there a better way to approach this? I have read that I should just have a Document repository as an aggregate and lose the Note repository but am not sure if/how this helps.
I asked a similar question related to this but it wasn't very clear so hoping this version will allow someone to understand and thus point me in the right direction.
EDIT
Based on the information provided by Ladislav Mrnka and the answer detailed here: An object with the same key already exists in the ObjectStateManager. The ObjectStateManager cannot track multiple objects with the same key, it seems that my repository method need to be like the following:
public void InsertOrUpdate(Note note)
{
if (note.NoteID == default(int)) {
// New entity
context.Notes.Add(note);
} else {
// Existing entity
//context.Entry(note).State = EntityState.Modified;
context.Entry(oldNote).CurrentValues.SetValues(note);
}
}
But how do I get the oldNote from the context? I could call context.Entry(Find(note.NoteID)).CurrentValues.SetValues(note) but am I introducing potential problems here?
Am I approaching this correctly and if so, how do I get around the exception?
I guess this part of your code loads the whole Node from the database to find DocumentID:
int docID = noteRepository.Find(note.NoteID).DocumentID;
In such case your InsertOrUpdate cannot take your node and attach it to context with Modified state because you already have note with the same key in the context. Common solution is to use this:
objectContext.NoteSet.ApplyCurrentValues(note);
objectContext.SaveChanges();
But for edit, I cannot use it as a malicious user could provide a DocumentID to which they do have access and thus edit a Note they don't own.
In such case you must add some security. You can add any data into hidden fields in your page but those data which mustn't be changed by the client must contain some additional security. For example second hidden field with either signature computed on server or hash of salted value computed on server. When the data return in the next request to the server, it must recompute and compare signature / hash with same salt and validate that the passed value and computed value are same. Sure the client mustn't know the secret you are using to compute signature or salt used in hash.
I have read that I should just have a Document repository as an aggregate and lose the Note repository but am not sure if/how this helps.
This is cleaner way to use repositories but it will not help you with your particular error because you will still need Note and DocumentId.

Saving a symfony checkbox list

If you create a checkbox list in symfony 1.2 you get an array with the checked options back in the form. If you save the form, your database now contains the words "Array". Is there a way around this? Or should I just json_encode / json_decode the array as ncecessary and save it manually? Seems awfully tedious.
Thanks for reading.
You can use serialize() and unserialize() functions when saving and getting data.
I don't know which orm using but i can explain with propel way.
For example you have post table and Post class. And post table has options column with text or varchar data type.
in Post.class.php your model directory you can define two override methods
setOptions($v)
{
parent::setOptions(serialize($v));
}
getOptions()
{
return unserialize($this->options);
}
Just like that.
In your view or action you can get all options with $post->getOptions() and you have an Array that contains all option related to your database record.

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