Many - Many Associations in Entity Framework

[jparis]

Hi, I'm posting here just because a lot of people here and the Devart team have been really helpful. I don't know or think this is really a Devart specific issue, but I'm curious if anyone here could help anyway? If this is totally out of line, let me know, and I can delete the post.

I have the following models:

Code: Select all

public abstract class IDObject
{
    [Key]
    public Guid ID { get; set; }
}

public class TV : IDObject
{
    public TV()
    {
        this.Channels = new List<Channel>();
    }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public virtual IList<Channel> Channels { get; set; } 
}

public class Channel : IDObject
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Number { get; set; }
    [Navigational]
    public virtual IList<TV> TVs { get; set; }  
}

TVs and Channels are a many-many relationship

Now basically I want to be able to add a TV and a Channel to the database, dispose the context, have the TV reference the channel that has previously been added, then update the database entity.

Something like:

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TV someTV = new TV() { ID = Guid.NewGuid(), Name = "myBigTV" };
Channel chan1 = new Channel() { ID = Guid.NewGuid(), Name = "CBC", Number = 3};

using (ReferenceContext context = new ReferenceContext())
{
    context.TVs.Add(someTV);
    context.Channels.Add(chan1);
    context.SaveChanges();
}

someTV.Name = "myBigTV updated";
someTV.Channels.Add(chan1);

using (ReferenceContext context = new ReferenceContext())
{
    context.TVs.Attach(someTV);
    context.Entry(someTV).State = EntityState.Modified;
    *** some code here ***
    context.SaveChanges();
}

When I do this, my someTV entity is updated, but it still has no refs to Channels when I do a 'find' call in the db.

Now I've tried .Load() on the DbCollectionEntry for Channels. I've tried removing all refs to channels from someTV in the context, then re-adding them. I've tried changing the EntityState on the channels I've referenced from someTV to Modified... and it seems like nothing works.

I'm using code first and the Database is creating the following tables for me:
Channels
ChannelTVs
TVs

Channels and TVs both look fine, but my join table 'ChannelTVs' is always empty regardless of what I do.

Question one: What is the standard way to update associations in this scenario. I don't need to necessarily update the Channels themselves, just basically add/remove entities from the join table. Do I need to add something to the fluent API to pick up these changes for me?

Question two: Is there any way to do this in a generic way? My current update sort of looks like:

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void Update<TDatabase>(IDatabaseContext context, TDatabase item)
{
    IDbSet<TDatabase> dbSet = context.GetDbSet<TDatabase>();
    dbSet.Attach(item);
    context.Entry(item).State = EntityState.Modified;
    context.SaveChanges();
}

There's been a few similar questions on stackoverflow, but it seems like none of the solutions seemed to work. It could be something I'm doing wrong, or maybe just a special case...

Thanks.

[Shalex]

We recommend you to work with a single instance of a context to employ its change tracking functionality:

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    Entities context = new Entities();

    TV someTV = new TV() { ID = Guid.NewGuid(), Name = "myBigTV" };
    Channel chan1 = new Channel() { ID = Guid.NewGuid(), Name = "CBC", Number = 3 };

    context.TVs.Add(someTV);
    context.Channels.Add(chan1);
    context.SaveChanges();
    
    someTV.Name = "myBigTV updated";
    someTV.Channels.Add(chan1);

    context.SaveChanges();