I'm trying to set up a Tagging tool for images. Basically I have two tables, one for pictures, and one for tags. Both are connected with a many to many setup. I can already add a single tag to a picture, and the same tag to different pictures. However, when I try to add a second tag to an image I get an exception complaining about a unique constraint that I simply don't see.
public class MediaEntity
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public ICollection<TagEntity> Tags { get; set; }
}
public class TagEntity
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public ICollection<MediaEntity> MediaEntities { get; set; }
}
public void updateMedia(MediaEntity model)
{
using (var db = new MediaContext(_dbLocation))
{
db.Update(model);
db.SaveChanges();
}
}
public class MediaContext : DbContext
{
private const string DB_NAME = "PT.db";
private string _path;
public DbSet<MediaEntity> MediaTable { get; set; }
public DbSet<TagEntity> TagTable { get; set; }
public MediaContext(string path)
{
_path = path;
ChangeTracker.AutoDetectChangesEnabled = false;
}
protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder options)
=> options.UseSqlite($"Data Source={Path.Combine(_path, DB_NAME )}");
}
As far as I can tell my setup should create a normal many-to-many relationship, and it the database I also see pretty much this. EF automatically creates a TagTable, MediaTable, and MediaEntityTagEntityTable. But when I try to add a second tag I get this:
SqliteException: SQLite Error 19: 'UNIQUE constraint failed:
MediaEntityTagEntity.MediaEntitiesId, MediaEntityTagEntity.TagsId'.
Data from the table showing I can have the same tag on different pictures:
MediaEntitiesId
TagEntitiesId
1B48E85B-F097-4216-9B7A-0BA34E69CBFF
CF581257-F176-4CDF-BF34-09013DCEAA27
CE33F03F-5C80-492B-88C6-3C40B9BADC6C
CF581257-F176-4CDF-BF34-09013DCEAA27
523178A1-C7F8-4A69-9578-6A599C1BEBD5
0C45C9D1-7576-4C62-A495-F5EF268E9DF8
I don't see where this unique constaint comes in. How can I set up a proper many-to-many relationship?
I suspect the issue you may be running into is with the detached Media and associated Tags you are sending in. You are telling EF to apply an 'Update' to the media, but the DbContext will have no idea about the state of the Tags attached. Assuming some tags may have been newly attached, others are existing relationships. If the Context isn't tracking any of these Tags, it would treat them all as inserts, resulting in index violations (many to many) or duplicate data (many to one / one to many)
When dealing with associations like this, it is generally simpler to define more atomic actions like: AddTag(mediaId, tagId) and RemoveTag(mediaId, tagId)
If you are applying tag changes along with potential media field updates in a single operation I would recommend rather than passing entire entity graphs back and forth, to use a viewModel/DTO for the tag containing a collection of TagIds, from that apply your tag changes against the media server side after determining which tags have been added and removed.
I.e.:
public void updateMedia(MediaViewModel model)
{
using (var db = new MediaContext(_dbLocation))
{
var media = db.Medias.Include(x => x.Tags).Single(x => x.MediaId = model.MedialId);
// Ideally have a Timestamp/row version number to check...
if (media.RowVersion != model.RowVersion)
throw new StaleDataException("The media has been modified since the data was retrieved.");
// copy media fields across...
media.Name = model.Name;
// ... etc.
var existingTagIds = media.Tags
.Select(x => x.TagId)
.ToList();
var tagIdsToRemove = existingTagIds
.Except(model.TagIds)
.ToList();
var tagIdsToAdd = model.TagIds
.Except(existingTagIds)
.ToList();
if(tagIdsToRemove.Any())
media.Tags.RemoveRange(media.Tags.Where(x => tagIdsToRemove.Contains(x.TagId));
if(tagIdsToAdd.Any())
{
var tagsToAdd = db.Tags.Where(x => tagIdsToAdd.Contains(x.TagId)).ToList();
media.Tags.AddRange(tagsToAdd);
}
db.SaveChanges();
}
}
Using this approach the DbContext is never left guessing about the state of the media and associated tags. It helps guard against stale data overwrites and unintentional data tampering (if receiving data from web browsers or other unverifiable sources), and by using view models with the minimum required data, you improve performance by minimzing the amount of data sent over the wire and traps like lazy load hits by serializers.
I always explicitly create the join table. The Primary Key is the combination of the two 1:M FK attributes. I know EF is supposed to map automatically, but since it isn't, you can specify the structure you know you need.
Related
Does any one have a working example of how to added audit models to an existing project, for Audit.Net.
It is one fantastic component to use, and up until now, my team and I have gotten by with the standard JSON files, however, we'd like to migrate our current solution to our Xamarin application, and would like to store the auditing in the local SQLite database on the device.
However, the documentation for this project is somewhat lacking and there is no concise examples of how to get custom auditing working with Entity Framework.
We have worked through the MD files on the github repo, but we still cannot get auditing to work.
Another question, similar to this has been asked HERE, but there is no definitive example of what the Audit_{entity} table should look like, what fields it MUST contain, and how to set up relationships for it.
We tried to reverse engineer the JSON files into a relational structure, but at the time of asking this question, we have not gotten any auditing to write to the SQLite database.
Sorry about the documentation not helping too much, hope I (or anybody) can provide better documentation in the future.
I am assuming you are using EntityFramework to map your entities
to a SQLite database, and you want to use the EF data
provider
to store the audits events in the same database, in Audit_{entity} tables.
There is no constraint on the schema you want to use for your Audit_{entity} tables, as long as you have a one-to-one relation between your {entity} table and its Audit_{entity} table. Then the mapping can be configured on several ways.
The recommendation for the Audit_{entity} tables is to have the same columns as the audited {entity} table, with any common additional column needed, like a User and a Date defined on an Interface.
So, if all your Audit_{entity} tables has the same columns/properties as its {entity}, and you added some common columns (defined on an interface), the configuration can be set like this:
public class User
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class Audit_User : IAudit
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
// IAudit members:
public string AuditUser { get; set; }
public datetime AuditDate { get; set; }
public string Action { get; set } // "Insert", "Update" or "Delete"
}
Audit.Core.Configuration.Setup()
.UseEntityFramework(x => x
.AuditTypeNameMapper(typeName => "Audit_" + typeName)
.AuditEntityAction<IAudit>((ev, ent, auditEntity) =>
{
auditEntity.AuditDate = DateTime.UtcNow;
auditEntity.AuditUser = evt.Environment.UserName;
auditEntity.AuditAction = ent.Action;
});
Note the interface is not mandatory, but using it makes the configuration cleaner. Also note you can make your Audit_{entity} inherit from your {entity} if you wanted to.
Update
Maybe my assumption at the beginning is incorrect and you are not auditing EF entities, but any other type of audit. If that's the case, what you are looking for is a Data Provider that stores the audit events into your SQLite database.
At the time being, there is no built-in data provider that stores to SQLite, and if there was one, it would store just the JSON representation of the event in one column (like the SQL/MySql providers). But it looks like you want to have a custom schema, so you will need to implement your own data provider.
Check the documentation here.
Here is a sample skeleton of a data provider:
public class SQLiteDataProvider : AuditDataProvider
{
public override object InsertEvent(AuditEvent auditEvent)
{
// Insert the event into SQLite and return its ID
}
public override void ReplaceEvent(object eventId, AuditEvent auditEvent)
{
// Replace the event given its ID (only used for CreationPolicies InsertOnStartReplaceOnEnd and Manual)
}
// async implementation:
public override async Task<object> InsertEventAsync(AuditEvent auditEvent)
{
// Asynchronously insert the event into SQLite and return its ID
}
public override async Task ReplaceEventAsync(object eventId, AuditEvent auditEvent)
{
// Asynchronously replace the event given its ID
}
}
Then you just set it up with:
Audit.Core.Configuration.Setup()
.UseCustomProvider(new SQLiteDataProvider());
My current problem is (probably) not necessarily directly related to MVC 6, but how working with database actually works, and therefore any help/suggestions in this matter would be more than appreciated.
For the sake of this question, let's say that we have a very simple database with the following tables (C# classes) [we are using Entity Framework to work with the database]:
public class ShoppingUser
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string UserName { get; set; }
public ICollection<ShoppingItem> Items { get; set; }
}
public class ShoppingItem
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Quantity { get; set; }
public string Text { get; set; }
public bool ToRemove { get; set; }//if item has been bought, it can be removed from the shopping list
}
This demo will be for a super duper simple shopping list app, where user (ShoppingUser who is registered in the system can have a List of ShoppingItem where user can decide on what is the text of the item (e.g. Bread, Butter, Tomatoes, ...) and also a quantity (3 pieces, 5kg, ... simple string)
Afterwards in my ASP.NET Core app, I have defined a repository which is communicating with the database and has access to the ShoppingItem class (as we are only interested in shopping items of currently logged in user).
Example of some method we could use here:
public IEnumerable<ShoppingItem> ReturnUserItems(string sUsername)
{
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(sUsername))
return null;
var result = _context.ShoppingUsers.Include(n => n.Items).Where(n => n.UserName == sUsername).FirstOrDefault();
if (result != null)
return result.Items;
else
return null;
}
Finally we have an API controller with JsonResult for either GET, POST, DELETE, ..., which is used for communication between client side AngularJs App and our server side logic.
Example of GET Method:
// GET: /<controller>/
[HttpGet("")]
public JsonResult Get(string sUserName)
{
try
{
var results = _repository.ReturnUserItems(User.Identity.Name);
if (results != null)
{
var result = Mapper.Map<IEnumerable<ShoppingItemViewModel>>(results);
return Json(result);
}
Response.StatusCode = (int)HttpStatusCode.OK;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Response.StatusCode = (int)HttpStatusCode.BadRequest;
return Json(new { Message = ex.Message });
}
return null;
}
Here comes the tricky part (at least for me). From video tutorials I have learned, that I should never (or almost never) expose my real database model to the website (I guess it's for security reasons). Due to that (as visible from my GET method above) I have declared my ShoppingItemViewModel which contains only properties I want to expose to the user (e.g. meaning that Id of my item is not visible).
This is how it looks like:
public class ShoppingItemViewModel
{
public string Quantity { get; set; }
[Required]
public string Text { get; set; }
[Required]
public bool ToRemove { get; set; }//if item has been bought, it can be removed from the shopping list
}
And for the communication from my AngularJS App I am using simple $http.get and $http.post calls for retrieving / posting updated data.
Finally the question:
My problem is, that if a user decides to either delete an item from his shopping list, or decides to change the content of either text / quantity (meaning that originally in the database it was tomatoes - 5 kg but he manages to buy only 2 kg and therefore changes the quantity to tomatoes - 3kg), how can the app understand which elements have actually been changed and how? The problem I have in this case is, that we are no longer exposing the database Id of the items.
If I was writing a desktop app, where I wouldn't have to create this sub view (ShoppingItemViewModel), my EntityFramework is intelligent enough to check & update all the changes in my database. Unfortunately in this case, I do not understand how this is achievable.
When I was thinking about it I came with the following: Add a new property into the ShoppingItem and ShoppingItemViewModel: public string sCustomKey {get; set; }, which would serve as a unique key for every item. This way, we no longer need to expose our database Id, but we are exposing the 'fake' one.
Second question:
I case my solution would be accurate, what is the best way to update items in the database? The only way I can think of is iterating through all the items in the database and manually check for changes?
Example of what I have in mind:
//IEnumerable<ShoppingItem> would be re-mapped result of ShoppingItemViewModel we have received back from the website
public void UpdateValues(IEnumerable<ShoppingItem> items, string sUserName)
{
//retrieves list of shopping items for specified customer
var allItems = _context.ShoppingUsers
.Include(n => n.Items)
.FirstOrDefault(n => n.UserName == sUserName);
//updates the values
foreach (var sItem in items)
{
var updatedItem = allItems.Items.FirstOrDefault(n => n.Text == sItem.sCustomKey);
if (updatedItem == null)
{
//create new item
var newItem = new ShoppingItem();
newItem.Text = sItem.Text;
newItem.ToRemove = sItem.ToRemove;
allItems.Items.Add(newItem);
}
else
updatedItem.ToRemove = sItem.ToRemove;
}
_context.SaveChanges();
}
But this approach does not seem right to me.
Any help regarding these matters would be more than appreciated as I am still learning how to work with ASP.NET Core and web projects.
In your first question, exposing the item ID in the ViewModels is fine. In your domain layer, you can add validation logic that those ID exists/valid item.
Alternatively, you can use a Guid for your item/product because the ID (int) can easily be predicted.
As far as updating the items, you should not use the "username" as Identifier (of the cart) because that can be predicted/altered by the calling client. You can use Guid either persisted(to Db) or
in-memory. You can add validation as well if this Guid belongs to this username/emailAddress. So updating the items in the cart, consider adding/removing one at a time if that is doable
instead of sending list of items.
I think you have misunderstood something.
Here comes the tricky part (at least for me). From video tutorials I have learned, that I should never (or almost never) expose my real database model to the website (I guess it's for security reasons). Due to that (as visible from my GET method above) I have declared my ShoppingItemViewModel which contains only properties I want to expose to the user (e.g. meaning that Id of my item is not visible).
ViewModel <=> Domain Model <=> ReadModel (Database Model)
The point is that you shouldn't use your ReadModel(Database model) as your ViewModel in Presentation Layer (MVC). All three models will have identity.
I am using EF6 but I don't know if there is any difference between that and earlier versions.
I have the following context:
public IdentityContext()
: base("name=Identity")
{
Database.SetInitializer<IdentityContext>(null);
Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = false;
Configuration.ValidateOnSaveEnabled = false;
Configuration.AutoDetectChangesEnabled = true;
Database.Log = logInfo => Debug.WriteLine(logInfo);
}
public DbSet<AspNetRole> AspNetRoles { get; set; }
public DbSet<AspNetUserClaim> AspNetUserClaims { get; set; }
public DbSet<AspNetUserLogin> AspNetUserLogins { get; set; }
public DbSet<AspNetUser> AspNetUsers { get; set; }
What I would like to do is to issue a SQL query against this:
I saw one example (not related to my context) which is:
using (var context = new BloggingContext())
{
var blogs = context.Blogs.SqlQuery("SELECT * FROM dbo.Blogs").ToList();
}
But this does not make any sense to me as I cannot see why there is .Blogs after the context.
For my context above can someone explain how I can issue a simple sql statement to get the Id from the AspNetUser table and place these in a collection.
Note that I am using EF6 but in this case I am not sure that is relevant to the question if I query the context. My real needs are for a complex SQL but first I need some suggestion to get me started. Thanks.
If you're using .SqlQuery, you're kind of bypassing the beauty of using LINQ-style lambda expressions to query your database.
You might need to fiddle with the syntax a bit, but something like this should work for your initial requirement of getting user IDs:
var allMyIds = context.AspNetUserLogins.Select(l => l.Id).ToList();
or, if you prefer...
var allMyIds = (from l in context.AspNetUserLogins
select l.Id).ToList();
However, if you really need to execute SQL directly, you can do it on one of the DBSet classes as in your question (in which case the EF makes a valiant attempt at change tracking), or if it's a general query you just want to execute that returns primitive types and isn't specific to any one table, do it against the Database class using ExecuteSqlCommand:
var allMyIds = context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("select id from AspNetUserLogins");
Hope that helps!
I'm working to move my simple asp.net website to a three layer architecture. Currently I have Linq queries like the one below in my code-behind files. Basically this code snippet retrieves a collection of customer data from the database and then binds it to a grid control.
I'm wondering if someone can guide me on how to rewrite this in order to move it to my newly-created data access layer. I'm thinking I will turn it into a class (e.g. GetUserBoxesByStatus()) that can be reused throughout the site.
var boxes = from p in sbm.Packages
where p.UserID == CurrentUserId && p.StatusID > 1 && p.StatusID < 3
select new { p.PackageTag, p.PackageName, p.DateReceived, p.DateShipped };
GridView1.DataSource = boxes;
DataBind();
Some of the options that I've investigated but have not had success implementing are the following:
DataTable --- returning a DataTable seems like the best solution but it also appears to require a lot of potentially unecessarry code to define a table (isn't the data source already mapped in my Linq 2 Entities dbml?)
IEneuerable --- I think I could pass an IEnumerable list between the layers but after reading many tutorials about Linq I'm still a little lost
DTO --- Conceptually I think I understand what a DTO is but I am not clear on how to begin implementing this approach
POCO --- Again, the concept seems logical enough but I don't know how to put this into practice
I'm hoping someone here can look at my code example and propose how they would tackle this using one of the above or some other solution.
Create a class with the properties you need. Select into that class. Return a strongly-typed List (so that the query is actually performed in the DAL, not in your view). Bind your data source to the list.
public class PackageViewModel
{
public string Tag { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public DateTime Received { get; set; }
public DateTime Shipped { get; set; }
}
DAL
public List<PackageViewModel> GetUserBoxesByStatus( int userID, int minStatus, int maxStatus )
{
return sbm.Packages
.Where( p => p.UserID == userID
&& p.StatusID > minStatus
&& p.StatusID < maxStatus )
.Select( p => new PackageViewModel
{
Tag = p.PackageTag,
Name = p.PackageName,
Received = p.DateReceived,
Shipped = p.DateShipped
})
.ToList();
}
I have two entities (Customer and CustomerRole) and would like to declare many-to-many relationship between them. I can do using the following code:
modelBuilder.Entity<CustomerRole>()
.HasMany(cr => cr.Customers)
.WithMany(c => c.CustomerRoles)
.Map(m => m.ToTable("Customer_CustomerRole_Mapping"));
But it creates the relationship (and the third mapping table) with cascade delete switched off by default. How can I tell EF to create the relationship with cascade delete switched on when using many-to-many?
As of CTP5, there seems to be no way to directly turn on cascade deletes on Many to Many associations by Fluent API.
That said, if your intention is to make sure that you can delete the principal (e.g. a Customer record) without having to worry about the dependent record in the join table (i.e. Customer_CustomerRole_Mapping) then you don't need to turn on cascades on the database since EF Code First will take care of the cascade deletes on the client side when it comes to Many to Many associations.
For example, when you delete a Customer object, EF is smart enough to first send a delete statement to get rid of the dependent record in the join table and after that it will send another delete statement to delete the Customer record.
Update:
Due to a bug in CTP5, you need to explicitly eager/Lazy load the navigation property and have it loaded on the context when you remove the dependent. For example, consider this model:
public class User
{
public int UserId { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection Addresses { get; set; }
}
public class Address
{
public int AddressID { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection Users { get; set; }
}
Assuming that we have a User with an address in the database, this code will throw:
using (EntityMappingContext context = new EntityMappingContext())
{
User user = context.Users.Find(1);
context.Users.Remove(user);
context.SaveChanges();
}
However, this one will perfectly work with removing the link table's record first:
using (EntityMappingContext context = new EntityMappingContext())
{
User user = context.Users.Find(1);
((IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext
.LoadProperty(user, u => u.Addresses);
context.Users.Remove(user);
context.SaveChanges();
}
Please note that this is just a workaround and we will be able to (hopefully) remove a principal without loading its navigation property.