Entity Framework telling me an object is attached when it isn't - why? - asp.net

Question

I have an object I want to update in the database. I'm new to EF but have done a fair bit of reading. Clearly my approach is wrong, but I don't understand why. FYI the Context referenced throughout is an ObjectContext which is newly instantiated as this code begins and is disposed immediately after. Here is my Update method - the View is the object I want to update in the database and it has 4 ICollection properties whose changes I also wish to save to the database:
public void Update(View view)
{
var original = Read(view.Username, view.ViewId);
original.ViewName = view.ViewName;
ProcessChanges<CostCentre, short>(Context.CostCentres, original.CostCentres, view.CostCentres, "iFinanceEntities.CostCentres", "CostCentreId");
ProcessChanges<LedgerGroup, byte>(Context.LedgerGroups, original.LedgerGroups, view.LedgerGroups, "iFinanceEntities.LedgerGroups", "LedgerGroupId");
ProcessChanges<Division, byte>(Context.Divisions, original.Divisions, view.Divisions, "iFinanceEntities.Divisions", "DivisionId");
ProcessChanges<AnalysisCode, short>(Context.AnalysisCodes, original.AnalysisCodes, view.AnalysisCodes, "iFinanceEntities.AnalysisCodes", "AnalysisCodeId");
int test = Context.SaveChanges();
}
First I get the original from the database because I want to compare its collections with the new set of collections. This should ensure the correct sub-objects are added and removed. I compare each collection in turn using this ProcessChanges method:
private void ProcessChanges<TEntity, TKey>(ObjectSet<TEntity> contextObjects, ICollection<TEntity> originalCollection, ICollection<TEntity> changedCollection, string entitySetName, string pkColumnName)
where TEntity : class, ILookupEntity<TKey>
{
List<TKey> toAdd = changedCollection
.Select(c => c.LookupKey)
.Except(originalCollection.Select(o => o.LookupKey))
.ToList();
List<TKey> toRemove = originalCollection
.Select(o => o.LookupKey)
.Except(changedCollection.Select(c => c.LookupKey))
.ToList();
toAdd.ForEach(a =>
{
var o = changedCollection.Single(c => c.LookupKey.Equals(a));
AttachToOrGet<TEntity, TKey>(entitySetName, pkColumnName, ref o);
originalCollection.Add(o);
});
toRemove.ForEach(r =>
{
var o = originalCollection.Single(c => c.LookupKey.Equals(r));
originalCollection.Remove(o);
});
}
This compares the new collection to the old one and works out which objects to add and which to remove. Note that the collections all contain objects which implement ILookupEntity.
My problems occur on the line where I call AttachToOrGet. This method I got from elsewhere on stackoverflow. I'm using this because I was often getting a message saying that "An object with the same key already exists in the ObjectStateManager" when attaching a new subobject. Hopefully you'll understand my confusion around this when I post the code of this method below:
public void AttachToOrGet<TEntity, TKey>(string entitySetName, string pkColumnName, ref TEntity entity)
where TEntity : class, ILookupEntity<TKey>
{
ObjectStateEntry entry;
// Track whether we need to perform an attach
bool attach = false;
if (Context.ObjectStateManager.TryGetObjectStateEntry(new EntityKey(entitySetName, pkColumnName, entity.LookupKey), out entry))
//if (Context.ObjectStateManager.TryGetObjectStateEntry(Context.CreateEntityKey(entitySetName, entity), out entry))
{
// Re-attach if necessary
attach = entry.State == EntityState.Detached;
// Get the discovered entity to the ref
entity = (TEntity)entry.Entity;
}
else
{
// Attach for the first time
attach = true;
}
if (attach)
Context.AttachTo(entitySetName, entity);
}
Basically this is saying if the entity is not already attached then attach it. But my code is returning false on the Context.ObjectStateManager.TryGetObjectStateEntry line, but throwing an exception on the final line with the message "An object with the same key already exists in the ObjectStateManager". To me this is paradoxical.
As far as I'm concerned I'm trying to achieve something very simple. Something it would take 20 minutes to write a stored procedure for. A simple database update. Frankly I don't care what is attached and what isn't because I don't wish to track changes or create proxies or lazy load or do anything else EF offers me. I just want to take a very simple object and update the database using a minimal number of trips between servers. How is this so complicated? Please someone help me - I've spent a whole day on this!
Update
Here's my ILookupEntity class:
public interface ILookupEntity<TKey>
{
TKey LookupKey { get; }
string DisplayText { get; }
}
Here's how it is implemented in CostCentre:
public partial class CostCentre : IFinancialCode, ILookupEntity<short>
{
#region IFinancialCode Members
public short ID { get { return CostCentreId; } }
public string DisplayText { get { return string.Format("{0} - {1}", Code, Description); } }
#endregion
#region ILookupEntity Members
public short LookupKey
{
get { return ID; }
}
#endregion ILookupEntity Members
}

Answer 1

Well, I've worked through this and found a solution, but I can't say I understand it. The crucial ingredient came when I was performing a check after the comment by #Slauma. I wanted to check I was using the correct entity set name etc so I included the following lines near the top of my AttachToOrGet method:
var key = new EntityKey(entitySetName, pkColumnName, entity.LookupKey);
object temp;
if (!Context.TryGetObjectByKey(key, out temp))
throw new Exception(string.Format("No entity was found in {0} with key {1}", entitySetName, entity.LookupKey));
Bizarrely this alone resolved the problem. For some reason, once I'd called the TryGetObjectByKey then the ObjectStateManager.TryGetObjectStateEntry call actually started locating the attached entity. Miraculous. I'd love it if anyone can explain this.
By the way, I also needed to include the following code, but that's just because in my case the modelled entities are located in a separate assembly from the context itself.
Assembly assembly = typeof(CostCentre).Assembly;
Context.MetadataWorkspace.LoadFromAssembly(assembly);