entity framework does not load navigation property after adding object

Question

I have MVC project and EF6 model.

LazyLoading is enabled. In controller I have the following action

    public ActionResult AddStage(int projectId, int employeeId)
    {
        using(var context = new TestProjectEntities())
        {
            var project = context.Projects.Find(projectId);
            if (project != null)
            {
                var stage = new Stage() {EmployeeID = employeeId, StageType = 1};
                project.Stages.Add(stage);
                context.Stages.Add(stage);
                context.SaveChanges();
            }

            ListEmployees(project);
        }

        return Redirect("Index");
    }

    private void ListEmployees(Project project)
    {
        var names = new List<string>();
        foreach(var stage in project.Stages)
        {
            if (stage.Employee != null)
            {
                names.Add(stage.Employee.Name);
            }
        }
    }

But in ListEmployees method stage.Employee == null in foreach statement. Why?

And if i call AddStage for second time then stage.Employee != null in ListEmployee

And is it saved in your database? Did you declare the Employee property in stage as virtual ? — cverb
– cverb, Commented Aug 6, 2015 at 14:08

haim770 · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-06 14:14:30Z

9

That's because you're simply setting the foreign-key property (Stage.EmployeeID) without setting the navigation-property (Stage.Employee).

Usually, after calling SaveChanges(), EF would update the navigation property as well. But, since the Stage object is created manually by you it's not tracked (using a DynamicProxy) and you'll have to explicitly fix-up the relationship:

context.Entry(stage).Reference(c => c.Employee).Load();

Another approach would be to fetch the Employee and use it instead of setting the foreign-key property:

var employee = context.Employees.Find(employeeId);
var stage = new Stage() { Employee = employee, StageType = 1};

See MSDN

edited Aug 6, 2015 at 14:14

answered Aug 6, 2015 at 14:09

haim770

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Comments

Brad M · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-06 14:08:58Z

3

new Stage()

Don't do this with EF objects. You won't get the correct proxy object that can lazy load navigation properties. You need to use something like dbContext.Set<Stage>().Create()

answered Aug 6, 2015 at 14:08

Brad M

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1 Comment

Joanvo Over a year ago

Using dbContext.Set<Stage>().Create() instead of creating a new object was the solution for me

SwDevMan81 · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-06 14:07:51Z

0

I think having the EmployeeID in the Stage class and having the Employee object have an ID property is probably confusing things. I dont actually see where you assign an Employee to the Stage. I would expect to see something like this:

var stage = new Stage() {EmployeeID = employeeId, StageType = 1, Employee = stageManager};

answered Aug 6, 2015 at 14:07

SwDevMan81

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