Simple parent/child scenario like Order and OrderLineItems. I am inserting a new Order, the OrderID is an identity column (sql server). I'm also inserting OrderLineItems in the same SaveChanges transaction. I need to get the new OrderID into the OrderLineItems, but not sure how to do it. I have the appropriate FK relationships setup properly. When I save, I get an error that OrderID is a required field in OrderLineItems.
Will I have to split this out into 2 server calls? First to insert the Order, which will return the OrderID. And then another to insert the OrderLineItems?
The Breeze documentation discusses this topic (key generation) at several points including but not limited to: http://www.breezejs.com/documentation/save-changes, http://www.breezejs.com/documentation/extending-entities and http://www.breezejs.com/documentation/add-new-entity.
The basic idea idea is that providing that your model and metadata are set up properly, breeze can assign a temporary id in place of the identity column for use in linking your order and orderlineitem entities prior to being saved. As part of the save process, Breeze updates these temporary keys to their "real" key values and updates the local cache as well upon successful completion of the save.
Related
I have an ASP.NET Core application that uses EF6 for dealing with a third-party application's database.
Everything is working as expected, but I'm unable to insert rows into a joining table.
I have two tables, Users and Groups, and a joining table GroupUser that identifies which users are members of which groups. Users has a PK of UserId, and Groups has a PK of GroupId.
GroupUser has only 3 columns: GroupId, UserId and another column (which is irrelevant for this post). The two foreign keys in this table identify a unique record.
Every time I try to insert into GroupUser, I get the inner exception
The table/view does not have a primary key defined. The entity is read-only
The error is correct. There is no PK, but both of the FKs are marked as keys in the model. Shouldn't VS be able to use those as a PK somehow?
The inserts used to work as some point, but required some manual modification of the .edmx file as XML in order to work. Unfortunately, our version control records containing this modification have been lost (and I wasn't the one originally working on this).
I've looked at and tried about a dozen articles around this, but they generally have to do with views instead of tables, so don't seem applicable to my case. The ones that did seem applicable didn't solve the issue.
The only other clue I have for a solution is this comment I found in the code:
// Important note: If you have updated the edmx file in the [redacted]
// project and suddenly start having problems, the edmx file may need to be
// edited as an xml file so that you can make changes necessary to make
// VS believe that the GroupUser table has a primary key. See revision #[redacted]
I'm able to insert into User and Group tables just fine, and as I've said, I don't have access to the revision log mentioned.
Edit: The database is for a third-party application, and unfortunately, it's not as simple as just modifying the table to add a PK. I wish it was. Problem would be solved. But I've been advised by the vendor not to make this change, as it may have unexpected consequences, and would void our support.
How can I 'trick' EF into thinking the table has a key? I'm also open to other workarounds. Modifying the DB structure is currently out of the question.
I'm using the Dynamics connector in Azure Data Factory.
TLDR
Does this connector support loading child records which need a parent record key passed in? For example if I want to create a contact and attach it to a parent account, I upsert a record with a null contactid, a valid parentcustomerid GUID and set parentcustomeridtype to 1 (or 2) but I get an error.
Long Story
I'm successfully connecting to Dynamics 365 and extracting data (for example, the lead table) into a SQL Server table
To test that I can transfer data the other way, I am simply loading the data back from the lead table into the lead entity in Dynamics.
I'm getting this error:
Failure happened on 'Sink' side. ErrorCode=DynamicsMissingTargetForMultiTargetLookupField,'Type=Microsoft.DataTransfer.Common.Shared.HybridDeliveryException,Message=,Source=,''Type=Microsoft.DataTransfer.Common.Shared.HybridDeliveryException,Message=Cannot find the target column for multi-target lookup field: 'ownerid'.
As a test I removed ownerid from the list of source columns it loads OK.
This is obviously a foreign key value.
It raises two questions for me:
Specifically with regards to the error message: If I knew which lookup it needed to use, how can I specify which lookup table it should validate against? There's no settings in the ADF connector to allow me to do this.
This is obviously a foreign key value. If I only had the name (or business key) for this row, how can I easily lookup the foreign key value?
How is this normally done through other API's, i.e. the web API?
Is there an XRMToolbox addin that would help clarify?
I've also read some posts that imply that you can send pre-connected data in an XML document so perhaps that would help also.
EDIT 1
I realised that the lead.ownertypeid field in my source dataset is NULL (that's what was exported). It's also NULL if I browse it in various Xrmtoolbox tools. I tried hard coding it to systemuser (which is what it actually is in the owner table against the actual owner record) but I still get the same error.
I also notice there's a record with the same PK value in systemuser table
So the same record is in two tables, but how do I tell the dynamics connector which one to use? and why does it even care?
EDIT 2
I was getting a similar message for msauto_testdrive for customerid.
I excluded all records with customerid=null, and got the same error.
EDIT 2
This link appears to indicate that I need to set customeridtype to 1 (Account) or 2 (Contact). I did so, but still got the same error.
Also I believe I have the same issue as this guy.
Maybe the ADF connector suffers from the same problem.
At the time of writing, #Arun Vinoth was 100% correct. However shortly afterwards there was a documentation update (in response to a GitHub I raised) that explained how to do it.
I'll document how I did it here.
To populate a contact with against a parent account, you need the parent accounts GUID. Then you prepare a dataset like this:
SELECT
-- a NULL contactid means this is a new record
CAST(NULL as uniqueidentifier) as contactid,
-- the GUID of the parent account
CAST('A7070AE2-D7A6-EA11-A812-000D3A79983B' as uniqueidentifier) parentcustomerid,
-- customer id is an account
'account' [parentcustomerid#EntityReference],
'Joe' as firstname,
'Bloggs' lastname,
Now you can apply the normal automapping approach in ADF.
Now you can select from this dataset and load into contact. You can apply the usual automapping approach, this is: create datasets without schemas. Perform a copy activity without mapping columns
This is the ADF limitation with respect to CDS polymorphic lookups like Customer and Owner. Upvote this ADF idea
Workaround is to use two temporary source lookup fields (owner team and user in case of owner, account and contact in case of customer) and with parallel branch in a MS Flow to solve this issue. Read more, also you can download the Flow sample to use.
First, create two temporary lookup fields on the entity that you wish to import Customer lookup data into it, to both the Account and Contact entities respectively
Within your ADF pipeline flow, you will then need to map the GUID values for your Account and Contact fields to the respective lookup fields created above. The simplest way of doing this is to have two separate columns within your source dataset – one containing Account GUID’s to map and the other, Contact.
Then, finally, you can put together a Microsoft Flow that then performs the appropriate mapping from the temporary fields to the Customer lookup field. First, define the trigger point for when your affected Entity record is created (in this case, Contact) and add on some parallel branches to check for values in either of these two temporary lookup fields
Then, if either of these conditions is hit, set up an Update record task to perform a single field update, as indicated below if the ADF Account Lookup field has data within it
I have an application with a dataset linked to an sql server database. I have updated some of the names or foreign keys and primary keys in the sql server. How do I make those changes translate to the data set. For example, I had a primary key called fk_temsempl_xxxxx. I changed it to fk_temsempl on the sql database. How do I get that change to show in the dataset designer in visual studio?
I have tried running custom tool by right clicking on the dataset and clicking run custom tool. That didnt work. I tried configuring the table adapter of one of the tables where a change occured, but the name of the relation didnt change.
You actually just right click the relation and choose Edit Relation... or double click on the line (when the mouse cursor changes from arrow to drag symbol) but I honestly wouldn't bother; you'll then have further refactoring to do in the code anywhere the relation is used, and it can be heavily used by visual designers.
You also get the problem that VS may not help you with the refactoring: in data binding scenarios most things that can be a source of data can also be a collection of multiple things that can be a valid DataSource. They then rely on a string DataMember to determine which of the collections of data in the data source should be used for the data.
For example, when a bindingsource is bound to list a DataTable, the bindingsource.DataSource property might be the DataSet object that contains the DataTable, and thebindingsource.DataMemberis a string of "YOUR_TABLE_NAME". the BindingSource might not be bound asmyBindignSource.DataSource = myDataSet.MyDataTable`. Refactoring inside strings involves a find and replace
DataRelations in a DataSet are created from foreign keys as they were discovered when the relevant table(s) were added to the dataset but it is important to note that, like DataTables and everything else, they are NOTHING to do with the database schema objects at all - they aren't permanently associated with them, the dataset entities are just set up looking something like the database objects when they (dataset entities) are first created. DataTables are created from only those columns selected, and whatever .NET datatypes closely resemble the types output by the query. For a table of:
Person
------
Name VARCHAR(50)
SSN INTEGER
Birthdate DATE
If you created the table with SELECT * FROM Person you'd get a datatable with Name (string), SSN (int), Birthdate (datetime) but if you made a new datatable in the dataset based on SELECT LEFT(Name, 1) as Initial, PADLEFT(SSN, 20) as PadSSN, DATEDIFF(day, Birthdate, NOW()) as AgeDays FROM Person then you'd get a datatable of Initial (string), PadSSN (string), AgeDays (int) - i.e. the datatable looks nothing like the db table. This concept of disconnection between dataset and db is pervasive, and really the only things that relate in any way to the database are the properties that specify which DB table/column a particular DataTable/DataColumn relates to for purposes of loading/saving data. Your Person.Name datacolumn can be renamed to Blahblah, but it will still have a .SourceColumn property that is set to "Name" - that's how the mapping between dataset and db works; dataset is predominantly completely independent of the db. Renaming a DB column would require a change to the SourceColumn property only
DataRelations don't even have this notion of linking to the parent relation in the database; there's no SourceRelation or SourceFK proeprty because there is no need to. They're set up with the same rules and a generated name all based on the rules of the FK, but then they function independently and only within the dataset. If you rename or even remove an FK from the db the dataset will carry on working in the same restricted way it always did; adding a datarow to a child table when no aprent row exists for it will throw an exception - none of it anything to do with the FK in the db, and the DataRelation can have different rules to the FK (e.g it can cascade deletes when the FK is NOACTION) or even different columns. You can have more or fewer DataRelations than the DB has FKs
Run Custom Tool is not a "contact the DB and see what changes have occurred there and replicate them into the dataset", it is a "turn the XSD that describes the dataset into a bunch of C# classes that implement strongly typed dataset/table/relation/column etc objects". Any time you change the XSD by making an edit in the visual designer and hit save, the custom tool is run. If you edit the XSD directly in a text editor you may need to run it manually to have your changes reflected in c# classes
Reconfiguring a tableadapter probably won't do anything to the relations either; its solely concerned with changing the datatable and tableadapter. If you really want to refresh the relations, delete the datatable from the set and recreate it. Be prepared for a potentially significant mop up/refactoring of code
I'm basically trying to create a primary ID between CRM and QuickBooks. Figured I'd just use the existing PK in CRM for the lookup. I'd like the PK to visible to the user, but not editable in CRM.
This has presented several problems in that you can't do that out of the box. I thought I read somewhere you could either via business rule or calculated field, but I haven't had luck with that.
It sounds like it would require web resources if I were to go this route.
The other option would be to just generate unique values for every record in Accounts and Contacts.
Does this automatically populate existing records or just new records? How do I get it to populate existing records?
You can use Auto number manager for configuring an auto-number attribute in every entity. This seeds a number based on configured format for new records. Uniqueness assured by SQL sequence feature & no need of any extra plugin/workflow.
For existing records - you can design a workflow along with a temp entity to assign auto-number. Read more.
Otherwise you can use SSIS + Kingswaysoft package to generate auto-number & assign for existing records.
I am suggesting you to create a new text field on the entity and create a pre plugin that will get the record primary GUID id from context and will set this GUID into the newly added attribute. You can set this field as read-only of form as well.
OR you can generate new GUID as well into the plugin.
Entity framework returning only one value but the list size is correct
I have a table that does not have primary id and I need to get or select all the values in it.
What I see is when I do the selection with linq the number of objects is correct but it is the first row over and over.
I am simply doing something like this
List<MyValueType> valuesInDB = myDb.MyValueTypes.ToList();
Problem is I may get thousands of rows (which is correct) but the rows all have the same exact data.
I am using VS 2010 and used the wizard to create my EF object.
The problem is that entity framework is not able to work with entity without a key. So if your table doesn't specify a key, entity framework will infer its own. The key created by EF is composed of all non-nullable non-binary columns.
So if you for example have single non-nullable column in your entity which have only very small set of values (like enum) you will be able to load only single entity "per value". The reason is an inner implementation of the context and the state manager which uses Identity map pattern. When data record is retrieved from database, EF will first check an entity key and tries to find an object with the same key in its internal storage. If an object is found it will use that object instead of data record retrieved (despite of different data). If an object with the key is not found a new object is materialized and added to internal storage.
That is the purpose of Identity map - object with given key should be created only once by each context. Identity map is core pattern in ORM.
I wrote about Identity map also in this question.
I would suggest searching for the word "Warning" in your EDM's designer.cs file. It might tell you if Entity Framework is having any issues with your table.
I really can't comment much in the absence of the table design. I tried replicating your problem but wasn't able to do so. Here is what I did:
Created a table with no primary key but it had a unique key on an ID column. Entity Framework was able to infer a primary key and when I fetched the data, I not only got the correct number of rows but also the corrects data in those rows.
Created a table with no primary key and no unique key. Also there was no column called ID. Entity Framework excluded this table in the EDM that was generated. Consequently I wasn't able to query this table at all.This was displayed as a warning in the EDM designer file.
It would be better if you can share the create script for your table.