Create with ViewModel that has two related entities - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

I have the properties for two entities in a ViewModel. The two entities are both related to one another, so for example, User and Posts. Each User can have multiple Posts, and Many Posts can belong to a single user (one-to-many).
The aim from my ViewModel is to allow the addition of a User and a Post on the same form. So my ViewModel looks something like this:
public class CreateVM
{
[Required, MaxLength(50)]
public string Username { get; set; }
[Required, MaxLength(500), MinLength(50)]
public string PostBody { get; set; }
// etc with some other related properties
}
In my Controller on the Create Method I have something like this:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Create(CreateVM vm)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
User u = new User()
{
Username = vm.Username,
// etc populate properties
};
Post p = new Post()
{
Body = vm.PostBody,
// etc populating properties
};
p.User = u; // Assigning the new user to the post.
XContext.Posts.Add(p);
XContext.SaveChanges();
}
}
It all looks fine when I walk through it through the Debugger, but when I try to view the post, its User relationship is null!
I also tried
u.Posts.Add(p);
UPDATE:
My Post class code is as follows:
public class Post
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
[Required, MaxLength(500)]
public string Body { get; set; }
public int Likes { get; set; }
[Required]
public bool isApproved { get; set; }
[Required]
public DateTime CreatedOn { get; set; }
[Required]
public User User { get; set; }
}
But that also did not work. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Problem is that EF can not lazy load the User property because you haven't made it virtual.
public class Post
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
[Required, MaxLength(500)]
public string Body { get; set; }
public int Likes { get; set; }
[Required]
public bool isApproved { get; set; }
[Required]
public DateTime CreatedOn { get; set; }
[Required]
public virtual User User { get; set; }
}
If you know beforehand that you are going to access the User property of the post you should eager load the User related to the post.
context.Posts.Include("User").Where(/* condition*/);