Returning a specified type from a method with EF - linq

Question

How can I return return a collection in a method from a LINQ query that has a one to many relationship?
For instance, I have the following code where I can have many Projects to a TimeTracking object. Will the type that I have defined for the return type (IEnumerable) work? It is set up in my EF model as this specific kind of relationship.
public IEnumerable<TimeTracking> GetTimeTrackings()
{
YeagerTechEntities DbContext = new YeagerTechEntities();
DbContext.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
DbContext.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = false;
var timeTrackings = (from timeTrackingProjects in DbContext.TimeTrackings.Include("TimeTrackings.Projects")
select timeTrackingProjects).Where(p => p.TimeTrackingID > 0);
CloseConnection(DbContext);
return timeTrackings;
}
If so, when I display it in my MVC 3 View, and my View contains an IEnumerable<YeagerTech.YeagerTechWcfService.TimeTracking> model, will the model variable have records in it for the TimeTracking and Project objects? I don't think it will. My TimeTracking object is set up as follows unless I need to inherit the Project class with it (which would then have the Project properties):
public partial class TimeTracking
{
[DataMember]
public int TimeTrackingID { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public short ProjectID { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public byte[] Attachment { get; set; }
[Required]
[DataType(DataType.Date)]
[DataMember]
public System.DateTime StartDate { get; set; }
[Required]
[DataType(DataType.Date)]
[DataMember]
public System.DateTime EndDate { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public string Notes { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public System.DateTime CreatedDate { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public Nullable<System.DateTime> UpdatedDate { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public virtual Project Project { get; set; }
}
I also want my View to display the Project text that is associated with the TimeTracking and not the Project value. How can I do this?Can someone please help?
I got the following msg from invoking a method on my WCF client.
'cannot be serialized if reference tracking is disabled'
After getting the msg, I then modified my DataContracts to include references ([DataContract(IsReference = true)]).
namespace YeagerTechModel
{
[Serializable]
[DataContract(IsReference = true)]
public partial class Customer
{
public Customer()
{
this.Projects = new HashSet<Project>();
}
[DataMember]
public short CustomerID { get; set; }
[Required]
[StringLength(50)]
[DataType(DataType.EmailAddress)]
[DataMember]
public string Email { get; set; }
I am executing the following server side code to successfully get data from my database in a parent/child relationship. The Include method explicity invokes getting the related Project data for the specific Customer. I had to do it this way because you must turn LazyLoading off if you want to get your parent/child data across the wire.
If I look at the WCF messagelog, I can see the actual data coming across in a Customer object and it has the Project object inside of the Customer object.
However, after the call is made and I actually inspect the contents of the "customer" variable, I don't see any refernces to any Project data.
public IEnumerable<Customer> GetCustomers()
{
YeagerTechEntities DbContext = new YeagerTechEntities();
DbContext.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
DbContext.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = false;
IQueryable<Customer> customer = DbContext.Customers.Include("Projects").Where(p => p.CustomerID > 0);
CloseConnection(DbContext);
return customer;
}
The thing I want to do now, is reference the Project data coming back from the call. However, I don't get any Customer object intellisense after typing "customer.". It's all pertains to an IQueryable object.
I'm passing it back into my MVC Controller as the following type:
IEnumerable<YeagerTechWcfService.Customer> customerList = db.GetCustomers();
and into my View as the following model:
IEnumerable<YeagerTech.YeagerTechWcfService.Customer>
Now, the big question is "How can I reference the Project data coming back in my View?
The below is my code for the View, but there is no intellisense for "item.Project". Note that "Email" is a property inside my Customer object.
foreach (var item in Model)
{
<tr>
<td>
#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Email)
</td>

Answer 1

Looks like your Linq query should be closer to this (NOTE: did not test the query, might need tweaking):
var query = (from tt in DbContext.TimeTrackings.Include("Projects")
where tt.TimeTrackingID > 0
select tt).ToList();
Linq query as you have written is deferred execution, you are closing your connection before retrieving the data, so that would probably cause a runtime error.
.Include() statement should specify the property on the entity (TimeTracking in your case) that need to be loaded, so in this case that would be Project property
Once you have retrieved your enumerable collection of TimeTracking entities you can access the properties of the Project entity associated with a particular TimeTracking entity like so:
foreach(var tracking in GetTimeTrackings())
{
foreach(var project in tracking.Projects)
{
// Assuming your Project entity has a Name property
Response.Write(project.Name);
}
}
I'm not sure what you mean by
I also want my View to display the Project text that is associated
with the TimeTracking and not the Project value.
can you clarify what property from which entity you want to see? What is the Project Entity definition?
In response to your comment about closing connection after retrieving the data:
The statement IQueryable<Customer> customer = DbContext.Customers.Include("Projects").Where(p => p.CustomerID > 0); does not actually execute a query against the database until you start to iterate it (most likely in your view with a foreach statement). If you add a .ToList() at the end of that statement, it will execute it and return a List<Customer> (which is also IEnumerable) which contains all the records that are result of your query.
When you try to type customer. to get intellisense for the Customer entity, you're not seeing it because customer is a list of Customer entities (or rather an IQueryiable of them) so you would need to do something like customer[0]. to access the properties of the first Customer entity in that list (or iterate over it).
I'm not 100% sure how entity references come through in ASP.NET MVC on a model entity but a really simple way you can get this done is create a model class you want to use in your view, say something like this:
public class TimeTrackingModel {
public int TimeTrackingID { get; set; }
public string ProjectName { get; set; }
}
then in your query do this:
var customers = (from tt in DbContext.TimeTrackings.Include("Projects")
where tt.TimeTrackingID > 0
select new TimeTrackingModel { TimeTrackingID = tt.TimeTrackingID, ProjectName = tt.Project.ProjectName }).ToList();
then in your view specify IEnumberable<TimeTrackingModel> as the model and then access the properties like this:
foreach (var item in Model)
{
<tr>
<td>
#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.ProjectName)
</td>

Answer 2

Actually, after further review, I can now see the Project collection in my Customer collection all the way back up to my client after adding a QucikWatch on the object.
The correct answer is the last part of my post where the LazyLoadingEnabled = false appears.