Implementing Unique Contraint with ValidateEntity gives "The given key was not present in the dictionary" error - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

While in search of trying to implement unique key validations for my db using EF CodeFirst/Mvc3 I came upon this post http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2011/05/27/ef-4-1-validation.aspx which gave an example on how to do it by using IValidateObject for my object model:
public class Category : IValidatableObject
{
public int CategoryID { get; set; }
public string CategoryName { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<ValidationResult> Validate(ValidationContext validationContext)
{
var testContext = (TestContext)validationContext.Items["Context"];
if (testContext.Categories.Any(
c => c.CategoryName == CategoryName && c.CategoryID != CategoryID))
{
yield return new ValidationResult("A category with the same name already exists!", new[] { "CategoryName" });
}
yield break;
}
}
and overriding DbEntityValidationResult ValidateEntity:
public class TestContext : DbContext
{
public DbSet<Test.Models.Category> Categories { get; set; }
protected override DbEntityValidationResult ValidateEntity( DbEntityEntry entityEntry, IDictionary<object, object> items)
{
var myItems = new Dictionary<object, object>();
myItems.Add("Context", this);
return base.ValidateEntity(entityEntry, myItems);
}
}
And the action on the controller
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Create(Category category)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid) {
categoryRepository.InsertOrUpdate(category);
categoryRepository.Save();
return RedirectToAction("Index");
} else {
return View();
}
}
But I get the error: "The given key was not present in the dictionary." for the line
var testContext = (TestContext)validationContext.Items["Context"];
It seems like Validate on the object is getting called which accesses "Context" before its set in the override ValidateEntity code.
At first I thought it could have been ModelState.Isvalid triggering validate too early but it wasn't.
Anyone know what I'm missing here or what I'm doing wrong? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Model.IsValid definitely triggers it too early and perhaps something else. IValidatableObject is global interface used by both MVC and EF but your method in DbContext is called only when you call SaveChanges on the context so any usage of IValidatableObject prior to calling SaveChanges will result in the exception. You must use another approach if you want to validate your entity this way. For example store context in HttpContext.Items - you can create custom action filter and instantiate and store the context before the operation call and dispose it after operation call - hopefully it will cover all problems.

Answer 2

I was facing the same problem... Then after a lot of Googling I finally found this:
Exercise 3: Using IValidatableObject Custom Validation
public IEnumerable<ValidationResult> Validate(ValidationContext validationContext)
{
MusicStoreEntities storeDB = new MusicStoreEntities();
if (storeDB.Albums.Any(
a => a.Title.Trim().ToUpper() == this.Title.Trim().ToUpper() &&
a.ArtistId == (int)this.ArtistId))
{
yield return new ValidationResult("Existing Album", new string[] { "Title" });
}
}
As you see in their example, they instantiate a new Context and as such there's no need for validationContext.Items["Context"];. Doing so we won't get this error anymore.