I have a class hierarchy mapped into one table. There is one superclass and 8 different sub classes. A lot of my queries needs to fetch e.g. 2 of the sub classes only for a specific date.
The table has a discriminator column that nhibernate itself uses. But when using LINQ for querying it is not possible to use this discriminator as there is no property for it.
Is there a commonly used trick for only fetching specific sub class when using nhibernate ?
For now I first have Linq 4 Nhiberneate query that fetches all sub classes into a given period. And then uses Linq 4 objects to filter on the sub classes that I need.
Is it possible to expose the discriminator column of the table as a property and thereby be able to make a where clause on it ?
In Hql querying subclasses is done by class, so you'd do
from subclass
where subclass.DateTime = :myDateTime
The docs also say you can query hierarchies by the special class property, eg:
from Eg.Cat cat where cat.class = Eg.DomesticCat
I don't know if this is possible with the Criteria API or NH Linq Provider.
You could always get all the instances with the correct time, and then filter client side, eg:
var allCandidates = from super in session.Linq<SuperClass>()
where super.Date > DateTime.Now.AddDays(-1)
select super
var results = from candidate in allCandidates
where candidate.GetType() == typeof(SubClass)
select candidate
It's a bit nasty, and if the subset of classes you're querying is always the same, you might be better off inserting another class in the hierarchy and querying that.
Related
Suppose if I have 3 entities - User, Skills, Department
and I have repositories corresponding to all of them - UserRepository, SkillRepository, DepartmentRepository.
I understand that the relation mapping between entities i.e. one-one many-many should be specified in the respective entity classes. The question is I want to use all of the 3 entities in a query. How would I do it? A single repository is associated with only one entity right? So, how/where would I write it?
As there are many different ways to specify queries with Spring Data JPA there are various answers to this.
Maybe you don't have to. If entity A references B and you just want to get the Bs with your A you simply use your ARepository to load As and use object navigation to get your Bs. You might read up on eager and lazy loading for more information about how to control this.
If you want referenced entities in the where condition you can use property paths in your query method names: https://docs.spring.io/spring-data/jpa/docs/current/reference/html/#repositories.query-methods.query-property-expressions
If you are using #Query annotations you can do (almost) whatever you want with JPQL. Among others, you may as well navigate properties to use them in where clauses.
In general, you'd put that query in the matching repository based on the primary entity returned.
In a data model like this (http://alanstorm.com/2009/img/magento-book/eav.png) I want to get the value from an EAV_Attribute using Linq to SQL.
Assuming that an EAV_Attribute only exists in one inherited table (varchar, decimal, int, etc.) how can I get it in a linq query?
I know that I can use the Inheritance for this, but I want to execute it in the SQL Database side...
Is it possible to do a kind of Coalesce in Linq, considering that the elements have different types?
EAV and linq is not a happy marriage. I think your best shot is to create an unmapped property in eav_attribute that resolves the value (as object) from it's typed attribute child. With entity framework, you won't be able to use this property in an expression (i.e. not in a Where or Select), You must convert to IEnumerable first to access it. (Linq-to-sql may allow it because it can switch to linq-to-objects below the hood).
Another option is to create a calculated column of type sql_variant that does the same, but now in t-sql code. But... EF does not suport sql_variant. You've got to use some trickery to read it.
That's the reading part.
For setting/modifying/deleting values I don't see any shortcuts. You just have to handle the objects as any object graph with parents and children. In sql server you can't use cascaded delete because it can only be defined for one foreign key. (This may tackle that, but I never tried).
So, not really good news, I'm afraid. Maybe good to know that in one project I also work with a database that has an inevitable EAV part. We do it with EF too, but it's not without friction.
First of all, I recommend using TPH and not TPT for EAV tables. (One table with multiple nullable value columns (one per type) + discriminator vs. one table per type.)
Either way, if you modelled the value entity as an abstract class (containing the two IDs) with an inheriting entity per value data type that adds the value property, then your LINQ should look like this:
var valueEntity = context.ProductAttributes.Where(pa =>
pa.ProductId == selectedProductId
&& pa.AttributeTypeId == selectedAttributeTypeId)
.SingleOrDefault() as ProductAttributeOfDouble;
if valueEntity != null
return valueEntity.Value;
return null;
Where the entity types are: Product, AttributeType, ProductAttribute, ProductAttributeOfDouble, ... ProductAttributeOfString.
In my ASP.NET application I have an EF Product class (derived from Product DB table) and I want to perform search functionality on its string fields by using inline LINQ.
Since I predict the name and amount of the fields (properties) will change I do not want to strongly couple my code with the table definition. How can I compare the values of all the fields in the table with a search string by iterating through all table fields (properties)?
I know one option is through reflection, is there any easier and more immediate way to fulfill this task?
In the end, your EF class is still just a normal .NET class. Unless EF explicitly provides some library for looping through properties (it doesn't that I know of), you'll still need to use reflection to do this.
var properties = typeof(Product).GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance);
foreach (var property in properties)
{
...
}
Summary of the question: How do i scaffold two or more tables with linq to entities.
I cant find an example; they always scaffold only one table.
Details:
If I have two tables and I use LINQ to entities with a t4 template for dbcontext capability like such:
Table1
Name LastName PositionId
Jose j 1
Table2
PositionPrimaryKey PositionId PositionDescription
1 1 MainProgrammer
If I had these table mapped with linq to entities how would I scaffold them?
Then i put Table1 as my Model class.
I have my employeesentities as dbcontext
But that only creates the values for table 1 and not 2.
If I create a new model that contains both entities, it says is not part of Employeeentities and the class could not be modfied to add my new entity.
So, you have a 1:1 relationship between these tables? If yes, I suggest you creating an entity by hand, set its defining query to the necessary join, and map Insert/Update/Delete to stored procedures in the Mapping Details screen. It involves some (quite simple) sql, but it is the cleanest way for your code above.
If it's not a 1:1 relationship, you need to modify the t4 template to conditionally create the fields of the linked property (it has to navigate the property, and based on some condition, like you say "if property is called Table2", create the extra fields). If you have already done so and it doesn't work, maybe there's something going on with the selection of properties used by MVC scaffolding. It might use reflection and choose only primitive types.
Suppose I have an automatically-generated Employee class based on the Employees table in my database.
Now suppose that I want to pass employee data to a ShowAges method that will print out name & age for a list of employees. I'll retrieve the data for a given set of employees via a linq query, which will return me a set of Employee instances. I can then pass the Employee instances to the ShowAges method, which can access the Name & Age fields to get the data it needs.
However, because my Employees table has relationships with various other tables in my database, my Employee class also has a Department field, a Manager field, etc. that provide access to related records in those other tables. If the ShowAges method were to invoke any of those methods, this would cause lots more data to be fetched from the database, on-demand.
I want to be sure that the ShowAges method only uses the data I have already fetched for it, but I really don't want to have to go to the trouble of defining a new class which replicates the Employee class but has fewer methods. (In my real-world scenario, the class would have to be considerably more complex than the Employee class described here; it would have several 'joined' classes that do need to be populated, and others that don't).
Is there a way to 'switch off' or 'disconnect' the Employees instances so that an attempt to access any property or related object that's not already populated will raise an exception?
If not, then I assume that since this must be a common requirement, there might be an already-established pattern for doing this sort of thing?
maybe not the answer you're looking for,but how about projecting the results of your query into a more light-weight POCO, eg:
var employeePOCOs = from e in l2sEmployees
select new EmployeePOCO
{
Id = e.Id,
Name = e.FirstName + " " + e.LastName
};
where EmployeePOCO is a predefined class
would that help? I've used this when returning Entity Framework objects back through an AJAX call where the output was going to JSON, and it seemed to do the trick.
One way to do this is to 'detach' the entity from its database context. Take a look at an answer I gave to a similar question. It shows you a couple ways of detaching entities.