Entity Framework SaveChanges() not updating the database

Question

var paymentAttempt = _auctionContext.PaymentAttempts.Where(o => o.Id == paymentAttemptId).SingleOrDefault();
if (paymentAttempt != null)
{
    paymentAttempt.PaymentAttemptStatusId = (int)PaymentAttemptStatus.Defunct;
    paymentAttempt.PaymentAttemptStatus = _auctionContext.PaymentAttemptStatuses.Where(pas => pas.Id == paymentAttempt.PaymentAttemptStatusId).First();

    var relevantWinningBidsTotalPrices = _auctionContext.GetWinningBidsTotalPricesForPaymentAttempt(paymentAttemptId).ToArray();

    foreach (var winningBid in relevantWinningBidsTotalPrices)
    {
        winningBid.Locked = false;
        _auctionContext.UpdateObject(winningBid);
    }
    _auctionContext.SaveChanges();
}

In the above code after

_auctionContext.SaveChanges();

is called winningBid is updated as expected but paymentAttempt isn't. Why is this? It is really frustrating. There is no error either. I would expect a failure to occur if there was a problem like EF wasn't tracking the object or something like that, but no such error is happening.

Answer 1

That's because you need to pass the paymentAttempt object to your context, to let it know that it is an object that needs to be updated.

For example, assuming that _auctionContext is an instance of DbContext:

// any changes related to the paymentAttempt object 

_auctionContext.Entry(paymentAttempt).State = EntityState.Modified;

foreach (var winningBid in relevantWinningBidsTotalPrices)
{
   winningBid.Locked = false;
   _auctionContext.UpdateObject(winningBid);
}

_auctionContext.SaveChanges();

Another option is the Attach method:

_auctionContext.Attach(paymentAttempt);
_auctionContext.ObjectStateManager.ChangeObjectState(paymentAttempt, System.Data.EntityState.Modified);

Answer 2

I know this is late but there's another explanation worth mentioning. Even though your field name contains ID and may be set to autoincrement, be sure to verify that you declared it in your table the primary key.