How to add/update child entities when updating a parent entity in EF

Question

Because the model that gets posted to the WebApi controller is detached from any entity-framework (EF) context, the only option is to load the object graph (parent including its children) from the database and compare which children have been added, deleted or updated. (Unless you would track the changes with your own tracking mechanism during the detached state (in the browser or wherever) which in my opinion is more complex than the following.) It could look like this:

public void Update(UpdateParentModel model)
{
    var existingParent = _dbContext.Parents
        .Where(p => p.Id == model.Id)
        .Include(p => p.Children)
        .SingleOrDefault();

    if (existingParent != null)
    {
        // Update parent
        _dbContext.Entry(existingParent).CurrentValues.SetValues(model);

        // Delete children
        foreach (var existingChild in existingParent.Children.ToList())
        {
            if (!model.Children.Any(c => c.Id == existingChild.Id))
                _dbContext.Children.Remove(existingChild);
        }

        // Update and Insert children
        foreach (var childModel in model.Children)
        {
            var existingChild = existingParent.Children
                .Where(c => c.Id == childModel.Id && c.Id != default(int))
                .SingleOrDefault();

            if (existingChild != null)
                // Update child
                _dbContext.Entry(existingChild).CurrentValues.SetValues(childModel);
            else
            {
                // Insert child
                var newChild = new Child
                {
                    Data = childModel.Data,
                    //...
                };
                existingParent.Children.Add(newChild);
            }
        }

        _dbContext.SaveChanges();
    }
}

...CurrentValues.SetValues can take any object and maps property values to the attached entity based on the property name. If the property names in your model are different from the names in the entity you can't use this method and must assign the values one by one.

OK guys. I had this answer once but lost it along the way. absolute torture when you know there's a better way but can't remember it or find it! It's very simple. I just tested it multiple ways.

var parent = _dbContext.Parents
  .Where(p => p.Id == model.Id)
  .Include(p => p.Children)
  .FirstOrDefault();

parent.Children = _dbContext.Children.Where(c => <Query for New List Here>);
_dbContext.Entry(parent).State = EntityState.Modified;

_dbContext.SaveChanges();

You can replace the whole list with a new one! The SQL code will remove and add entities as needed. No need to concern yourself with that. Be sure to include child collection or no dice. Good luck!

I've been messing about with something like this...

protected void UpdateChildCollection<Tparent, Tid , Tchild>(Tparent dbItem, Tparent newItem, Func<Tparent, IEnumerable<Tchild>> selector, Func<Tchild, Tid> idSelector) where Tchild : class
    {
        var dbItems = selector(dbItem).ToList();
        var newItems = selector(newItem).ToList();

        if (dbItems == null && newItems == null)
            return;

        var original = dbItems?.ToDictionary(idSelector) ?? new Dictionary<Tid, Tchild>();
        var updated = newItems?.ToDictionary(idSelector) ?? new Dictionary<Tid, Tchild>();

        var toRemove = original.Where(i => !updated.ContainsKey(i.Key)).ToArray();
        var removed = toRemove.Select(i => DbContext.Entry(i.Value).State = EntityState.Deleted).ToArray();

        var toUpdate = original.Where(i => updated.ContainsKey(i.Key)).ToList();
        toUpdate.ForEach(i => DbContext.Entry(i.Value).CurrentValues.SetValues(updated[i.Key]));

        var toAdd = updated.Where(i => !original.ContainsKey(i.Key)).ToList();
        toAdd.ForEach(i => DbContext.Set<Tchild>().Add(i.Value));
    }

which you can call with something like:

UpdateChildCollection(dbCopy, detached, p => p.MyCollectionProp, collectionItem => collectionItem.Id)

Unfortunately, this kinda falls over if there are collection properties on the child type which also need to be updated. Considering trying to solve this by passing an IRepository (with basic CRUD methods) which would be responsible for calling UpdateChildCollection on its own. Would call the repo instead of direct calls to DbContext.Entry.

Have no idea how this will all perform at scale, but not sure what else to do with this problem.

If you are using EntityFrameworkCore you can do the following in your controller post action (The Attach method recursively attaches navigation properties including collections):

_context.Attach(modelPostedToController);

IEnumerable<EntityEntry> unchangedEntities = _context.ChangeTracker.Entries().Where(x => x.State == EntityState.Unchanged);

foreach(EntityEntry ee in unchangedEntities){
     ee.State = EntityState.Modified;
}

await _context.SaveChangesAsync();

It is assumed that each entity that was updated has all properties set and provided in the post data from the client (eg. won't work for partial update of an entity).

You also need to make sure that you are using a new/dedicated entity framework database context for this operation.

public async Task<IHttpActionResult> PutParent(int id, Parent parent)
        {
            if (!ModelState.IsValid)
            {
                return BadRequest(ModelState);
            }

            if (id != parent.Id)
            {
                return BadRequest();
            }

            db.Entry(parent).State = EntityState.Modified;

            foreach (Child child in parent.Children)
            {
                db.Entry(child).State = child.Id == 0 ? EntityState.Added : EntityState.Modified;
            }

            try
            {
                await db.SaveChangesAsync();
            }
            catch (DbUpdateConcurrencyException)
            {
                if (!ParentExists(id))
                {
                    return NotFound();
                }
                else
                {
                    throw;
                }
            }

            return Ok(db.Parents.Find(id));
        }

This is how I solved this problem. This way, EF knows which to add which to update.

There are a few projects out there that make the interaction between the client and the server easier as far as it concerns saving an entire object graph.

Here are two you'd want to look at:

• Trackable Entities
• Breeze#

Both the projects above take recognize the disconnected entities when it's returned to the server, detect and save the changes, and return to the client affected data.