How do I tell UserManager.FindByNameAsync to include a relation?

Question

I am using ASP.NET Identity 2.2.0 with ASP.NET MVC 5.2.3 and Entity Framework 6.1.2.

I added a new property and its corresponding table to my database using ASP.NET Identity with Code First like so:

public class ApplicationUser
{
  [ForeignKey("UserTypeId")]
  public UserType Type { get; set;}
  public int UserTypeId { get; set;} 
}

public class UserType
{
  [Key]
  public int Id { get; set;}

  public string Name { get; set; }
}

Now, from some action, when I call:

var user = UserManager.FindByNameAsync(userName);

It does get the user with the correct UserTypeId because that is a primitive, but it does not get the UserType property of the ApplicationUser class.

If I were not using this abstraction, I would either call LoadProperty<T> or the Include method in Entity Framework to include the navigational property or relation named Type (of type UserType) on the ApplicationUser class.

How do I do that with ASP.NET Identity's UserManager? I suspect the only way would be to override this method in my custom UserManager derived class and do it myself?

Answer 1

With Entity Framework lazy loading, you need to ensure that your navigation properties are marked as virtual.

public class ApplicationUser
{
    [ForeignKey("UserTypeId")]
    public virtual UserType Type { get; set;}
    public int UserTypeId { get; set;} 
}

Alternatively if you are unable/don't want to use lazy loading, then you can still use your context as you would any other entity:

var user = context.Users.Include(u => u.Type).Single(u => u.UserName == userName);