ASP.NET MVC 5 identity application user as foreign key

Question

I know Visual Studio 2013 launches officially tomorrow and hopefully there will be more accompanying documentation especially as it regards ASP.NET Identity. I am hopping that in the meantime someone can help me out.

All I am trying to do is to get the UserID of the currently logged in user as foreign key to a table I called Retailer.

First here is the error message I am getting

An entity object cannot be referenced by multiple instances of IEntityChangeTracker.

Here is my POCO:

public class Retailer
{
    [Key]
    public int RetailerId { get; set; }
    public string BusinessName { get; set; }
    public string PhoneNumber { get; set; }
    public string ManagerName { get; set; }
    public Enums.Industry Industry { get; set; }
    public virtual ApplicationUser UserProfile { get; set; }

}

Here is how Entity Framework CodeFirst created the table from the above class:

CreateTable(
    "dbo.Retailers",
    c => new
        {
            RetailerId = c.Int(nullable: false, identity: true),
            BusinessName = c.String(),
            PhoneNumber = c.String(),
            ManagerName = c.String(),
            Industry = c.Int(nullable: false),
            UserProfile_Id = c.String(maxLength: 128),
        })
    .PrimaryKey(t => t.RetailerId)
    .ForeignKey("dbo.AspNetUsers", t => t.UserProfile_Id)
    .Index(t => t.UserProfile_Id);

And here is where I am trying to save a record to this table in my Controller:

if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
    var currentUser = await UserManager.FindByIdAsync(User.Identity.GetUserId());
    retailer.UserProfile = currentUser;
    db.Retailers.Add(retailer);
    await db.SaveChangesAsync();
    return RedirectToAction("Index");
}

And for full disclosure here is some of the stack trace:

InvalidOperationException: An entity object cannot be referenced by multiple instances of IEntityChangeTracker.]
   System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectContext.VerifyContextForAddOrAttach(IEntityWrapper wrappedEntity) +189
   System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectContext.AddSingleObject(EntitySet entitySet, IEntityWrapper wrappedEntity, String argumentName) +126
   System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.DataClasses.RelatedEnd.AddEntityToObjectStateManager(IEntityWrapper wrappedEntity, Boolean doAttach) +98
   System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.DataClasses.EntityReference.AddEntityToObjectStateManager(IEntityWrapper wrappedEntity, Boolean doAttach) +65
   System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.DataClasses.RelatedEnd.AddGraphToObjectStateManager(IEntityWrapper wrappedEntity, Boolean relationshipAlreadyExists, Boolean addRelationshipAsUnchanged, Boolean doAttach) +67
   System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.DataClasses.RelatedEnd.IncludeEntity(IEntityWrapper wrappedEntity, Boolean addRelationshipAsUnchanged, Boolean doAttach) +341
   System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.DataClasses.EntityReference`1.Include(Boolean addRelationshipAsUnchanged, Boolean doAttach) +210
   System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.DataClasses.RelationshipManager.AddRelatedEntitiesToObjectStateManager(Boolean doAttach) +164
   System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectContext.AddObject(String entitySetName, Object entity) +520
   System.Data.Entity.Internal.Linq.<>c__DisplayClassd.<Add>b__c() +97
   System.Data.Entity.Internal.Linq.InternalSet`1.ActOnSet(Action action, EntityState newState, Object entity, String methodName) +355
   System.Data.Entity.Internal.Linq.InternalSet`1.Add(Object entity) +200
   System.Data.Entity.DbSet`1.Add(TEntity entity) +130
   ValueCardPremium.Web.Controllers.<Create>d__7.MoveNext() in c:\Users\Valentine\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Projects\ValueCardProjectPremium\ValueCardPremium.Web\Controllers\RetailerController.cs:70
   System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task) +93
   System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task) +52
   System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.GetResult() +21
   lambda_method(Closure , Task ) +64

Answer 1

UserManager uses it's own DbContext to load data from the database. You will need to retrieve the user from the same dbContext that you use to add a reference to. Something like:

var currentUMUser = await UserManager.FindByIdAsync(User.Identity.GetUserId());
var currentUser = db.Users.Find(currentUMUser.UserID);
retailer.UserProfile = currentUser;
db.Retailers.Add(retailer);
await db.SaveChangesAsync();
return RedirectToAction("Index");

Of course, you will have to retrieve the user from your DB using whatever method actually works for your models and DbContext.