entity framework 4.1 code first and auto mapper issue

Question

Consider this simple Model and ViewModel scenario:

public class SomeModel
{
    public virtual Company company {get; set;}
    public string name {get; set;}
    public string address {get; set;}

    //some other few tens of properties
}

public class SomeViewModel
{
    public Company company {get; set;}
    public string name {get; set;}
    public string address {get; set;}
    //some other few tens of properties
}

Problem that occurs is:

I have a edit page where company is not needed so I do not fetch it from database. Now when the form is submitted I do:

SomeModel destinationModel = someContext.SomeModel.Include("Company").Where( i => i.Id == id) // assume id is available from somewhere.

Then I do a

Company oldCompany = destinationModel.company; // save it before mapper assigns it null

Mapper.Map(sourceViewModel,destinationModel);

//After this piece of line my company in destinationModel will be null because sourceViewModel's company is null. Great!!
//so I assign old company to it

destinationModel.company = oldCompany;

context.Entry(destinationModel).State = EntityState.Modified;

context.SaveChanges();

And problem is even when I assign oldCompany to my company it is still null in database after savechanges.

Note:

If I change these lines:

destinationModel.company = oldCompany;

context.Entry(destinationModel).State = EntityState.Modified;

context.SaveChanges();

to these:

context.Entry(destinationModel).State = EntityState.Modified;

destinationModel.company = oldCompany;

context.Entry(destinationModel).State = EntityState.Modified;

context.SaveChanges();

Notice I change the state 2 times, it works fine. What can be the issue? Is this a ef 4.1 bug?

This is a sample console application to address the issue:

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Data.Entity;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using AutoMapper;

namespace Slauma
{
    public class SlaumaContext : DbContext
    {
        public DbSet<Company> Companies { get; set; }
        public DbSet<MyModel> MyModels { get; set; }

        public SlaumaContext()
        {
            this.Configuration.AutoDetectChangesEnabled = true;
            this.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = true;
        }
    }

    public class MyModel
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Foo { get; set; }

        [ForeignKey("CompanyId")]
        public virtual Company Company { get; set; }

        public int? CompanyId { get; set; }
    }

    public class Company
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
    }


    public class MyViewModel
    {
        public string Foo { get; set; }

        public Company Company { get; set; }

        public int? CompanyId { get; set; }
    }

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            Database.SetInitializer<SlaumaContext>(new DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges<SlaumaContext>());

            SlaumaContext slaumaContext = new SlaumaContext();

            Company company = new Company { Name = "Microsoft" };
            MyModel myModel = new MyModel { Company = company, Foo = "Foo"};

            slaumaContext.Companies.Add(company);
            slaumaContext.MyModels.Add(myModel);
            slaumaContext.SaveChanges();

            Mapper.CreateMap<MyModel, MyViewModel>();
            Mapper.CreateMap<MyViewModel, MyModel>();


            //fetch the company
            MyModel dest = slaumaContext.MyModels.Include("Company").Where( c => c.Id == 1).First(); //hardcoded for demo

            Company oldCompany = dest.Company;

            //creating a viewmodel
            MyViewModel source = new MyViewModel();
            source.Company = null;
            source.CompanyId = null;
            source.Foo = "foo hoo";

            Mapper.Map(source, dest); // company null in dest


            //uncomment this line then only it will work else it won't is this bug?
            //slaumaContext.Entry(dest).State = System.Data.EntityState.Modified; 

            dest.Company = oldCompany;

            slaumaContext.Entry(dest).State = System.Data.EntityState.Modified;
            slaumaContext.SaveChanges();

            Console.ReadKey();

        }
    }
}

Answer 1

Automapper always updates every property from the source instance to the destination instance by default. So if you don't want your Company property overwritten then you have to explicitly configure this for your mapper:

Mapper.CreateMap<MyViewModel, MyModel>().ForMember(m => m.Company, c => c.UseDestinationValue());

So far nothing EF related. But if you are using this with EF you have to use your navigation property Company and the CompanyId consistently: you also need to use the destination value for CompanyId during mapping:

Mapper.CreateMap<MyViewModel, MyModel>().ForMember(m => m.CompanyId, c => c.UseDestinationValue());

EDIT: But the problem is not that your Company is null but after resetting it is still null in the DB. And this caused by the fact that if you are having an explicit Id property like 'CompanyId' you have to mantain it. So it is not enough to call destinationModel.company = oldCompany; you also need to call destinationModel.companyId = oldCompany.Id;

And because you retrieved your dest entity from the context it's already doing the change tracking for you therefore there is no need set EntityState.Modified.

EDIT: Your modified sample:

Mapper.CreateMap<MyModel, MyViewModel>();
Mapper.CreateMap<MyViewModel, MyModel>();    

//fetch the company 
MyModel dest = slaumaContext.MyModels.Include("Company").Where(c => c.Id == 18).First(); //hardcoded for demo 

var oldCompany = dest.Company;

//creating a viewmodel 
MyViewModel source = new MyViewModel();
source.Company = null;
source.CompanyId = null;
source.Foo = "fdsfdf";

Mapper.Map(source, dest); // company null in dest 

dest.Company = oldCompany;
dest.CompanyId = oldCompany.Id;

slaumaContext.SaveChanges();