I want to be able to tell if there is any unsaved data in an entity framework context. I have figured out how to use the ObjectStateManager to check the states of existing entities, but there are two issues I have with this.
- I would prefer a single function to call to see if any entities are unsaved instead of looping though all entities in the context.
- I can't figure out how to detect entities I have added. This suggests to me that I do not fully understand how the entity context works. For example, if I have the ObjectSet myContext.Employees, and I add a new employee to this set (with .AddObject), I do not see the new entity when I look at the ObjectSet and I also don't see the .Count increase. However, when I do a context.SaveChanges(), my new entity is persisted...huh?
I have been unable to find an answer to this in my msdn searches, so I was hoping someone here would be able to clue me in.
Thanks in advance.
var addedStateEntries = Context
.ObjectStateManager
.GetObjectStateEntries(EntityState.Added);
Via extension method (for every ObjectContext):
internal static class ObjectContextExtensions
{
public static bool IsContextDirty(this ObjectContext objectContext)
{
return objectContext
.ObjectStateManager
.GetObjectStateEntries(
EntityState.Added |
EntityState.Deleted |
EntityState.Modified).Any();
}
}
or via partial method (only for your ObjectContext):
partial class MyModel
{
public bool IsContextDirty()
{
return ObjectStateManager
.GetObjectStateEntries(
EntityState.Added |
EntityState.Deleted |
EntityState.Modified).Any();
}
}
A simple way to get a reusable single method/property you could add a new method to your ObjectContext by creating a partial class and adding a property like this:
public partial class MyEntityContext
{
public bool IsContextDirty
{
get
{
var items = ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntries(EntityState.Added);
if(items.Any())
return true;
items = ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntries(EntityState.Deleted);
if (items.Any())
return true;
items = ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntries(EntityState.Modified);
if(items.Any())
return true;
return false;
}
}
}
Depending on what your looking for you could expose other properties to know if there are just deletes or modifications. This method could be simplified, but I wanted it to be clear what you would need to do.
This article describes exactly what is needed to perform Change Tracking in the Entity Framework:
Identity Resolution, State Management, and Change Tracking (Entity Framework) - MSDN