The relationship could not be changed because one or more of the foreign-key properties is non-nullable

Question

I am getting this error when I GetById() on an entity and then set the collection of child entities to my new list which comes from the MVC view.

The

Answer 1

Using the solution of Slauma, I created some generic functions to help update child objects and collections of child objects.

All my persistent objects implement this interface

/// 

/// Base interface for all persisted entries
/// 
public interface IBase
{
    /// 

    /// The Id
    /// 
    int Id { get; set; }
}

With this I implemented these two functions in my Repository

    /// 

    /// Check if orgEntry is set update it's values, otherwise add it
    /// 
    /// The collection
    /// The entry
    /// The original entry found in the database (can be null is this is a new entry)
    /// The added or updated entry
    public T AddOrUpdateEntry(DbSet set, T entry, T orgEntry) where T : class, IBase
    {
        if (entry.Id == 0 || orgEntry == null)
        {
            entry.Id = 0;
            return set.Add(entry);
        }
        else
        {
            Context.Entry(orgEntry).CurrentValues.SetValues(entry);
            return orgEntry;
        }
    }

    /// 

    /// check if each entry of the new list was in the orginal list, if found, update it, if not found add it
    /// all entries found in the orignal list that are not in the new list are removed
    /// 
    /// The type of entry
    /// The database set
    /// The new list
    /// The original list
    public void AddOrUpdateCollection(DbSet set, ICollection newList, ICollection orgList) where T : class, IBase
    {
        // attach or update all entries in the new list
        foreach (T entry in newList)
        {
            // Find out if we had the entry already in the list
            var orgEntry = orgList.SingleOrDefault(e => e.Id != 0 && e.Id == entry.Id);

            AddOrUpdateEntry(set, entry, orgEntry);
        }

        // Remove all entries from the original list that are no longer in the new list
        foreach (T orgEntry in orgList.Where(e => e.Id != 0).ToList())
        {
            if (!newList.Any(e => e.Id == orgEntry.Id))
            {
                set.Remove(orgEntry);
            }
        }
    }

To use it i do the following:

var originalParent = _dbContext.ParentItems
    .Where(p => p.Id == parent.Id)
    .Include(p => p.ChildItems)
    .Include(p => p.ChildItems2)
    .SingleOrDefault();

// Add the parent (including collections) to the context or update it's values (except the collections)
originalParent = AddOrUpdateEntry(_dbContext.ParentItems, parent, originalParent);

// Update each collection
AddOrUpdateCollection(_dbContext.ChildItems, parent.ChildItems, orgiginalParent.ChildItems);
AddOrUpdateCollection(_dbContext.ChildItems2, parent.ChildItems2, orgiginalParent.ChildItems2);

Hope this helps

---

EXTRA: You could also make a seperate DbContextExtentions (or your own context inferface) class:

public static void DbContextExtentions {
    /// 

    /// Check if orgEntry is set update it's values, otherwise add it
    /// 
    /// The context object
    /// The collection
    /// The entry
    /// The original entry found in the database (can be null is this is a new entry)
    /// The added or updated entry
    public static T AddOrUpdateEntry(this DbContext _dbContext, DbSet set, T entry, T orgEntry) where T : class, IBase
    {
        if (entry.IsNew || orgEntry == null) // New or not found in context
        {
            entry.Id = 0;
            return set.Add(entry);
        }
        else
        {
            _dbContext.Entry(orgEntry).CurrentValues.SetValues(entry);
            return orgEntry;
        }
    }

    /// 

    /// check if each entry of the new list was in the orginal list, if found, update it, if not found add it
    /// all entries found in the orignal list that are not in the new list are removed
    /// 
    /// The type of entry
    /// The context object
    /// The database set
    /// The new list
    /// The original list
    public static void AddOrUpdateCollection(this DbContext _dbContext, DbSet set, ICollection newList, ICollection orgList) where T : class, IBase
    {
        // attach or update all entries in the new list
        foreach (T entry in newList)
        {
            // Find out if we had the entry already in the list
            var orgEntry = orgList.SingleOrDefault(e => e.Id != 0 && e.Id == entry.Id);

            AddOrUpdateEntry(_dbContext, set, entry, orgEntry);
        }

        // Remove all entries from the original list that are no longer in the new list
        foreach (T orgEntry in orgList.Where(e => e.Id != 0).ToList())
        {
            if (!newList.Any(e => e.Id == orgEntry.Id))
            {
                set.Remove(orgEntry);
            }
        }
    }
}

and use it like:

var originalParent = _dbContext.ParentItems
    .Where(p => p.Id == parent.Id)
    .Include(p => p.ChildItems)
    .Include(p => p.ChildItems2)
    .SingleOrDefault();

// Add the parent (including collections) to the context or update it's values (except the collections)
originalParent = _dbContext.AddOrUpdateEntry(_dbContext.ParentItems, parent, originalParent);

// Update each collection
_dbContext.AddOrUpdateCollection(_dbContext.ChildItems, parent.ChildItems, orgiginalParent.ChildItems);
_dbContext.AddOrUpdateCollection(_dbContext.ChildItems2, parent.ChildItems2, orgiginalParent.ChildItems2);