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

I've met this problem before several hours and try everything, but in my case the solution was diferent from the listed above.

If you use already retrieved entity from the database and try to modify it's childrens the error will occure, but if you get fresh copy of the entity from the database there should not be any problems. Do not use this:

 public void CheckUsersCount(CompanyProduct companyProduct) 
 {
     companyProduct.Name = "Test";
 }

Use this:

 public void CheckUsersCount(Guid companyProductId)
 {
      CompanyProduct companyProduct = CompanyProductManager.Get(companyProductId);
      companyProduct.Name = "Test";
 }

Answer 2

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

/// <summary>
/// Base interface for all persisted entries
/// </summary>
public interface IBase
{
    /// <summary>
    /// The Id
    /// </summary>
    int Id { get; set; }
}

With this I implemented these two functions in my Repository

    /// <summary>
    /// Check if orgEntry is set update it's values, otherwise add it
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="set">The collection</param>
    /// <param name="entry">The entry</param>
    /// <param name="orgEntry">The original entry found in the database (can be <code>null</code> is this is a new entry)</param>
    /// <returns>The added or updated entry</returns>
    public T AddOrUpdateEntry<T>(DbSet<T> 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;
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// 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
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T">The type of entry</typeparam>
    /// <param name="set">The database set</param>
    /// <param name="newList">The new list</param>
    /// <param name="orgList">The original list</param>
    public void AddOrUpdateCollection<T>(DbSet<T> set, ICollection<T> newList, ICollection<T> 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 {
    /// <summary>
    /// Check if orgEntry is set update it's values, otherwise add it
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="_dbContext">The context object</param>
    /// <param name="set">The collection</param>
    /// <param name="entry">The entry</param>
    /// <param name="orgEntry">The original entry found in the database (can be <code>null</code> is this is a new entry)</param>
    /// <returns>The added or updated entry</returns>
    public static T AddOrUpdateEntry<T>(this DbContext _dbContext, DbSet<T> 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;
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// 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
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T">The type of entry</typeparam>
    /// <param name="_dbContext">The context object</param>
    /// <param name="set">The database set</param>
    /// <param name="newList">The new list</param>
    /// <param name="orgList">The original list</param>
    public static void AddOrUpdateCollection<T>(this DbContext _dbContext, DbSet<T> set, ICollection<T> newList, ICollection<T> 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);