Question

How can I add an entity to the database through EF4 without attaching all of its referenced entities first?

var entity = new MyEntity() { FK_ID = 4 }; // associated entity key

using (var db = new MyEntities())
{
    db.MyEntity.AddObject(entity);

    db.SaveChanges();
    db.AcceptAllChanges();
}

This code keeps trying to also insert a new default-valued FK_Entity.

I see some suggestions online that I need to attach FK_Entity first and then set the MyEntity.FK property to the attached FK_Entity, but that seems awful. 1) I assume attaching requires loading the FK_Entity, which I don’t need just to insert the entity – I already gave it the right key and SQL will enforce referential integrity if I make a mistake. 2) As I have more references, I have to attach each one??

I can’t find any options or overloads for supressing cascaded inserts. I must be thinking about this wrong?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I found that the MVC Binder (or something) was creating an empty FK_Entity that I don’t want it to. So I Exclude = "FK_Entity" in the Create() controller handler properties, and continue to just set the fk_id property.

I know I could use ViewModels for this, translate the objects in and out of EF types, but I want to avoid that overhead for now.