Question

I am pulling out my hair, I have no idea why I can’t return the AdPhotos and Location entities. I am using .ToList() shouldn’t it keep the AdPhotos collection intact?

When I place a breakpoint on the return, I can see the data in AdPhotos and Location but after that it disappears.

public List<AdListing> LatestAdListings()
{
    using (var db = new AdultdirectoryEntities())
    {
        var results = (from a in db.AdListings.Include("AdPhotos").Include("Location")
                       join l in db.Locations on a.LocationID equals l.LocationID
                       where a.Approved && l.CountryID == Constants.ItemKeys.UsCountryId && a.AdPhotos.Count > 0
                       orderby a.CreateDateTime descending
                       select a).Take(5).ToList();

        return results;
    }
}

Answer 1

Your Include call is followed by manual join – that is not supported. Once you use manual join or projection you are changing shape of the query and all Include calls are lost.

Moreover you don’t need the join because you can write the query like:

var results = (from a in db.AdListings.Include("AdPhotos").Include("Location")
               where a.Approved && a.Location.CountryID == Constants.ItemKeys.UsCountryId && a.AdPhotos.Count > 0
               orderby a.CreateDateTime descending
               select a).Take(5).ToList();