Question

I am working with an edit user view that includes First name, Last Name, Username, etc.

I am also incorporating IsApproved and IsLockedOut from the Membership table in this edit user view as well.

See code snippet:

//Username from User table
<div class="editor-label">
    @Html.LabelFor(model => model.UserName)
</div>
<div class="editor-field">
    @Html.DisplayFor(model => model.UserName)
    @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.UserName)
</div>

//IsApproved from Membership table
<div class="editor-label">
    @Html.LabelFor(model => model.aspnet_Membership.IsApproved)
</div>
<div class="editor-field">
    @Html.EditorFor(model => model.aspnet_Membership.IsApproved)
    @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.aspnet_Membership.IsApproved)
</div>

I can go to edit the user, but when I try to save the changes, the following comes up:

"A referential integrity constraint violation occurred: The property values that define the referential constraints are not consistent between principal and dependent objects in the relationship."

and takes place with the following code: db.Users.Attach(user); where user is passed into the method Edit in the controller.

No errors occur when I take away the code associated with the Membership table.

How do I go about resolving this issue? Is there a better approach?

UPDATE: Here’s what’s going on in the controller (in a nutshell):

 public ActionResult Edit(int id)
 {
     User user = db.Users.Single(u => u.UserID == id);

     ViewBag.UserGUID = new SelectList(db.Memberships, "UserId", "Password", user.UserGUID);
     ViewBag.CompanyID = new SelectList(db.Companies, "CompanyID", "CompanyName", user.CompanyID);

     return View(user);
 }

 public ActionResult Edit(User user)
 {
     if (ModelState.IsValid)
     {
         db.Users.Attach(user);
         db.ObjectStateManager.ChangeObjectState(user, EntityState.Modified);
         db.SaveChanges();
     }

     ViewBag.UserGUID = new SelectList(db.Memberships, "UserId", "Password", user.UserGUID);
     ViewBag.CompanyID = new SelectList(db.Companies, "CompanyID", "CompanyName", user.CompanyID);

     return View(user);
 }

Answer 1

I would create a model with all the properties you need, so you can use it in the view. Then you can separate your data operations between the different tables.

public ActionResult Edit(int id)
{
    User user = db.Users.Single(u => u.UserID == id);
    UserViewModel model = new UserViewModel()
    {
        UserID = user.UserID,
        //etc.
    }

    ViewBag.UserGUID = new SelectList(db.Memberships, "UserId", "Password", user.UserGUID);
    ViewBag.CompanyID = new SelectList(db.Companies, "CompanyID", "CompanyName", user.CompanyID);

    return View(model);
} 

public ActionResult Edit(UserViewModel userModel)
{
    if (ModelState.IsValid)
    {
        // Update user properties
        User user = db.Users.Single(u => u.UserID == userModel.UserID);
        // etc.

        // If you need to update the membership value, do that next

        db.SaveChanges();
    }

    ViewBag.UserGUID = new SelectList(db.Memberships, "UserId", "Password", user.UserGUID);
    ViewBag.CompanyID = new SelectList(db.Companies, "CompanyID", "CompanyName", user.CompanyID);

    return View(user);
}

It’s not as short in the code as doing the Attach(), but it should allow more fine-grained control over your data operations.