Question

I’m trying to query UserMetaData for a single record using the following query

 using (JonTestDataEntities context = new JonTestDataEntities())
            {
                return context.UserMetaData.Single(user => user.User.ID == id);               
            }

The error I’m receiving is: The ObjectContext instance has been disposed and can no longer be used for operations that require a connection. It is trying to lazyload Group for UserMetaData record. How can I change my query to prevent this error?

Answer 1

You need to create a strong type that matches the signature of your result set. Entity Framework is creating an anonymous type and the anonymous type is disposed after the using statement goes out of scope.

So assigning to a strong type avoids the issue altogether. I’d recommend creating a class called UserDTO since you’re really creating a data transfer object in this case. The benefit of the dedicated DTO is you can include only the necessary properties to keep your response as lightweight as possible.