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Seeding a join table in MVC

Hi:

I have a database in MVC 5 that I am trying to seed. The db consists of courses - each of which is made up of one or more modules.

Seeding the courses and modules works fine but I am having problems seeding the join-table course-modules - since at the time of seeding, there are no ids for either.

Here's my code - any suggestions on how to fix it greatly appreciated.

public class DatabaseInitializer :  DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges<DataContext>
{
	public override void Seed(DataContext context)
	{	
		public class Course 
		{
			public int Id { get; set; }
			public string Name { get; set; }
		}

		public class Module
		{
			public int Id { get; set; }
			public string Name { get; set; }
		}

		var course = new Course
		{
			Name = "Social Studies"
		};
		context.Courses.Add(course);

		var module = new Module
		{
			Name = "History",
		};
		context.AddModule(module)

		var module = new Module
		{
			Name = "Geography",
		};
		context.AddModule(module)
		
		//Problem - module and courses don't yet have Ids
		var courseModule = new CourseModule { CourseId = 1, ModuleId = 1 };
		context.CourseModules.Add(courseModule);
		courseModule = new CourseModule { CourseId = 1, ModuleId = 2};
		context.CourseModules.Add(courseModule);
		

		base.Seed(context)
	}
}

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ambience

Relying on Code first conventions, You could add virtual properties to the domain objects like

            public class Course
            {
                  public int Id { get; set; }
                  public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Module> Modules { get;set;}
            }

            public class Module
            {
                  public int Id { get; set; }
                  public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Course> Courses { get;set;}
            }

and then configure the model as

protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder b)
{
base.OnModelCreating(b);
b.Entity<Course>().HasMany(p => p.Modules).WithMany(p => p.Courses);

This would allow you to seed like

var course = new Course(...)
var module = new Module(...)
course.Modules.Add(module);
module.Courses.Add(course);

RBS

ASKER

Hi Ambience:

Thanks for the reply but it does not answer the question. The problem is not with seeding the main tables but with seeding the join tables. I have since found a good answer at http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/getting-started-with-ef-using-mvc/creating-a-more-complex-data-model-for-an-asp-net-mvc-application

It looks something like this:

foreach (Enrollment e in enrollments)
            {
                var enrollmentInDataBase = context.Enrollments.Where(
                    s =>
                         s.Student.ID == e.StudentID &&
                         s.Course.CourseID == e.CourseID).SingleOrDefault();
                if (enrollmentInDataBase == null)
                {
                    context.Enrollments.Add(e);
                }
            }
            context.SaveChanges();

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Regards,
RBS

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ambience

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RBS

ASKER

Thanks ambience!

RBS