Cloning entities using EntityFrameworkCore configuration.
This library is Cross-platform, supporting net6.0
, net7.0
and net8.0
.
You should install EntityCloner.Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore with NuGet:
Install-Package EntityCloner.Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore
Or via the .NET Core command line interface:
dotnet add package EntityCloner.Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore
Either commands, from Package Manager Console or .NET Core CLI, will download and install EntityCloner.Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore and all required dependencies.
This package provides two extension methods for DbContext
:
Task<TEntity> CloneAsync<TEntity>(this DbContext source, params object[] primaryKey)
Task<TEntity> CloneAsync<TEntity>(this DbContext source, Func<IClonableQueryable<TEntity>, IClonableQueryable<TEntity>> includeQuery, params object[] primaryKey)
These extension methods supports cloning an entity. Be aware: the cloned entity is not tracked by the ChangeTracker of EntityFrameworkCore. You should add it manually to the DbSet.
If you provide IncludeQuery configuration, then the included entities will be cloned too. The Include and ThenInclude works same way as EntityFrameworkCore for querying with Linq.
It will clone the entity with related entities based on EntityFrameworkCore configuration model.
During cloning, all PrimaryKey, ForeignKey (except for some exceptions) and ConcurrencyToken properties will be reset to default values
If a ForeignKey entity is not included, then the ForeignKey property will not be reset. This is for example in cases when you have a ForeignKey to an entity from a selection list.
It also supports primarty keys based on multiple properties.
It also supports plain classes, IQueryable
The only requirement is, that the entity should be part of the model configuration of EntityFrameworkCore.
To use it:
...
using EntityCloner.Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer;
public class YourClass
{
// This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to add services to the container.
public async Task YourMethod(DbContext dbContext)
{
var entityId = 10;
// To clone only the entity:
var clonedOrderEntity = await dbContext.CloneAsync<Order>(entityId);
// To clone entity with related data
var clonedOrderEntityWithRelatedEntities = await dbContext.CloneAsync<Order>(
includeQuery => includeQuery
.Include(o => o.OrderLines)
.ThenInclude(ol => ol.Discounts)
.Include(o => o.Customer)
.ThenInclude(x => x.CustomerAddresses)
.Include(o => o.Customer)
.ThenInclude(x => x.Invoices)
.ThenInclude(x => x.InvoiceLines),
entityId);
// To clone using IQueryable
var entityId = 10;
var query = DbSet<TestEntity>.AsNoTracking()
.Include(o => o.OrderLines)
.ThenInclude(ol => ol.Discounts)
.Include(o => o.Customer)
.ThenInclude(x => x.CustomerAddresses)
.Include(o => o.Customer)
.ThenInclude(x => x.Invoices)
.ThenInclude(x => x.InvoiceLines)
.Where(o => o.Id == entityId);
var clonedOrderEntityViaQueryable = await dbContext.CloneAsync(query);
// To clone using entity
var entityId = 10;
var entity = await DbSet<TestEntity>.AsNoTracking()
.Include(o => o.OrderLines)
.ThenInclude(ol => ol.Discounts)
.Include(o => o.Customer)
.ThenInclude(x => x.CustomerAddresses)
.Include(o => o.Customer)
.ThenInclude(x => x.Invoices)
.ThenInclude(x => x.InvoiceLines)
.Where(o => o.Id == entityId)
.SingleAsync();
var clonedOrderEntityViaEntity = await dbContext.CloneAsync(entity);
// To clone using list of entities
var entityId = 10;
var entities = await DbSet<TestEntity>.AsNoTracking()
.Include(o => o.OrderLines)
.ThenInclude(ol => ol.Discounts)
.Include(o => o.Customer)
.ThenInclude(x => x.CustomerAddresses)
.Include(o => o.Customer)
.ThenInclude(x => x.Invoices)
.ThenInclude(x => x.InvoiceLines)
.Where(o => o.Id == entityId)
.ToListAsync();
var clonedOrderEntitiesViaList = await dbContext.CloneAsync(entities);
}
}
If you want to debug the source code, thats possible. SourceLink is enabled. To use it, you have to change Visual Studio Debugging options:
Debug => Options => Debugging => General
Set the following settings:
[ ] Enable Just My Code
[X] Enable .NET Framework source stepping
[X] Enable source server support
[X] Enable source link support
Now you can use 'step into' (F11).