TextTemplating files to use with Entity Framework as Code Generation items, avoiding Circular Reference when serialized (json) + DB methods (InsertALotsOfEntity)

The purpose here was to serialise any entity from the framework as json. Two problems were happening:

• Circular Reference Exception (due to navigation properties)
• Proxy class name instead of declared

Also, I took this opportunity to add a DBUtils code generation to add the most basic methods (Get, AddOrUpdate, etc...) but also a InsertALotsOfEntity method to insert more than a thousand entity in a row and very quickly.

• Software

  • Visual Studio 2012 - 2017
  • Entity Framework 5
  • Compatible with EF6

• Components

  • Applicable under .edmx file

Copy/paste the content of [ModelName].Context.tt and [ModelName].tt, add new Code generation item with the last text templating : [ModelName].tt (with the edmx file open) (I am replacing [ModelName] by the entity model name)

1. Get an entity from DB

    Bid proxyBid = null;
    using (BidderModelContainer context = new BidderModelContainer())
    {
        proxyBid = context.Bids.FirstOrDefault(_ => _.Id == bidId);
    }
    //proxyBid will result as Bid_5BB20962C2C78D24A9CCF63D57FEDDDA5244F675D04549D61FFE37CF20C46439 instance

    Bid bidToSerialize = new Bid(proxyBid);
    //bidToSerialize will result as Bid instance

2. Use DBUtils

• Use same DB context for multiple instructions

  IEnumerable<Bid> bids = null;
  using (BidderModelContainer context = new BidderModelContainer())
  {
      bids = BidDBUtils.GetBids(context); //Get all Bid list

      Bid bidToUpdate = bids.FirstOrDefault();
      bidToUpdate.Name = "New Bid Name";
      BidDBUtils.AddOrUpdateEntity(bidToUpdate, context); // updating one Bid instance Name property

      List<ValuesHit> values = new List<ValuesHit>();
      for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
      {
          values.Add(new ValuesHit() { Value = i.ToString() });
      }
      ValuesHitDBUtils.AddOrUpdateEntities(values, context); //Adding 100 new ValuesHit instances

      context.SaveChanges();
  }

• Improve Massive Insert by using InsertALotsOf method Using the following code, I compare two methods to insert massive amount of instance within SQL Server DB.

  A ValuesHit object is a quite simple structure with only 2 properties (Id, Value), since the Id property will be defined at the insert time (Primary key), I only populate the Value property.

  List<ValuesHit> values = new List<ValuesHit>();
  for (int i = 0; i < 2000; i++)
  {
      values.Add(new ValuesHit() { Value = i.ToString() });
  }

  ValuesHitDBUtils.AddOrUpdateEntities(values);       //here 9496ms to insert 2000 rows
  ValuesHitDBUtils.InsertALotsOfValuesHit(values);    //here 71ms to insert 2000 rows
  

Here is a table to compare the execution time of the two methods:

Copyright © 2018 Romain Stiffler https://rstiffler.net.

This is licensed under the terms of the MIT license.