AutoMapper with Entity Framework causes EntityState = Detached

[Sam]

Hello,

I am trying to use Automapper with Entity Framework to map from DTO
objects back to database entities. I am encountering a problem with
the following approach:

MyDTO dto = new MyDTO();
dto.Name = "Nick";

using (MyEntityContainer ec = new MyEntityContainer()) {
MyEntity entity = ec.MyEntities.Single(s => s.Id == 1); // retrieve
entity from data store

Mapper.CreateMap<MyDTO, MyEntity>();
entity = Mapper.Map<MyDTO, NyEntity>(dto);

ec.SaveChanges();
}

This approach will correctly change the Name property of entity to
"Nick" but in the process, the EntityState gets changed to Detached,
which results in the SaveChanges() not to save the entity object.

A manual mapping without AutoMapper, setting entity.Name = dto.Name
will result in the EntityState to get set to Modified (expected
behaviour), which results in a following SaveChanges to correctly save
the object. I could of course do an Attach of the entity object after
mapping it up with AutoMapper, but I don't see why this would be
necessary. Is there some workaround for this, or is this expected
behaviour due to the internals of AutoMapper?

Setting .ForMember to Ignore on EntityState and EntityKey does not
work.

[Jimmy Bogard]

Try mapping to an existing object:

Mapper.Map<MyDTO, NyEntity>(dto, entity);

And keep the Ignore()'s in place.

Thanks,

Jimmy

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[Sam]

Thanks Jimmy,

this seems to have worked out beautifully.

Actually, there was no need to keep the .Ignores because the DTO
doesn't have the EntityState and EntityKey properties.

Cheers, and happy easter :)

On Mar 31, 12:48 am, Jimmy Bogard <jimmy.bog...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Try mapping to an existing object:
>
> Mapper.Map<MyDTO, NyEntity>(dto, entity);
>
> And keep the Ignore()'s in place.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jimmy
>

> > automapper-use...@googlegroups.com<automapper-users%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>