There are many threads about doing this. I thought I would just post the complete code solution. Enjoy..

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using SD.LLBLGen.Pro.ORMSupportClasses;

namespace xyz
{
    /// <summary>
    /// For cloning an Entity and all related entities, ie the whole graph
    /// </summary>
    internal class CloneHelper
    {
        private CloneHelper()
        {
        }

        internal static object CloneObject(object o)
        {
            MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
            BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter(null, new StreamingContext(StreamingContextStates.Clone));
            bf.Serialize(ms, o);
            ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
            object oOut = bf.Deserialize(ms);
            ms.Close();
            return oOut;
        }

        internal static void ResetEntityAsNew(IEntity Entity)
        {
            Entity.IsNew = true;
            Entity.IsDirty = true;
            Entity.Fields.IsDirty = true;
            for (int f = 0; f < Entity.Fields.Count; f++)
            {
                Entity.Fields[f].IsChanged = true;
            }
        }

        internal static IEntity CloneEntity(IEntity Entity)
        {
            IEntity newEntity;

            newEntity = (IEntity)CloneObject(Entity);
            ObjectGraphUtils ogu = new ObjectGraphUtils();
            List<IEntity> flatList = ogu.ProduceTopologyOrderedList(newEntity);

            for (int f = 0; f < flatList.Count; f++)
                ResetEntityAsNew(flatList[f]);

            return newEntity;
        }
    }
}

Thanks!

that code snippet actually doesnt compile for me, I get an error on this line

List<IEntity> flatList = ogu.ProduceTopologyOrderedList(newEntity);

Cannot implicitly convert type 'System.Collections.ArrayList' to 'System.Collections.Generic.List<SD.LLBLGen.Pro.ORMSupportClasses.IEntity>'

any ideas?

Bob

If you are using .NET 2.0 -> ProduceTopologyOrderedList returns List<IEntity> If you are using .NET 1.x -> ProduceTopologyOrderedList returns ArrayList

So make sure you are referencing the correct version of the SD.LLBLGen.Pro.ORMSupportClasses.NETxx.dll

I've got this error - 'SD.LLBLGen.Pro.ORMSupportClasses.ObjectGraphUtils' is inaccessible due to its protection level. Where should I place your code? ObjectGraphUtils is internal class in SD.LLBLGen.Pro.ORMSupportClasses.dll, how can i use it in code?

It should be accessible, it's declared as public class & the method ProduceTopologyOrderedList is public also.

You can check them out in the source code supplied with LLBLGen Pro, in the UtilityClasses.cs file.

IT was made public recently, it was made internal by mistake during development of v2.0, so if your version of the runtime libs still has the internal version, please download the latest runtime lib build.

Ok, thx.

MatthewM wrote:

There are many threads about doing this. I thought I would just post the complete code solution. Enjoy..

This code doesn't work for me. It compiles and runs but it doesn't save unless I save the individual entities. When I go to the parent object and call Save(true) to save recusively, the cloned entities do not save unless I save them individually. Any idea why this doesn't become part of the recursive link?

Hi theadoguy, It works just fine for me.

Here is my test:

// load some graph
PrefetchPath path = new PrefetchPath((int)EntityType.CustomerEntity);
path.Add(CustomerEntity.PrefetchPathOrders);
CustomerEntity customer = new CustomerEntity("ALFKI", path);

// create a cloned graph
CustomerEntity newCustomer = (CustomerEntity) xyz.CloneHelper.CloneEntity(customer);

// this is my new customer
newCustomer.CustomerId = "YUJU";

// save the whole graph
newCustomer.Save(true);

What LLBLGen version and runtime libraries version are you using? Please post the code snippet that doesn't work for you.

I don't have time today to cruft up the example to show it here, but change your PK to a autoincremented ID. In my case, the PK is read-only and is server-assigned. I think that's where it is related.

I'll get an example here later this week.

daelmo wrote:

Hi theadoguy, It works just fine for me.

Here is my test:

// load some graph
PrefetchPath path = new PrefetchPath((int)EntityType.CustomerEntity);
path.Add(CustomerEntity.PrefetchPathOrders);
CustomerEntity customer = new CustomerEntity("ALFKI", path);

// create a cloned graph
CustomerEntity newCustomer = (CustomerEntity) xyz.CloneHelper.CloneEntity(customer);

// this is my new customer
newCustomer.CustomerId = "YUJU";

// save the whole graph
newCustomer.Save(true);

What LLBLGen version and runtime libraries version are you using? Please post the code snippet that doesn't work for you.

I don't have time today to cruft up the example to show it here, but change your PK to a autoincremented ID. In my case, the PK is read-only and is server-assigned. I think that's where it is related.

I don't think this is the problem, and I can't see how it relates to the related entities not being saved in a recursive save.

I'll get an example here later this week.

We will be waiting for your repro solution.

MatthewM wrote:

There are many threads about doing this. I thought I would just post the complete code solution. Enjoy..

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using SD.LLBLGen.Pro.ORMSupportClasses;

namespace xyz
{
    /// <summary>
    /// For cloning an Entity and all related entities, ie the whole graph
    /// </summary>
    internal class CloneHelper
    {
        private CloneHelper()
        {
        }

        internal static object CloneObject(object o)
        {
            MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
            BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter(null, new StreamingContext(StreamingContextStates.Clone));
            bf.Serialize(ms, o);
            ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
            object oOut = bf.Deserialize(ms);
            ms.Close();
            return oOut;
        }

        internal static void ResetEntityAsNew(IEntity Entity)
        {
            Entity.IsNew = true;
            Entity.IsDirty = true;
            Entity.Fields.IsDirty = true;
            for (int f = 0; f < Entity.Fields.Count; f++)
            {
                Entity.Fields[f].IsChanged = true;
            }
        }

        internal static IEntity CloneEntity(IEntity Entity)
        {
            IEntity newEntity;

            newEntity = (IEntity)CloneObject(Entity);
            ObjectGraphUtils ogu = new ObjectGraphUtils();
            List<IEntity> flatList = ogu.ProduceTopologyOrderedList(newEntity);

            for (int f = 0; f < flatList.Count; f++)
                ResetEntityAsNew(flatList[f]);

            return newEntity;
        }
    }
}

When I use this method to clone an object - I try to use entity.Save(); and it complains because I'm trying to save 2 items to the DB with the same ID - is there any way of re-setting the ID back to Null?

w /

Use ForcedCurrentValueWrite() method.

Please check the last post in the following thread: http://www.llblgen.com/TinyForum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=12800 Which refers back to this thread

Hello,

Does this work for Entities are are created if using the Adapter ? IEntity?

Thank you, Stephen

stephenpatten wrote:

Does this work for Entities are are created if using the Adapter ? IEntity?

No. You will have to do a Find/Replace from IEntity to IEntity2 on that class.

I ran into a bug with this and changed the code to:

                var ms = new MemoryStream();
                var bf = new BinaryFormatter(new FastSerializerSurrogateSelector(), new StreamingContext(StreamingContextStates.Clone));
                bf.Serialize(ms, o);
                ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
                oOut = bf.Deserialize(ms);
                ms.Close();

I had some automatically generated DataContractSurrogate classes created for the entities loaded into the AppDomain and upon deserialization only one element from the collections was being deserialized, other elements were dropped silently. I noticed this as when trying to look at oOut in the debugger it was erroring with a message like "....Entity is declared both in <my llblgen project> and DataContractSurrogates_<guid>. The above change to specify the LLBLGen selector fixes it.

Hi Yowl,

Thanks for the input. For the record, please explain what problem you run into, your runtime library version and a description of the involved graph (entities, deep, inheritance, etc).

Hi Scott (Yowl)

Long time, no speak!

I have a similar ticket open and turning on Fast Serialization solved the problem. Your solution is another way of turning it on but I'm curious - didn't you have it on by default?

Cheers Simon

Hi Simon,

Indeed, long time, hope things are going well for you.

I dont have Fast Serialization turned on, but only because I've not been using remoting.

Fast serialization is useful also when you're cloning entities as it's much faster than normal binary serialization. I think we found the issue you also ran into, see: http://www.llblgen.com/tinyforum/GotoMessage.aspx?MessageID=131638&ThreadID=23219

Thanks everyone for getting to the bottom of it. Nothing to do with having the DataSurrogateClasses loaded then. I will switch on Fast Serialization and download the next build.

I read the linked thread and just like to say I have a lot of respect for the LLBLGen team and Simon who put me on to LLBLGen in the first place and I've not looked back.

Thanks,

Thanks Scott! To clarify, the runtime attached to the linked thread isn't yet released in the installer (the installer on the website is from february). We'll update that later this week.