Effects of Changing Navigation Property to Prevent Circular Reference During JSON Serialization

[James Bergen]

I am trying to implement a editable grid in my existing ASP.NET MVC5 Entity Framework 6 database first project.

My db has two tables as follows:
tblUsers
--------
User_ID    (PK)
User_Name
Company_ID   (FK)

tblCompany
----------
Company_ID    (PK)
Company_Name

I am trying to get a grid that will show User_ID, User_Name, Company_ID and Company_Name.
Due to the way JSON interacts with Entity Framework when serializing the query there is a circular reference as discussed in the Knowledge Base at this link:
https://www.syncfusion.com/kb/6290/circular-reference-error-while-using-entity-framework-linq-2-sql

If possible I do not want to have to make ViewModels so I have tried to just change the navigation property on tblUsers to Internal. My grid displays data for all the fields requested except Company_Name. Can I get it to show with the navigation property set to internal?

Thank you,
James

Code below:

View:
-------
@model IEnumerable<SyncFusion_GridTest.Models.tblUser>

@(Html.EJ().Grid<object>("Grid")
           .Datasource(ds => ds.Json((IEnumerable<object>)ViewBag.datasource).UpdateURL("/tblUsers/Edit")
                               .InsertURL("/tblUsers/Create").RemoveURL("/tblUsers/Delete")
           .Adaptor(AdaptorType.RemoteSaveAdaptor)
              )
        .Query("new ej.Query().from('tblUser')")
        .AllowPaging()
        .AllowSorting()
        .EditSettings(e => e.AllowEditing()
                            .AllowDeleting()
                            .AllowAdding()
                            .EditMode(EditMode.Normal)
                                )
        .ToolbarSettings(tool => tool.ShowToolbar().ToolbarItems(item =>
        {
            item.AddTool(ToolBarItems.Add);
            item.AddTool(ToolBarItems.Edit);
            item.AddTool(ToolBarItems.Delete);
            item.AddTool(ToolBarItems.Update);
            item.AddTool(ToolBarItems.Cancel);
        }))

        .Columns(col =>
        {

            col.Field("User_ID").HeaderText("User_ID").IsPrimaryKey(true).TextAlign(TextAlign.Right).Width(75).Add();
            col.Field("User_Name").HeaderText("User_Name").TextAlign(TextAlign.Right).Width(75).Add();
            col.Field("Company_ID").HeaderText("Company_ID").TextAlign(TextAlign.Left).Width(75).Add();
            col.Field("Company_Name").HeaderText("Company_Name").TextAlign(TextAlign.Left).Width(75).Add();
        }))

---------
Controller:

namespace SyncFusion_GridTest.Controllers
{
    public class tblUsersController : Controller
    {
        private SyncFusionTestEntities db = new SyncFusionTestEntities();
       
        // GET: NewOrders
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            var data = new SyncFusionTestEntities().tblUsers.Include(t => t.tblCompany);
            ViewBag.datasource = data.ToList();
            return View(data);
        }
.
.
.

---------
Models:
 public partial class tblUser
    {
        public long User_ID { get; set; }
        public string User_Name { get; set; }
        public long Company_ID { get; set; }
   
        public virtual tblCompany tblCompany { internal get; set; }
    }


public partial class tblCompany
    {
        [System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis.SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Usage", "CA2214:DoNotCallOverridableMethodsInConstructors")]
        public tblCompany()
        {
            this.tblUsers = new HashSet<tblUser>();
        }
   
        public long Company_ID { get; set; }
        public string Company_Name { get; set; }
   
        [System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis.SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Usage", "CA2227:CollectionPropertiesShouldBeReadOnly")]
        public virtual ICollection<tblUser> tblUsers { internal get; set; }
    }

[Jayaprakash Kamaraj]

Hi James, 

Thank you for contacting Syncfusion support. 

To overcome this problem we suggest you to use foreign key column Feature . DataSource can be bound to datasource property of columns. Data field and text can be set using foreignKeyField and foreignKeyValue properties of columns. Please refer to the below help document, code example and sample. 

 

https://help.syncfusion.com/aspnetmvc/grid/columns?cs-save-lang=1&cs-lang=css#foreign-key-column 

 

@(Html.EJ().Grid<object>("FlatGrid") 

                .Datasource((IEnumerable<object>)ViewBag.dataSource1) 

            … 

 

       .Columns(col => 

        { 

            col.Field("OrderID").HeaderText("Order ID").IsPrimaryKey(true).TextAlign(TextAlign.Right).Width(85).ValidationRules(v => v.AddRule("required", true).AddRule("number", true)).Add(); 

            col.Field("CustomerID").HeaderText("Customer ID").Width(90).EditType(EditingType.String).ValidationRules(v => v.AddRule("required", true).AddRule("minlength", 3)).Add(); 

            col.Field("EmployeeID").HeaderText("Employee Name").ForeignKeyField("EmployeeID").ForeignKeyValue("FirstName").DataSource((IEnumerable<object>)ViewBag.dataSource2).TextAlign(TextAlign.Left).Width(90).Add();   

             

        })) 

Sample: http://www.syncfusion.com/downloads/support/forum/126043/ze/sample-1565474095 

Jayaprakash K.