Entity Framework Core Many-to-Many Relationship not loading from database

Question

Ok, so I followed the 'Many-to-many' example for Entity Framework Core: Relationships (at the end of the page).

It seems that when the database is initially created (createNew set to true) everything is working as expected but when I use an existing database (createNew set to false) the joins are no longer there. Following is a Console App showing the problem that I'm having:

Output for createNew = true:

Author 1 has written: - Book 1 - Book 2

Author 2 has written: - Book 1 - Book 2

Author 3 has written: - Book 4

Auhtor 4 has written: no books yet

Output for createNew = false:

Author 1 has written: no books yet

Author 2 has written: no books yet

Author 3 has written: no books yet

Auhtor 4 has written: no books yet

// Visual Studio 2017
// Console App (.NET Core)
// Nuget: Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

namespace ConsoleAppCoreEFMany
{
    /* 
    An Author can write several Books, and a Book can be written by several Authors..
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-to-many_(data_model)
    */

    class Author
    {
        public long AuthorId { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }

        public List<AuthorBook> AuthorBook { get; set; }        
    }

    class Book
    {
        public long BookId { get; set; }
        public string Title { get; set; }

        public List<AuthorBook> AuthorBook { get; set; }
    }   

    class AuthorBook
    {
        public long AuthorId { get; set; }
        public Author Author { get; set; }

        public long BookId { get; set; }
        public Book Book { get; set; }
    }  

    class MyDbContext : DbContext
    {        
        public DbSet<Author> Author { get; set; }
        public DbSet<Book> Book { get; set; }        
        public DbSet<AuthorBook> AuthorBook { get; set; }        

        string connectionString = "";

        public MyDbContext(string connectionString, bool createNew)
        {
            this.connectionString = connectionString;

            if (createNew)
            {
                Database.EnsureDeleted();
                Database.EnsureCreated();
            }

            // to see the actual tables created add a Data Connection in View / Server Explorer, Data Source: (Microsoft SQL Server Database File), Browse: C:/Users/<user>/*.mdf (in this case TestEFManyMany.mdf)
        }

        protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
        {
            optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(connectionString);
        }

        protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
        {
            modelBuilder.Entity<AuthorBook>()
                .HasKey(x => new { x.AuthorId, x.BookId }); // creates a composite key

            modelBuilder.Entity<AuthorBook>()
                .HasOne(x => x.Author)
                .WithMany(x => x.AuthorBook)
                .HasForeignKey(x => x.AuthorId);

            modelBuilder.Entity<AuthorBook>()
                .HasOne(x => x.Book)
                .WithMany(x => x.AuthorBook)
                .HasForeignKey(x => x.BookId);           
        }
    }

    class Program
    {


        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            bool createNew = false;

            using (var db = new MyDbContext("Server=(localdb)\\mssqllocaldb;Database=TestEFManyMany;Trusted_Connection=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=True", createNew))
            {
                try
                {
                    if (createNew)
                    {
                        // creating some 'unlinked' books
                        var book1 = new Book { Title = "Book 1" };
                        var book2 = new Book { Title = "Book 2" };
                        var book3 = new Book { Title = "Book 3" };

                        db.Book.Add(book1);
                        db.Book.Add(book2);
                        db.Book.Add(book3);
                        db.SaveChanges();

                        // creating some 'unlinked' authors
                        var author1 = new Author { Name = "Author 1" };
                        var author2 = new Author { Name = "Author 2" };

                        db.Author.Add(author1);
                        db.Author.Add(author2);
                        db.SaveChanges();

                        // link authors and books

                        // Author 1 and Author 2 have written Book 1
                        db.AuthorBook.Add(new AuthorBook { AuthorId = author1.AuthorId, BookId = book1.BookId });
                        db.AuthorBook.Add(new AuthorBook { AuthorId = author2.AuthorId, BookId = book1.BookId });

                        db.SaveChanges();

                        // Author 2 also has written Book 2
                        db.AuthorBook.Add(new AuthorBook { AuthorId = author2.AuthorId, BookId = book2.BookId });

                        // creating initially linked 
                        db.AuthorBook.Add(new AuthorBook
                        {
                            Author = new Author { Name = "Author 3" },
                            Book = new Book { Title = "Book 4" }
                        });

                        db.SaveChanges();

                        // check if link between author 2 and book 1 exists
                        if (db.AuthorBook.Where(x => x.AuthorId == author2.AuthorId && x.BookId == book1.BookId).Count() == 0)
                        {
                            db.AuthorBook.Add(new AuthorBook { AuthorId = author2.AuthorId, BookId = book1.BookId });
                        }

                        // check if link between author 1 and book 2 exists
                        if (db.AuthorBook.Where(x => x.AuthorId == author1.AuthorId && x.BookId == book2.BookId).Count() == 0)
                        {
                            db.AuthorBook.Add(new AuthorBook { AuthorId = author1.AuthorId, BookId = book2.BookId });
                        }

                        db.SaveChanges();

                        var author4 = new Author { Name = "Auhtor 4" };
                        db.Author.Add(author4);
                        db.SaveChanges();                       
                    }


                    foreach (var author in db.Author)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine(author.Name + " has written:");

                        if (author.AuthorBook != null)
                        {
                            var books = author.AuthorBook.Select(x => x.Book).ToList();

                            foreach (var book in books)
                            {
                                Console.WriteLine("- " + book.Title);
                            }                            
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            Console.WriteLine(" no books yet");
                        }

                        Console.WriteLine();
                    }                   
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Exception: " + ex.Message);
                }                
            }

            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Data tables:

I sure hope I did something really wrong and it's not a bug..

Answer 1

Latest EF does not support automatic lazy-loading. You can read more and track this task here.

EF team stated, that they have not yet decided whether automatic lazy-loading will be included in upcoming updates.

To answer your question you need to manually load relational data . To do so you might want to use Include and ThenInclude methods provided by EF Core.

Example:

 ctx.EntityOne
    .Include(eOne => eOne.EntityTwo)
    .ThenInclude(eTwo => eTwo.SomeOtherEntity)
    .Where(entityOne => YourQuery);

This code snipped will load relational links between these entities as it was done in previous EF versions automatically.

Answer 2

Ok Ivan Stoev pointed me in the right direction: Loading Related Data

According to the Tip on Eager loading:

Entity Framework Core will automatically fix-up navigation properties to any other entities that were previously loaded into the context instance. So even if you don't explicitly include the data for a navigation property, the property may still be populated if some or all of the related entities were previously loaded.

So it is enough to put var eagerLoading = db.AuthorBook.Include(x => x.Author).Include(x => x.Book).ToList(); in front of the loop within the context (notice you have to use the join table in order to include both, Author and Book, also ToList() is necessary)

var eagerLoading = db.AuthorBook.Include(x => x.Author).Include(x => x.Book).ToList();

foreach (var author in db.Author)
{
    Console.WriteLine(author.Name + " has written:");

    if (author.AuthorBook != null)
    {
        var books = author.AuthorBook.Select(x => x.Book).ToList();

        foreach (var book in books)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("- " + book.Title);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        Console.WriteLine(" no books yet");
    }

    Console.WriteLine();
}