Attaching Reference navigation properties - Nopcommerce

Question

This question is specifically for the EMS nopcommerce. When I look at the EF implementation in EFRepository

https://nopcommerce.codeplex.com/SourceControl/latest#src/Libraries/Nop.Data/EfRepository.cs

I see that the there is a property

    protected virtual IDbSet<T> Entities
    {
        get
        {
            if (_entities == null)
                _entities = _context.Set<T>();
            return _entities;
        }
    }

I can see the entity is being set to the context. What I can't see is how the reference navigation properties are being set? Any foreign relationships will not be set to the context right??

Answer 1

Found the answer!

It was because not all of my properties were marked virtual, and I was using List instead of Collection.

:)

Answer 2

This construct is just a lazy initialization of the repository's core member: _entities, a DbSet<T>. It doesn't matter whether _entities is initialized there or in the repository's constructor. It just ensures Entities will never return null. No other objects are set yet.

Not before you execute a LINQ query against Entities are entities materialized and attached to the context. For instance

var rep = new EfRepository<Customer>();
var customers = rep.Entities.Include(c => c.Job).ToList();

Now Customers and their Jobs are loaded from the database and attached to the context.