[Solved] Detect object reference constraint (before context.SaveChanges())

[Lextendo]

Hi Telerik OA team,

In a winforms situation, I have several databound grids in several tabs on one form. I want to save all changes with one button. Sofar this works nicely, however I have one problem.
Deleting a (referenced) object from the grid does not generate a "The delete statement conflicted with the reference constraint"-error, until _context.SaveChanges() is called from the save button. So the question is (given this grid event code):

Private Sub rg_UserDeletingRow(sender As Object, e As GridViewRowCancelEventArgs)
    Dim row As GridViewDataRowInfo = e.Rows(0)
    Try
        If row.DataBoundItem IsNot Nothing Then
            'if NoReferenceConstraint() Then _ <- How to detect a reference constaint?
            _context.Delete(row.DataBoundItem)
        End If
    Catch ex As Exception
        e.Cancel = True
        RadMessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
    End Try
End Sub

Added complication: the grid(s) are filled runtime, so the containing objects (row.DataBouddItem) are not typed.
Any ideas to get this working?

Thanks in advance,
Alex

[Alexander]

Hello Lextendo,

You can achieve this with the Flush() method of the internal object scope that the context instance is using. In order to use it, you will have to extend your context  with another partial class (with the same name) and expose the internal Flush method. This would look like this:

Partial Public Class YourContextClassNameHere
    Public Sub Flush()
        Me.GetScope().Transaction.Flush()
    End Sub
End Class

Then you could do the following:

Try
    If row.DataBoundItem IsNot Nothing Then
        _context.Delete(row.DataBoundItem)
        _context.Flush()
    End If
Catch ex As Exception
    e.Cancel = True
    RadMessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
End Try

The Flush method would start a transaction on the database server and execute the actions performed so far in the OpenAccess transaction (without committing the transaction, everything can still be rolled back). This means that if there is a conflict with a constraint, the database server would throw an error, which you could handle.
Please just note that once a transaction is open on the database side, it has a timeout (by default 120 seconds) and if you do not commit or roll it back by that time, you would get an exception. If you experience such problems, you could increase the connection timeout from the backend configuration.
I hope that helps.

Kind regards,
Alexander
the Telerik team