Exclude Property on Update in Entity Framework

Question

I\'ve been looking for a proper way to mark a property to NOT be changed when updating a model in MVC.

For example, let\'s take this small model:

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Answer 1

Create new model that will have limited set of properties that you want to update.

I.e. if your entity model is:

public class User
{
    public int Id {get;set;}
    public string Name {get;set;}
    public bool Enabled {get;set;}
}

You can create custom view model that will allow user to change Name, but not Enabled flag:

public class UserProfileModel
{
   public int Id {get;set;}
   public string Name {get;set;}
}

When you want to do database update, you do the following:

YourUpdateMethod(UserProfileModel model)
{
    using(YourContext ctx = new YourContext())
    { 
        User user = new User { Id = model.Id } ;   /// stub model, only has Id
        ctx.Users.Attach(user); /// track your stub model
        ctx.Entry(user).CurrentValues.SetValues(model); /// reflection
        ctx.SaveChanges();
    }
}

When you call this method, you will update the Name, but Enabled property will remain unchanged. I used simple models, but I think you'll get the picture how to use it.