Solving "The ObjectContext instance has been disposed and can no longer be used for operations that require a connection" InvalidOperationException

Question

I am trying to populate a GridView using Entity Frameworkm but every time I am getting the following error:

"Property accessor 'LoanProduct' on object 'COSIS_DAL.MemberLoan' threw the following exception: The ObjectContext instance has been disposed and can no longer be used for operations that require a connection."

My code is:

public List<MemberLoan> GetAllMembersForLoan(string keyword)
{
    using (CosisEntities db = new CosisEntities())
    {
        IQueryable<MemberLoan> query = db.MemberLoans.OrderByDescending(m => m.LoanDate);
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(keyword))
        {
            keyword = keyword.ToLower();
            query = query.Where(m =>
                  m.LoanProviderCode.Contains(keyword)
                  || m.MemNo.Contains(keyword)
                  || (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(m.LoanProduct.LoanProductName) && m.LoanProduct.LoanProductName.ToLower().Contains(keyword))
                  || m.Membership.MemName.Contains(keyword)
                  || m.GeneralMasterInformation.Description.Contains(keyword)

                  );
        }
        return query.ToList();
    }
}


protected void btnSearch_Click(object sender, ImageClickEventArgs e)
{
    string keyword = txtKeyword.Text.ToLower();
    LoanController c = new LoanController();
    List<COSIS_DAL.MemberLoan> list = new List<COSIS_DAL.MemberLoan>();
    list = c.GetAllMembersForLoan(keyword);

    if (list.Count <= 0)
    {
        lblMsg.Text = "No Records Found";
        GridView1.DataSourceID = null;
        GridView1.DataSource = null;
        GridView1.DataBind();
    }
    else
    {
        lblMsg.Text = "";
        GridView1.DataSourceID = null;   
        GridView1.DataSource = list;
        GridView1.DataBind();
    }
}

The error is mentioning the LoanProductName column of the Gridview. Mentioned: I am using C#, ASP.net, SQL-Server 2008 as back end DB.

I am quite new to Entity Framework. I can't understand why I am getting this error. Can anyone help me please?

Answer 1

By default Entity Framework uses lazy-loading for navigation properties. That's why these properties should be marked as virtual - EF creates proxy class for your entity and overrides navigation properties to allow lazy-loading. E.g. if you have this entity:

public class MemberLoan
{
   public string LoandProviderCode { get; set; }
   public virtual Membership Membership { get; set; }
}

Entity Framework will return proxy inherited from this entity and provide DbContext instance to this proxy in order to allow lazy loading of membership later:

public class MemberLoanProxy : MemberLoan
{
    private CosisEntities db;
    private int membershipId;
    private Membership membership;

    public override Membership Membership 
    { 
       get 
       {
          if (membership == null)
              membership = db.Memberships.Find(membershipId);
          return membership;
       }
       set { membership = value; }
    }
}

So, entity has instance of DbContext which was used for loading entity. That's your problem. You have using block around CosisEntities usage. Which disposes context before entities are returned. When some code later tries to use lazy-loaded navigation property, it fails, because context is disposed at that moment.

To fix this behavior you can use eager loading of navigation properties which you will need later:

IQueryable<MemberLoan> query = db.MemberLoans.Include(m => m.Membership);

That will pre-load all memberships and lazy-loading will not be used. For details see Loading Related Entities article on MSDN.