Validation failed for one or more entities while saving changes to SQL Server Database using Entity Framework

Question

I want to save my Edit to Database and I am using Entity FrameWork Code-First in ASP.NET MVC 3 / C# but I am getting errors. In my Event class, I have DateTime and TimeSpan datatypes but in my database, I've got Date and time respectively. Could this be the reason? How can I cast to the appropriate datatype in the code before saving changes to database.

public class Event
{
    public int EventId { get; set; }
    public int CategoryId { get; set; }
    public int PlaceId { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public decimal Price { get; set; }
    public DateTime EventDate { get; set; }
    public TimeSpan StartTime { get; set; }
    public TimeSpan EndTime { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
    public string EventPlaceUrl { get; set; }
    public Category Category { get; set; }
    public Place Place { get; set; }
}

Method in the controller >>>> Problem at storeDB.SaveChanges();

// POST: /EventManager/Edit/386        
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Edit(int id, FormCollection collection)
{
    var theEvent = storeDB.Events.Find(id);

    if (TryUpdateModel(theEvent))
    {
        storeDB.SaveChanges();
        return RedirectToAction("Index");
    }
    else
    {
        ViewBag.Categories = storeDB.Categories.OrderBy(g => g.Name).ToList();
        ViewBag.Places = storeDB.Places.OrderBy(a => a.Name).ToList();
        return View(theEvent);
    }
}

with

public class EventCalendarEntities : DbContext
{
    public DbSet<Event> Events { get; set; }
    public DbSet<Category> Categories { get; set; }
    public DbSet<Place> Places { get; set; } 
}

SQL Server 2008 R2 Database / T-SQL

EventDate (Datatype = date)  
StartTime (Datatype = time)  
EndTime (Datatype = time)  

Http Form

EventDate (Datatype = DateTime) e.g. 4/8/2011 12:00:00 AM  
StartTime (Datatype = Timespan/time not sure) e.g. 08:30:00  
EndTime (Datatype = Timespan/time not sure) e.g. 09:00:00  

Server Error in '/' Application.

Validation failed for one or more entities. See 'EntityValidationErrors' property for more details.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Data.Entity.Validation.DbEntityValidationException: Validation failed for one or more entities. See 'EntityValidationErrors' property for more details.

Source Error:

Line 75:             if (TryUpdateModel(theEvent))
Line 76:             {
Line 77:                 storeDB.SaveChanges();
Line 78:                 return RedirectToAction("Index");
Line 79:             }

Source File: C:\sep\MvcEventCalendar\MvcEventCalendar\Controllers\EventManagerController.cs Line: 77

Stack Trace:

[DbEntityValidationException: Validation failed for one or more entities. See 'EntityValidationErrors' property for more details.]

Answer 1

You can extract all the information from the DbEntityValidationException with the following code (you need to add the namespaces: System.Data.Entity.Validation and System.Diagnostics to your using list):

catch (DbEntityValidationException dbEx)
{
    foreach (var validationErrors in dbEx.EntityValidationErrors)
    {
        foreach (var validationError in validationErrors.ValidationErrors)
        {
            Trace.TraceInformation("Property: {0} Error: {1}", 
                                    validationError.PropertyName, 
                                    validationError.ErrorMessage);
        }
    }
}