NHibernate - not-null property reference a null or transient value

Question

I'm getting this exception (Full exception at the bottom):

NHibernate.PropertyValueException was unhandled by user code
 Message="not-null property references a null or transient
valueClearwave.Models.Encounters.Insurance.Patient"
 Source="NHibernate"
 EntityName="Clearwave.Models.Encounters.Insurance"
 PropertyName="Patient"

I've done a lot of Googling and it seems the most common cause for that error is when an association is bi-directional but only one half has been set. As in: Insurance.Patient = Patient is called but Patient.Insurances.Add(Insurance) is not. I do, in fact, have a scenario like that but I've checked the object just before calling Save with it and both Insurance.Patient and Patient.Insurances[0] are the right objects.

The other possibility that this exception seems to reference is a transient value. In my case every object is transient so I'm suspecting the root of my problem is here. However, everything needs to be transient right now because nothing has been saved yet. I would expect NHibernate to persist things rather than complain that they are not persisted.

Here are some snippets from my mappings (fluent):

       public PatientMap()
       {
           WithTable("tPatient");

           Id(x => x.Id, "uid_Patient").GeneratedBy.GuidComb
().Access.AsReadOnlyPropertyThroughCamelCaseField();

           HasMany(x => x.Insurances).WithKeyColumn("uid_Patient")
               .Cascade.All()
               .Inverse();

          ...
       }

      public InsuranceMap()
       {
           WithTable("tPatientInsuranceInfo");

           Id(x => x.Id,
"uid_PatientInsuranceInfo").GeneratedBy.GuidComb
().Access.AsReadOnlyPropertyThroughCamelCaseField();

           References(x => x.Patient, "uid_Patient").Not.Nullable
().Cascade.All();

           ...
        }

So, what could be the issue?

---

NHibernate.PropertyValueException was unhandled by user code
 Message="not-null property references a null or transient
valueClearwave.Models.Encounters.Insurance.Patient"
 Source="NHibernate"
 EntityName="Clearwave.Models.Encounters.Insurance"
 PropertyName="Patient"
 StackTrace:
      at NHibernate.Engine.Nullability.CheckNullability(Object[]
values, IEntityPersister persister, Boolean isUpdate)
      at
NHibernate.Event.Default.AbstractSaveEventListener.PerformSaveOrReplicate
(Object entity, EntityKey key, IEntityPersister persister, Boolean
useIdentityColumn, Object anything, IEventSource source, Boolean
requiresImmediateIdAccess)
      at
NHibernate.Event.Default.AbstractSaveEventListener.PerformSave(Object
entity, Object id, IEntityPersister persister, Boolean
useIdentityColumn, Object anything, IEventSource source, Boolean
requiresImmediateIdAccess)
      at
NHibernate.Event.Default.AbstractSaveEventListener.SaveWithGeneratedId
(Object entity, String entityName, Object anything, IEventSource
source, Boolean requiresImmediateIdAccess)
      at
NHibernate.Event.Default.DefaultMergeEventListener.EntityIsTransient
(MergeEvent event, IDictionary copyCache)
      at NHibernate.Event.Default.DefaultMergeEventListener.OnMerge
(MergeEvent event, IDictionary copyCache)
      at NHibernate.Impl.SessionImpl.FireSaveOrUpdateCopy(IDictionary
copiedAlready, MergeEvent event)
      at NHibernate.Impl.SessionImpl.SaveOrUpdateCopy(String
entityName, Object obj, IDictionary copiedAlready)
      at
NHibernate.Engine.CascadingAction.SaveUpdateCopyCascadingAction.Cascade
(IEventSource session, Object child, String entityName, Object
anything, Boolean isCascadeDeleteEnabled)
      at NHibernate.Engine.Cascade.CascadeToOne(Object child, IType
type, CascadeStyle style, Object anything, Boolean
isCascadeDeleteEnabled)
      at NHibernate.Engine.Cascade.CascadeAssociation(Object child,
IType type, CascadeStyle style, Object anything, Boolean
isCascadeDeleteEnabled)
      at NHibernate.Engine.Cascade.CascadeProperty(Object child,
IType type, CascadeStyle style, Object anything, Boolean
isCascadeDeleteEnabled)
      at NHibernate.Engine.Cascade.CascadeOn(IEntityPersister
persister, Object parent, Object anything)
      at
NHibernate.Event.Default.AbstractSaveEventListener.CascadeBeforeSave
(IEventSource source, IEntityPersister persister, Object entity,
Object anything)
      at
NHibernate.Event.Default.DefaultMergeEventListener.EntityIsTransient
(MergeEvent event, IDictionary copyCache)
      at NHibernate.Event.Default.DefaultMergeEventListener.OnMerge
(MergeEvent event, IDictionary copyCache)
      at NHibernate.Impl.SessionImpl.FireSaveOrUpdateCopy(IDictionary
copiedAlready, MergeEvent event)
      at NHibernate.Impl.SessionImpl.SaveOrUpdateCopy(String
entityName, Object obj, IDictionary copiedAlready)
      at
NHibernate.Engine.CascadingAction.SaveUpdateCopyCascadingAction.Cascade
(IEventSource session, Object child, String entityName, Object
anything, Boolean isCascadeDeleteEnabled)
      at NHibernate.Engine.Cascade.CascadeToOne(Object child, IType
type, CascadeStyle style, Object anything, Boolean
isCascadeDeleteEnabled)
      at NHibernate.Engine.Cascade.CascadeAssociation(Object child,
IType type, CascadeStyle style, Object anything, Boolean
isCascadeDeleteEnabled)
      at NHibernate.Engine.Cascade.CascadeProperty(Object child,
IType type, CascadeStyle style, Object anything, Boolean
isCascadeDeleteEnabled)
      at NHibernate.Engine.Cascade.CascadeOn(IEntityPersister
persister, Object parent, Object anything)
      at
NHibernate.Event.Default.AbstractSaveEventListener.CascadeBeforeSave
(IEventSource source, IEntityPersister persister, Object entity,
Object anything)
      at
NHibernate.Event.Default.DefaultMergeEventListener.EntityIsTransient
(MergeEvent event, IDictionary copyCache)
      at NHibernate.Event.Default.DefaultMergeEventListener.OnMerge
(MergeEvent event, IDictionary copyCache)
      at NHibernate.Event.Default.DefaultMergeEventListener.OnMerge
(MergeEvent event)
      at NHibernate.Impl.SessionImpl.FireSaveOrUpdateCopy(MergeEvent
event)
      at NHibernate.Impl.SessionImpl.SaveOrUpdateCopy(Object obj)
      at Clearwave.Models.Data.Util.RepositoryBase`2.Save(EntityType&
entity) in C:\Projects\ClearWave\Src\Common\Domain Models
\Clearwave.Models.Data-NHibernate\Util\RepositoryBase.cs:line 25
      at IntegrationWebServices.FromMirth.SubmitMessage(Message
theMessage, Guid providerOrganizationId)
      at SyncInvokeSubmitMessage(Object , Object[] , Object[] )
      at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.SyncMethodInvoker.Invoke
(Object instance, Object[] inputs, Object[]& outputs)
      at
System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DispatchOperationRuntime.InvokeBegin
(MessageRpc& rpc)
 InnerException:

Answer 1

Another possibility is that you're saving an entire object graph, and that graph is circular, and items cannot be null. You could be giving NHibernate no legal order in which to do the inserts. (It should produce a better error message, but it produces this one).

Without seeing the rest of the source, it's hard to be of more help. Try removing entities from the mappings (and not saving them) until you can figure out what is causing the problem.