EF6.0 "The relationship could not be changed because one or more of the foreign-key properties is non-nullable"

Question

If I try to delete a "child" row I always get an exception. Here is a snipset:

using (var context = new CompanyContext())
{
    ItemType itemType = context.ItemTypes.FirstOrDefault(i => i.Name == "ServerType");
    ItemTypeItem itemTypeItem = itemType.Items.FirstOrDefault(i => i.Name == "DatabaseServer");
    itemType.Items.Remove(itemTypeItem);
    context.SaveChanges(); <=== exception!
}

The following exception is thrown on the SaveChanges() method.

"The relationship could not be changed because one or more of the foreign-key properties is non-nullable. When a change is made to a relationship, the related foreign-key property is set to a null value. If the foreign-key does not support null values, a new relationship must be defined, the foreign-key property must be assigned another non-null value, or the unrelated object must be deleted."

Entity Configuration

  public class ItemTypeConfiguration : NamedEntityConfiguration<ItemType>
  {
    public ConfigurationColumn ParentIDColumn;
    public ConfigurationColumn ValidationPatternColumn;
    public ItemTypeConfiguration() : base()
    {
      ParentIDColumn = new ConfigurationColumn() { Name = "ParentID", Ordinal = base.LastOrdinalPosition + 1 };
      ValidationPatternColumn = new ConfigurationColumn() { Name = "ValidationPattern", Length = 1024, Ordinal=base.LastOrdinalPosition + 2};
      this.Property(t => t.ParentID)
        .HasColumnName(ParentIDColumn.Name)
        .HasColumnOrder(ParentIDColumn.Ordinal);
      this.HasOptional(t => t.Parent).WithMany().HasForeignKey(u => u.ParentID).WillCascadeOnDelete(false);
      this.Property(t => t.ValidationPattern)
        .HasColumnName(ValidationPatternColumn.Name)
        .HasColumnOrder(ValidationPatternColumn.Ordinal)
        .HasMaxLength(ValidationPatternColumn.Length);
    }
...


  public class ItemTypeItemConfiguration : NamedEntityConfiguration<ItemTypeItem>
  {
    public ConfigurationColumn ItemTypeIDColumn;
    public ItemTypeItemConfiguration() : base()
    {
      ItemTypeIDColumn = new ConfigurationColumn(){Name="ItemTypeID", IsRequired=true, Ordinal= base.LastOrdinalPosition+1};
      this.Property(t => t.ItemTypeID)
        .HasColumnName(ItemTypeIDColumn.Name)
        .HasColumnOrder(ItemTypeIDColumn.Ordinal);
      this.HasRequired(t => t.ItemType).WithMany(t=>t.Items).HasForeignKey(u => u.ItemTypeID).WillCascadeOnDelete(true);
    }
...

I found the blog but I don't have the "DeleteObject" method.

http://blog.clicdata.com/2013/07/04/the-operation-failed-the-relationship-could-not-be-changed-because-one-or-more-of-the-foreign-key-properties-is-non-nullable/

Any ideas? Thank you.

Answer 1

You need to delete the ItemTypeItem. It is not possible to just remove it from the Items list as it cannot exist by itself, because it has a non-nullable foreign key referencing ItemType (ItemTypeID).

To delete the ItemTypeItem add

context.Entry(itemTypeItem).State = EntityState.Deleted;