ICriteria, add restriction on collection contents

Question

Hi all,

Using NHibernate I'm trying to get obtain a list of B's where an IList property of B contains a specific instance of A.

The following code should hopefully explain the situation more clearly:

public void test()
{
    A a1 = new A();
    A a2 = new A();
    B b1 = new B();
    b1.As = new List<A> { a1 };
    // ...database save cut...

    using (ISession session = SessionFactory.OpenSession())
    {
        var result1 = session.CreateCriteria<B>()
            .CreateAlias("As", "a_As")
            .Add(Restrictions.Eq("a_As.ID", a1.ID))
            .List();

        var result2 = session.CreateCriteria<B>()
            .CreateAlias("As", "a_As")
            .Add(Restrictions.Eq("a_As", a1))
            .List();
    }
}

class A
{
    public virtual int ID { get; set; }
}

class B
{
    public virtual IList<A> As { get;set;}
}

The second query fails with the error: could not resolve property: a_As of: B

How can I perform this query using object instances without explicitly using the ID properties like in the first query above.

Edit: To expand on this, I have a generic class which performs NHibernate operations with my entities. I've just created an "IsReferenced" method that begins as follows:

public bool IsReferenced(T entity)
{
    // Get the types (and their properties) that reference the type in question
    var typeProps = from type in typeof(T).Assembly.GetTypes()
                    let props = type.GetProperties().Where(p => p.PropertyType == typeof(T)).Select(p => p.Name)
                    let collections = type.GetProperties().Where(p => typeof(IEnumerable<T>).IsAssignableFrom(p.PropertyType)).Select(p => p.Name)
                    where type.IsClass && !type.IsAbstract && ((props != null && props.Count() > 0) || (collections != null && collections.Count() > 0))
                    select new { EntityType = type, Properties = props, Collections = collections };

    var multiCriteria = NHibernateSession.CreateMultiCriteria();
    foreach (var typeProp in typeProps)
    {
        var criteria = NHibernateSession.CreateCriteria(typeProp.EntityType);
        var disjunction = new Disjunction();
        foreach (var propName in typeProp.Properties)
        {
            disjunction.Add(Restrictions.Eq(propName, entity));
        }
        foreach (var collectionName in typeProp.Collections)
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }
        criteria.Add(disjunction);
        multiCriteria.Add(criteria);
    }
.....
}

I'm using typeProps to build a MultiCriteria to find any entities anywhere that reference the one specified. It works fine for normal properties, but collection properties are giving me grief. I'm not sure how to go about adding the restriction into the criteria.

Answer 1

This type of query is better served by HQL than Criteria:

session.CreateQuery("from B b where :a in elements(b.As)")
       .SetParameter("a", a1)
       .List();

Answer 2

I've found a solution that appears to work for all of my current entities, based on two pieces of information I've skimmed over whilst working on this:

• The documentation states that lower-case 'id' is a special property that can be used to reference the id of any entity.
• ISession exposes a public method object ISession.GetIdentifier(object obj)

These two titbits let us do something like this:

var result2 = session.CreateCriteria<B>()
        .CreateAlias("As", "a_As")
        .Add(Restrictions.Eq("a_As.id", session.GetIdentifier(a1)))
        .List();

And the resulting IsReferenced method looks like this:

    public bool IsReferenced(T entity)
    {
        // Get the types (and their properties) that reference the type in question
        var typeProps = from type in typeof(T).Assembly.GetTypes()
                        let props = type.GetProperties().Where(p => p.PropertyType == typeof(T)).Select(p => p.Name)
                        let collections = type.GetProperties().Where(p => typeof(IEnumerable<T>).IsAssignableFrom(p.PropertyType)).Select(p => p.Name)
                        where type.IsClass && !type.IsAbstract && ((props != null && props.Count() > 0) || (collections != null && collections.Count() > 0))
                        select new { EntityType = type, Properties = props, Collections = collections };

        var multiCriteria = NHibernateSession.CreateMultiCriteria();

        // Create a big or query to test whether any of the properties are, or contain, the entity parameter
        foreach (var typeProp in typeProps)
        {
            var criteria = NHibernateSession.CreateCriteria(typeProp.EntityType);
            var disjunction = new Disjunction();
            foreach (var propName in typeProp.Properties)
            {
                disjunction.Add(Restrictions.Eq(propName, entity));
            }
            foreach (var collectionName in typeProp.Collections)
            {
                string alias = string.Format("a_{0}", collectionName);
                criteria.CreateAlias(collectionName, alias, NHibernate.SqlCommand.JoinType.LeftOuterJoin);

                disjunction.Add(Restrictions.Eq(string.Format("{0}.id", alias), NHibernateSession.GetIdentifier(entity)));
            }
            criteria.Add(disjunction);
            multiCriteria.Add(criteria);
        }

        var results = multiCriteria.List();

        bool hasReferences = false;
        foreach (var resultSet in results)
        {
            if ((resultSet as System.Collections.IList).Count != 0)
            {
                hasReferences = true;
                break;
            }
        }
        return hasReferences;
    }

If only my brain had kicked in before I put up half of my reputation as a bounty...