Entity Framework : A short way to copy one object with it's child to a new object ?

Question

Hello !
I'm using entity framework 6.
Sometimes I need to copy an existing object with all its childs to a new object and to save to database.
I'm using a standart way by creating a new object , copy one by one it's properties from existing object ( except the ID ) , after I create new object for every child and copy one by one each properties except the ID and Parent id......
But of course this is a hard way to do especially when the object have a lot's of properties.
I want to know is there any short way  ( built in) to do this ?
Thank you !

Answer 1

Actually , I'm using this extension :
Imports System.ComponentModel
Imports System.Collections
Imports System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.DataClasses
Imports System.Runtime.Serialization
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Reflection
Module Extensions
<System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension> _
Public Function Clone(Of T As EntityObject)(source As T) As T
Dim ser = New DataContractSerializer(GetType(T))
Using stream = New MemoryStream()
ser.WriteObject(stream, source)
stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin)
Return CType(ser.ReadObject(stream), T)
End Using
End Function
<System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension> _
Public Function ClearEntityReference(source As EntityObject, bCheckHierarchy As Boolean) As EntityObject
Return source.ClearEntityObject(bCheckHierarchy)
End Function
<System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension> _
Private Function ClearEntityObject(Of T As Class)(source As T, bCheckHierarchy As Boolean) As T
If source Is Nothing Then
Throw New Exception("Null Object cannot be cloned")
End If
Dim tObj As Type = source.[GetType]()
If tObj.GetProperty("EntityKey") IsNot Nothing Then
tObj.GetProperty("EntityKey").SetValue(source, Nothing, Nothing)
End If
If Not bCheckHierarchy Then
Return CType(source, T)
End If
Dim PropertyList As List(Of PropertyInfo) = (From a In source.[GetType]().GetProperties() Where a.PropertyType.Name.Equals("ENTITYCOLLECTION`1", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) Select a).ToList()
For Each prop As PropertyInfo In PropertyList
Dim keys As IEnumerable = CType(tObj.GetProperty(prop.Name).GetValue(source, Nothing), IEnumerable)
For Each key As Object In keys
Dim childProp = (From a In key.[GetType]().GetProperties() Where a.PropertyType.Name.Equals("EntityReference`1", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) Select a).SingleOrDefault()
childProp.GetValue(key, Nothing).ClearEntityObject(False)
key.ClearEntityObject(True)
Next
Next
Return CType(source, T)
End Function
End Module
But the problem is that when I try to use like this :
Dim litm, newitm as MyObject
For Each litm In itemlist
newitm = litm.Clone()
newitm.ClearEntityReference(True)
context.MyObjects.Add(newitm)
Next
context.SaveChanges()
I get an error :
Public member 'Clone' on type 'MyObject' not found.