linq - Unable to create a constant value of type (type) Only primitive types ('such as Int32, String, and Guid') are supported in this context

Question

I've read ALL of:

• Unable to create a constant value of type 'System.Object' in Entity Framework

• Entity Framework - "Unable to create a constant value of type 'Closure type'..." error

• Entity Framework - Union causes "Unable to create a constant value of type.."

• Only primitive types ('such as Int32, String, and Guid') are supported in this context

and searched a bit more, but still no solution. I've seen that this happens on EF 3.5 and in 4.0 the Contains method should be supported, but I'm in EF 4 but I'm getting this error. I have a photo gallery, where albums can have any number of different photos, and each photo can belong to any number of albums. So this is a many-to-many relationship.

I've got a VisibleObjects property which is used by about 100 other methods that work well, but I'm pasting it anyway: (I'm definitely sure the problem is not caused by something here)

static IQueryable<GlobalObject> VisibleObjects
    {
        get
        {
            return from obj in db.GlobalObjectSet where obj.IsVisible && !obj.SiteUser.IsDeactivated orderby obj.ID descending select obj;
        }
    }

I've tried several different queries:

I have a VisiblePhotos property:

This wasn't working:

static IQueryable<Photo> VisiblePhotos(this Album a)
    {
        return from p in VisibleObjects.OfType<Photo>() where a.Photos.Contains(p) select p;
    }

Changed to this:

static IQueryable<Photo> VisiblePhotos(this Album a)
    {
        return from p in VisibleObjects.OfType<Photo>() where a.Photos.Any(other => p.ID == other.ID) select p;
    }

Still didn't work.

Here is the calling method:

public static List<Photo> GetLatestPhotosByAlbum(Album alb, int count = 3)
    {
        lock (sync)
        {
            return alb.VisiblePhotos().OrderByDescending(p => p.ID).Take(count).ToList();
        }
    }

Wasn't working, changed to this:

public static List<Photo> GetLatestPhotosByAlbum(Album alb, int count = 3)
    {
        lock (sync)
        {
            return (from p in VisibleObjects.OfType<Photo>()
                    where alb.Photos.Any(ph => ph.ID == ph.ID)
                    select p).ToList();
        }
    }

Still isn't working. Complaining about not being able to create a constant of my Photo object type, which is an Entity object with an ID property, if it helps. I am not sure of the real cause of the error and I don't have any other ideas of queries in my mind. I think the method name is pretty self explanatory: I'm trying to get the photos in a given album. Loading album entries into memory is not a solution, the query should run on database, not memory. I need an explanation of this exception, why it is occuring here, and how can I get my query to work.

Answer 1

It will not work because you want to use local Album in linq-to-entities query. You must either use navigation property on p to get its album:

var query = from p in VisibleObjects.OfType<Photo>()
            where p.Album.Id == alb.Id
            select p;

or you must build complex query with some join between photos and albums. You cannot pass local object and any its relation to the query. Only simple properties can be passed.