Entity Framework Extensions What is Command Interception

The high-level goal for the interception feature is to allow external code to observe and potentially intercept EF operations.

Anytime Entity Framework sends a command to the database this command can be intercepted by application code.
Using this approach, you can capture a lot more information transiently without having to untidy your code.
EF6 provides a dedicated logging API that can make it easier to do logging.
In this article, we will cover how to use the Entity Framework's interception feature directly for logging.

Command Interception In EF Core

Right now, Entity Framework Core still does not have all the features provided in Entity Framework 6 including the command interception. To use command interception in EF Core, you can use Entity Framework Extensions which provides DbCommandInterceptor.

To get this feature in your EF Core, install the Z.EntityFramework.Extensions.EFCore NuGet package or run the following command in Package Manager Console.

PM> Install-Package Z.EntityFramework.Extensions.EFCore

The DbCommandInteceptor in EF Core is very similar to EF6.

You will need to create a class that implements DbCommandInterceptor.
You will also need to override the virtual methods that you want to intercept
All methods are available with the same signatures.
It can do pretty much everything as it can in EF6.

Create Interceptor

To implement command interception, we need to create a custom interceptor and register it accordingly. Entity Framework will call it whenever a query is sent to the database.

Let's create a new class EFCommandInterceptor that implements DbCommandInterceptor class which is available in Z.EntityFramework.Extensions.EFCore.

public class EFCommandInterceptor : DbCommandInterceptor
{
    public override void NonQueryExecuted(DbCommand command, DbCommandInterceptionContext<int> interceptionContext)
    {
        base.NonQueryExecuted(command, interceptionContext);
        LogInfo("EFCommandInterceptor.NonQueryExecuted", interceptionContext.Result.ToString(), command.CommandText);
    }

    public override void NonQueryExecuting(DbCommand command, DbCommandInterceptionContext<int> interceptionContext)
    {
        base.NonQueryExecuting(command, interceptionContext);
        LogInfo("EFCommandInterceptor.NonQueryExecuting", interceptionContext.EventData.ToString(), command.CommandText);
    }

    public override void ReaderExecuted(DbCommand command, DbCommandInterceptionContext<DbDataReader> interceptionContext)
    {
        base.ReaderExecuted(command, interceptionContext);
        LogInfo("EFCommandInterceptor.ReaderExecuted", interceptionContext.Result.ToString(), command.CommandText);
    }

    public override void ReaderExecuting(DbCommand command, DbCommandInterceptionContext<DbDataReader> interceptionContext)
    {
        base.ReaderExecuting(command, interceptionContext);
        LogInfo("EFCommandInterceptor.ReaderExecuting", interceptionContext.EventData.ToString(), command.CommandText);
    }

    public override void ScalarExecuted(DbCommand command, DbCommandInterceptionContext<object> interceptionContext)
    {
        base.ScalarExecuted(command, interceptionContext);
        LogInfo("EFCommandInterceptor.ScalarExecuted", interceptionContext.Result.ToString(), command.CommandText);
    }

    public override void ScalarExecuting(DbCommand command, DbCommandInterceptionContext<object> interceptionContext)
    {
        base.ScalarExecuting(command, interceptionContext);
        LogInfo("EFCommandInterceptor.ScalarExecuting", interceptionContext.EventData.ToString(), command.CommandText);
    }

    public override void NonQueryError(DbCommand command, DbCommandInterceptionContext<int> interceptionContext, Exception exception)
    {
        base.NonQueryError(command, interceptionContext, exception);
        LogInfo("EFCommandInterceptor.NonQueryError", interceptionContext.EventData.ToString(), command.CommandText, exception.Message);
    }

    public override void ReaderError(DbCommand command, DbCommandInterceptionContext<DbDataReader> interceptionContext, Exception exception)
    {
        base.ReaderError(command, interceptionContext, exception);
        LogInfo("EFCommandInterceptor.NonQueryError", interceptionContext.EventData.ToString(), command.CommandText, exception.Message);
    }

    public override void ScalarError(DbCommand command, DbCommandInterceptionContext<object> interceptionContext, Exception exception)
    {
        base.ScalarError(command, interceptionContext, exception);
        LogInfo("EFCommandInterceptor.NonQueryError", interceptionContext.EventData.ToString(), command.CommandText, exception.Message);
    }

    private void LogInfo(string method, string command, string commandText)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Intercepted on: {0} \n {1} \n {2}", method, command, commandText);
    }

    private void LogInfo(string method, string command, string commandText, string exception)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Intercepted on: {0} \n {1} \n {2} \n {3}", method, command, commandText, exception);
    }
}

This code writes commands and queries on the Console Window. The DbCommandInterceptionContext currently have the following properties:

DbContext
Result (populated only on "Executed" event)
EventData which contains all information about this event.

Register Interceptor

Once a class that implements the interception has been created it can be registered using the DbInterception class as shown below.

DbInterception.Add(new EFCommandInterceptor());

You can add interceptors using the DbInterception.Add method anywhere in your code such as, Application_Start method or in the DbConfiguration class, etc.

Be careful not to execute DbInterception.Add for the same interceptor more than once, otherwise, you will get additional interceptor instances.
For example, if you add the logging interceptor twice, you will see two logs for every SQL query.
In this example, we will register the interceptor in the main method.

You can also bind the interceptor to the context if you want to have information about context, but this step is optional.

public static EFCommandInterceptor CommandInterceptor = new EFCommandInterceptor();

public class CurrentContext : DbContext
{
    public CurrentContext()
    {
        this.BindInterceptor(CommandInterceptor);
    }

    public DbSet<Customer> Customers { get; set; }

    protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    {
        optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(@"Data Source=(localdb)\ProjectsV13;Initial Catalog=TestDB;");
    }
}

Now let's insert some data to the database and then retrieve the data from the database.

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    DbInterception.Add(CommandInterceptor);

    using (var context = new CurrentContext())
    {
        var list = new List<Customer>();

        list.Add(new Customer() { Name = "Customer_A", IsActive = true });
        list.Add(new Customer() { Name = "Customer_B", IsActive = true });
        list.Add(new Customer() { Name = "Customer_C", IsActive = true });

        context.Customers.AddRange(list);
        context.SaveChanges();
    }

    using (var context = new CurrentContext())
    {
        var list = context.Customers.ToList();
    }
}

Let's run your application in debug mode, and you will see all the commands on the console window.

Intercepted on: EFCommandInterceptor.ReaderExecuting
 Executing DbCommand [Parameters=[@p0='?' (DbType = Boolean), @p1='?' (Size = 4000)], CommandType='Text', CommandTimeout='30']
SET NOCOUNT ON;
INSERT INTO [Customers] ([IsActive], [Name])
VALUES (@p0, @p1);
SELECT [CustomerID]
FROM [Customers]
WHERE @@ROWCOUNT = 1 AND [CustomerID] = scope_identity();
 SET NOCOUNT ON;
INSERT INTO [Customers] ([IsActive], [Name])
VALUES (@p0, @p1);
SELECT [CustomerID]
FROM [Customers]
WHERE @@ROWCOUNT = 1 AND [CustomerID] = scope_identity();


Intercepted on: EFCommandInterceptor.ReaderExecuted
 System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader
 SET NOCOUNT ON;
INSERT INTO [Customers] ([IsActive], [Name])
VALUES (@p0, @p1);
SELECT [CustomerID]
FROM [Customers]
WHERE @@ROWCOUNT = 1 AND [CustomerID] = scope_identity();


Intercepted on: EFCommandInterceptor.ReaderExecuting
 Executing DbCommand [Parameters=[@p0='?' (DbType = Boolean), @p1='?' (Size = 4000)], CommandType='Text', CommandTimeout='30']
SET NOCOUNT ON;
INSERT INTO [Customers] ([IsActive], [Name])
VALUES (@p0, @p1);
SELECT [CustomerID]
FROM [Customers]
WHERE @@ROWCOUNT = 1 AND [CustomerID] = scope_identity();
 SET NOCOUNT ON;
INSERT INTO [Customers] ([IsActive], [Name])
VALUES (@p0, @p1);
SELECT [CustomerID]
FROM [Customers]
WHERE @@ROWCOUNT = 1 AND [CustomerID] = scope_identity();


Intercepted on: EFCommandInterceptor.ReaderExecuted
 System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader
 SET NOCOUNT ON;
INSERT INTO [Customers] ([IsActive], [Name])
VALUES (@p0, @p1);
SELECT [CustomerID]
FROM [Customers]
WHERE @@ROWCOUNT = 1 AND [CustomerID] = scope_identity();


Intercepted on: EFCommandInterceptor.ReaderExecuting
 Executing DbCommand [Parameters=[@p0='?' (DbType = Boolean), @p1='?' (Size = 4000)], CommandType='Text', CommandTimeout='30']
SET NOCOUNT ON;
INSERT INTO [Customers] ([IsActive], [Name])
VALUES (@p0, @p1);
SELECT [CustomerID]
FROM [Customers]
WHERE @@ROWCOUNT = 1 AND [CustomerID] = scope_identity();
 SET NOCOUNT ON;
INSERT INTO [Customers] ([IsActive], [Name])
VALUES (@p0, @p1);
SELECT [CustomerID]
FROM [Customers]
WHERE @@ROWCOUNT = 1 AND [CustomerID] = scope_identity();


Intercepted on: EFCommandInterceptor.ReaderExecuted
 System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader
 SET NOCOUNT ON;
INSERT INTO [Customers] ([IsActive], [Name])
VALUES (@p0, @p1);
SELECT [CustomerID]
FROM [Customers]
WHERE @@ROWCOUNT = 1 AND [CustomerID] = scope_identity();


Intercepted on: EFCommandInterceptor.ReaderExecuting
 Executing DbCommand [Parameters=[], CommandType='Text', CommandTimeout='30']
SELECT [c].[CustomerID], [c].[IsActive], [c].[Name]
FROM [Customers] AS [c]
 SELECT [c].[CustomerID], [c].[IsActive], [c].[Name]
FROM [Customers] AS [c]
Intercepted on: EFCommandInterceptor.ReaderExecuted
 System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader
 SELECT [c].[CustomerID], [c].[IsActive], [c].[Name]
FROM [Customers] AS [c]

Limitations

Unlike EF6, you cannot change the result. However, you can still access DbDataReader and read the result.
If the connection is not unique by context, the interceptor will always return the context that was the last bind for this shared connection.
Connection is usually unique by context, otherwise, it will have some concurrency issue with opening/closing the connection.

Last updated: 2023-03-01
Author: ZZZ Projects

Command Interception In EF Core
Create Interceptor
Register Interceptor
Limitations

Entity Framework Extensions What is Command Interception

Command Interception In EF Core

Create Interceptor

Register Interceptor

Limitations

Contents