asp.net mvc 4 - Initializing referenced objects in entity framework unit of work -

i have class in entity framework 5 (using mvc 4):

public class jobfunction {     public int id { get; set; }      public string jobfunctionname { get; set; }      public int statusid { get; set; }      public status jfstatus { get; set; } } 

in onmodelcreating method, establish fk relationship status table follows:

modelbuilder.entity<jobfunction>().hasrequired(a => a.jfstatus).                 withmany().hasforeignkey(u => u.statusid).willcascadeondelete(false); 

in controller, list of jobfunction objects follows:

list<jobfunction> jflist = uow.jobfunctionrepository.getall().tolist<catalog>(); 

where uow unit of work object, , jobfunctionrepository defined. when examine jobfunction object in jflist, see following in watch window:

id: 1 jfstatus: null jobfunctionname: "manager" statusid: 2

note jfstatus null. question is: provisions make in code initialize jfstatus appropriate status object (based on value of statusid), during getall call?

thanks in advance. -zawar

you need instrument apply eager loading when load data through repository. example give getall method parameter list of expressions navigation properties want include in query:

using system.data.entity; //...  public iqueryable<jobfunction> getall(     params expression<func<jobfunction, object>>[] includes) {     iqueryable<jobfunction> query = context.jobfunctions;      foreach (var include in includes)         query = query.include(include);      return query; } 

then call so:

list<jobfunction> jflist = uow.jobfunctionrepository     .getall(jf => jf.jfstatus)     .tolist(); 

the jfstatus property should filled now.