Nested ActiveModelEx::save() fails to insert a new has_many child with a composite, non-auto-increment primary key

[ziimakc]

Description

Nested ActiveModelEx::save() (SeaORM 2.0) picks insert-vs-update per related row via is_update(), which just checks whether the primary key columns are Set/Unchanged. For an entity with a composite, non-auto-increment primary key (e.g. a join/ownership table keyed by (parent_id, tag)), the key is always fully set when building a new row, so a brand-new child is misdiagnosed as an update. The resulting UPDATE matches zero rows and save() fails with RecordNotFound, instead of inserting the row.

This works fine for auto-increment primary keys (a fresh row naturally has NotSet on the pk), but composite non-auto-increment keys are a common shape for has_many children (join tables, per-user records, etc.), so save() can't be used to add a new child to an already-persisted parent in that case. The same misdiagnosis also hits any entity whose (single-column) primary key is a UUID assigned application-side rather than by the database — a very common pattern — since that pk is likewise always Set on a fresh row, not NotSet.

Steps to reproduce

use sea_orm::entity::prelude::*;
use sea_orm::{ConnectionTrait, Database, Schema};

mod parent {
    use sea_orm::entity::prelude::*;

    #[sea_orm::model]
    #[derive(Clone, Debug, PartialEq, Eq, DeriveEntityModel)]
    #[sea_orm(table_name = "parent")]
    pub struct Model {
        #[sea_orm(primary_key, auto_increment = false)]
        pub id: i32,
        #[sea_orm(has_many)]
        pub children: HasMany<super::child::Entity>,
    }

    impl ActiveModelBehavior for ActiveModel {}
}

mod child {
    use sea_orm::entity::prelude::*;

    // Composite, non-auto-increment primary key.
    #[sea_orm::model]
    #[derive(Clone, Debug, PartialEq, Eq, DeriveEntityModel)]
    #[sea_orm(table_name = "child")]
    pub struct Model {
        #[sea_orm(primary_key, auto_increment = false)]
        pub parent_id: i32,
        #[sea_orm(primary_key, auto_increment = false)]
        pub tag: i32,
        #[sea_orm(belongs_to, from = "parent_id", to = "id")]
        pub parent: HasOne<super::parent::Entity>,
    }

    impl ActiveModelBehavior for ActiveModel {}
}

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), DbErr> {
    let db = Database::connect("sqlite::memory:").await?;
    let builder = db.get_database_backend();
    let schema = Schema::new(builder);
    db.execute(&schema.create_table_from_entity(parent::Entity)).await?;
    db.execute(&schema.create_table_from_entity(child::Entity)).await?;

    parent::ActiveModel::builder().set_id(1).insert(&db).await?;

    let loaded = parent::Entity::load()
        .filter(parent::COLUMN.id.eq(1))
        .one(&db)
        .await?
        .expect("parent exists");

    let mut active: parent::ActiveModelEx = loaded.into();
    active.children.push(child::ActiveModel::builder().set_tag(42));

    let result = active.save(&db).await; // <- fails
    println!("{:?}", result.map(|_| ()));

    Ok(())
}

Cargo.toml dependency: sea-orm = { version = "=2.0.2", features = ["sqlx-sqlite", "runtime-tokio-rustls", "macros"] }

Expected behaviour

The new child row is INSERTed.

Actual behaviour

Err(RecordNotFound Error: Failed to find updated item)

No row is inserted; save() returns an error instead.

Versions

• sea-orm: 2.0.2
• rustc: latest stable

Happy to help narrow this down further if useful — thanks for the 2.0 nested-save feature, it's great for the auto-increment case!

[leuchthelp]

Was just about to reference this issue as well (#3182).

This is a much better summary of the actual underlying issue. Specifically the UUID example was exactly what I was facing.

[leuchthelp]

This works fine for auto-increment primary keys

I believe this also causes issues when using auto-increment primary keys specifically when trying to populate the ActiveModel with default values using the provided:

let pre_populated = cake::ActiveModelEx::default_values();

The pk gets set & as a result pre_populated.save(db).await? now performs an UPDATE instead of INSERT causing this workaround to no longer work.

[Jacob-32587]

Is there any work to get this issue resolved? I am currently working on a migration to SeaORM 2.0 and this is blocking my upgrade. I would love to contribute with a proposed solution/PR if help is wanted here.

[Huliiiiii]

I think this API would be better off being redesigned. Any ideas are welcome.

One temporary workaround I can think of is to try Upsert first, and only Create if nothing was updated.
It's a dirty workaround, though.

[Huliiiiii]

I think it would be best to introduce a set of APIs with clear semantics rather than pushing models with ambiguous semantics, including the following methods, as well as the corresponding methods based on the needs described in #3195 (not listed here)：

parent.children.create(new_child);
parent.children.connect(child_key);
parent.children.update(changes);
parent.children.disconnect(child_key);
parent.children.delete(child_key);     

cc @tyt2y3

[ziimakc]

My main workflow looks like this:

// pseudo code

let user = db.fetchById() // return converted db active model to domain model
let original = user.clone()

// do some changes
user.nickname = "a"
user.description = "b"

db.save(original, user)

save(original: Option<User>, user: User) {
if no original - insert

if there is original diff and mark changed props for update, rest is unchanged

call user_active_model.save()
}

So I'm fine as long as I can explicitly tell what should be inserted, updated, or what is not changed in active model.