EntityFramework knowing when being materialized

I realize there is an event ObjectMaterialized with gets called on ObjectContext after an object is materialized.

Is there a way to know when an object is currently being mate开发者_开发问答rialized?

An object can be re-materialized by being refreshed from the database. So I can't simply have a flag in my class indicating if I've already been materialized, because it may happen again.

Basically, when certain properties are being set, I'd like to know if they are being set as fresh values from the database (i.e. while being materialized), or if the application is calling them from elsewhere.

If i read the documentation correct then the ObjectMaterialized event fires only once when the entity object is created and then it is loaded from the database with a query or a load operation.

You can track object changes with ObjectStateManager but i don't know if it helps you find out the source of the change.

As pointed in answer by @BigL this event is not fired again when entity is refreshed. Materialization means creating an instance and that will happen only once. Refreshing only updates values in the existing instance and sets entity state.

You always know that properties are being set by refreshing because you must trigger that operation yourselves on the specified entity instance so you can control what ever flag you need to turn on or off your logic used when properties are set.