Linq2Rest doesn't work on nested properties?

Question

I have an API that returns c# objects serialized as JSON.

I need to implement some sort of OData format parsing on my API URLs. That for example, originally look like this: http://api.loc/userprofiles/all/?$orderby=ProfileProperties.Email

I was looking for some more or less straightforward library that would allow me to parse the Filter / OrderBy (OData) query string and apply a Filter on my data source. I found Linq2Rest with it's pretty simple format where I can use it like:

var filtered = allItems.Filter(Request.Params).OfType<Content.UserProfile>();

Problem is that my Content.UserProfile has a nested property .ProfileProperties, which contains the properties that I'm interested in

So, for example:

var user = new Content.UserProfile();
user.ProfileProperties.Email = "my@mail.com";
user.ProfileProperties.FirstName = "Fukoka";

.. etc

Unfortunately Linq2Rest can't parse my query and fails with a message "ProfileProperties.Email is not recognized as a valid property" ..

How can I then perform this Filter on items with nested properties ?

Answer 1

Is the query URL a generated one, or did you write it yourself? I would have expected it to be:

http://api.loc/userprofiles/all/?$orderby=ProfileProperties/Email

Normally with OData nested properties use a slash ( / ) as separator.

Otherwise, you should include some information about how the query URL is generated.

Answer 2

You can use OData Client Library provided by Microsoft.

Is there any specific reason you are not using it ?

Example taken from Query Options

// Define a query for orders with a Freight value greater than 30 // and that is ordered by the ship date, descending.

  DataServiceQuery<Order> selectedOrders = context.Orders
    .AddQueryOption("$filter", "Freight gt 30")
    .AddQueryOption("$orderby", "OrderID desc");