I have a model that is defined in EF database first edmx. From there I expose some tables and views (mainly views). As it's possible to augment the EF model with OData, how could I add a navigation property of a complex type to another EF and OData exposed type?
Currently I define a partial class and add the properties and attributes using them. But it looks like it's possible to add the desired properties with OData's modelbuilder functionality too, or perhaps better yet, first use ODataConventionModelBuilder
and then augment the results. Alas, I'm unable to stitch together a working example from the existing API documentation and examples I've found.
Here's the code
//This class is generated from a view by EF (edmx)...
public partial class AccountView
{
public System.Guid Id { get; set; }
public int CompanyId { get; set; }
}
//Here's augmenting the EF generated view with some additional data...
[MetadataType(typeof(AccounViewMetaData))]
public partial class AccounView
{
//This is added here explicitly. AccountView itself exposes just
//a naked key, CompanyId.
public virtual Company Company { get; set; }
//This is just in case...
public class AccounViewDomainMetaData
{
//This is to add a navigation property to the OData $metadata. How to do this
//in WebApiConfig? See as follows...
[ForeignKey("Company")]
public int CompanyId { get; set; }
}
}
//This is an EF generated class one from an edmx..-
public partial class Company
{
public Company() { }
public int CompanyID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
//How to add a navigation property from AccountView to Company so that it'd become
//possible to call http://example.com/Accounts?$expand=Company and http://example.com/Accounts(1)?$expand=Company ?
var builder = new ODataConventionModelBuilder();
var companySet = builder.EntitySet<Entities.Company>("Companies");
var accountSet = builder.EntitySet<Entities.AccountView>("Accounts");
accountSet.EntityType.HasKey(i => i.Id); //EF has hard time recognizing primary keys on database first views...
//How to hide this from the result if there's a way to create a ?$expand=Company navigation property?
//accountSet.EntityType.Ignore(i => i.CompanyId);
This is related to my other question regarding OData and models.