Key value binding

Applies To:# OData WebApi v7 for aspnet webapi supported OData AspNet WebApi V7# OData Webapi for Webapi supported OData AspNet WebApi V6

Since Web API OData V6.0.0 beta, Web API OData supports the composite key convention binding.

Example

public class Customer
{
    public string StringProp { get; set; }
    public Date DateProp { get; set; }
    public Guid GuidProp { get; set; }
}

Where, Customer is an entity type with three properties. We will make all these three properties as the composite keys for Customer entity type.

So, we can do:

private static IEdmModel GetEdmModel()
{
    ODataConventionModelBuilder builder = new ODataConventionModelBuilder();
    builder.EntityType<Customer>().HasKey(c =>new { c.StringProp, c.DateProp, c.GuidProp});
	builder.EntitySet<Customer>("Customers");
	return builder.GetEdmModel();
}

Before Web API OData V6.x, key segment convention routing only supports the single key convention binding, just use the key as the parameter name.

In Web API OData V6.x, we use the following convention for the composite key parameter name, but leave the key for single key parameter.

"key" + {CompositeKeyPropertyName}

Therefore, for StringProp key property, the action parameter name should be keyStringProp.

Let's see how the controller action looks like:

public class CustomersController : ODataController
{
    public IHttpActionResult Get([FromODataUri]string keyStringProp, [FromODataUri]Date keyDateProp, [FromODataUri]Guid keyGuidProp)
    {
    }
}

Now, you can issue a request:

GET https://~/odata/Customers(StringProp='my',DateProp=2016-05-11,GuidProp=46538EC2-E497-4DFE-A039-1C22F0999D6C)

The result is:

1. keyStringProp == "my";
2. keyDataProp == new Date(2016, 5, 11);
3. keyGuidProp == new Guid("46538EC2-E497-4DFE-A039-1C22F0999D6C")

[!Note], this rule also applies to the navigation property key convention binding.