WebAPI 2 OData Query cannot find "Id" field

WebAPI 2 makes it really simple for controller actions to support OData query. All you need to do is decorate an action with [Queryable] if it returns IQueryable<T>. For example,

[Queryable]
public IQueryable<Product> GetProducts()
{
  return UoW.Current.Products;
}

Now, if you add OData $filter to request URL,

http://localhost:54097/api/product?$filter=Name eq 'LightSpeed'

you get filtered results:

[ { "Name": "LightSpeed",
"Description": "LightSpeed, our flagship domain model & O/RM framework",
"CssClass": "LightSpeed",
"Id": 11 } ]

However, there is a subtle issue if T is a LightSpeed Entity. You cannot filter on its Id field. The action will throw an exception on such filters.

http://localhost:54097/api/product?$filter=Id eq 12
"ExceptionMessage": "Could not find a property named 'Id' on type 'LsWebApi.Product'."

My observation is that Id field is not defined in Product itself, but inherited from its base class, Entity<T>. But I can't make sense out of the observation. Is this a bug, or a feature?

I believe the problem lies in that Id is actually an alias for an underlying internal property called IdInternal so it is being excluded from the properties OData is making available for filtering despite being valid for serialization/deserialization.

If this is the case then unfortunately this will not work. Since you are dealing with a "FindById" scenario can you not just expose a GetById method for this purpose?

Jeremy

I will go with GetById as a work-around.