odata v4, List<> Property without expand - asp.net-web-api

Question

Is it possible in odata4 to create a model such as:
public class PuppyDogs
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual IList<Bone> Bones { get; set; }
}
public class Bone
{
public string ChewType { get; set; }
public int Numberofchews { get; set; }
}
And the controller class looks like
public class PuppyDogController : ODataController
{
List<PuppysDog> mydogs = new List<PuppysDog>();
private PuppyDogController()
{
if (mydogs.Count == 0)
{
PuppysDog mydog = new PuppysDog();
mydog.Name = "Fido";
mydog.Bones = new List<Bone>()
{
new Bone{ ChewType = "Soft", Numberofchews=1 },
new Bone{ ChewType = "Hard", Numberofchews=2 }
};
mydogs.Add(mydog);
}
}
[EnableQuery]
public IQueryable<PuppysDog> Get()
{
return mydogs.AsQueryable();
}
}
Can I include the Bones property of PuppyDogs without using expand? By default Bones is not returned to the client.

Answer 1

There are several things nor clear in your code, for example, the entity set PuppyDogs don't have a key, the naming convention in the controller is a little wired and etc. With the following code, it can work perfectly, please take a look
PuppyDog.cs
public class PuppyDog
{
[Key]
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual IList<Bone> Bones { get; set; }
}
Bone.cs
public class Bone
{
public string ChewType { get; set; }
public int Numberofchews { get; set; }
}
PupyyDogsController.cs
public class PuppyDogsController : ODataController
{
List<PuppyDog> mydogs = new List<PuppyDog>();
private PuppyDogsController()
{
if (mydogs.Count == 0)
{
PuppyDog mydog = new PuppyDog();
mydog.Name = "Fido";
mydog.Bones = new List<Bone>()
{
new Bone {ChewType = "Soft", Numberofchews = 1},
new Bone {ChewType = "Hard", Numberofchews = 2}
};
mydogs.Add(mydog);
}
}
[EnableQuery]
public IQueryable<PuppyDog> Get()
{
return mydogs.AsQueryable();
}
}
WebApiConfig.cs
public static class WebApiConfig
{
public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)
{
ODataConventionModelBuilder builder = new ODataConventionModelBuilder();
builder.EntitySet<PuppyDog>("PuppyDogs");
config.MapODataServiceRoute("odata", null, builder.GetEdmModel(), new DefaultODataBatchHandler(GlobalConfiguration.DefaultServer));
config.EnsureInitialized();
}
}
Then when try http://localhost:21830/PuppyDogs, I can successfully got the payload as
{
"#odata.context": "http://localhost:21830/$metadata#PuppyDogs",
"value": [
{
"Name": "Fido",
"Bones": [
{
"ChewType": "Soft",
"Numberofchews": 1
},
{
"ChewType": "Hard",
"Numberofchews": 2
}
]
}
]
}