How to get Web API OData v4 to use DateTime

Question

I have a fairly large data model that I want to expose using Web API OData using the OData V4 protocol.

The underlying data is stored in a SQL Server 2012 database.

Answer 1

public class Customer
{
    private DateTimeWrapper dtw;

    public int Id { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }

    public DateTime Birthday
    {
       get { return dtw; }
       set { dtw = value; }
    }

    [NotMapped]
    public DateTimeOffset BirthdayOffset
    {
        get { return dtw; }
        set { dtw = value; }
    }
}


var customer = builder.EntityType<Customer>();
customer.Ignore(t => t.Birthday);
customer.Property(t => t.BirthdayOffset).Name = "Birthday";

Answer 2

Since i use a library for odata with angular, i investigated it there:

https://github.com/devnixs/ODataAngularResources/blob/master/src/odatavalue.js

There you can see ( javascript)

var generateDate = function(date,isOdataV4){
        if(!isOdataV4){
            return "datetime'" + date.getFullYear() + "-" + ("0" + (date.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2) + "-" + ("0" + date.getDate()).slice(-2) + "T" + ("0" + date.getHours()).slice(-2) + ":" + ("0" + date.getMinutes()).slice(-2)+':'+("0" + date.getSeconds()).slice(-2) + "'";
        }else{
            return date.getFullYear() + "-" + ("0" + (date.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2) + "-" + ("0" + date.getDate()).slice(-2) + "T" + ("0" + date.getHours()).slice(-2) + ":" + ("0" + date.getMinutes()).slice(-2)+':'+("0" + date.getSeconds()).slice(-2) + "Z";
        }
    };

And the test expects ( cfr. here )

 $httpBackend.expectGET("/user(1)?$filter=date eq 2015-07-28T10:23:00Z")

So this should be your "formatting"

2015-07-28T10:23:00Z

Answer 3

An alternate solution is to patch the project so that DateTime is allowed again - that's what I did, you can get the code here if you want it:

https://aspnetwebstack.codeplex.com/SourceControl/network/forks/johncrim/datetimefixes

I also pushed a NuGet package to make it easy to use, you can obtain the package using the info here:

http://www.nuget.org/packages/Patches.System.Web.OData/5.3.0-datetimefixes

... I don't know if it's ok for me to post a NuGet package containing a patched Microsoft library, I hope it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

Note that the work item to officially restore the ability to use DateTime in OData 4 is tracked here: https://aspnetwebstack.codeplex.com/workitem/2072 Please vote for the issue if you'd like to see it; though it looks like it's scheduled for 5.4-beta, so it should be coming one of these days.

Answer 4

Finally Web API OData v4 now supports DateTime type in release 5.5 . Get latest nuget package and don't forget setting this:

config.SetTimeZoneInfo(TimeZoneInfo.Utc);

otherwise the timezone of the dateTime property would be considered as local timezone.

More info: ASP.NET Web API for OData V4 Docs DateTime support

Answer 5

Looks like a mapping DateTimeOffset <-> DateTime will be included in Microsoft ASP.NET Web API 2.2 for OData v4.0 5.4.0:

https://github.com/OData/WebApi/commit/2717aec772fa2f69a2011e841ffdd385823ae822

Answer 6

Install System.Web.OData 5.3.0-datetimefixes from https://www.nuget.org/packages/Patches.System.Web.OData/