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

So far, DateTime is not the part of the OASIS OData V4 standard and Web API doesn't support the DateTime type while it do support the DateTimeOffset type.

However, OData Team are working on supporting the DataTime type now. I'd expect you can use the DateTime type in the next Web API release. If you can't wait for the next release, I wrote an example based on the blog . Hope it can help you. Thanks.

Model

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; }
    }
}

public class DateTimeWrapper
{
    public static implicit operator DateTimeOffset(DateTimeWrapper p)
    {
        return DateTime.SpecifyKind(p._dt, DateTimeKind.Utc);
    }

    public static implicit operator DateTimeWrapper(DateTimeOffset dto)
    {
        return new DateTimeWrapper(dto.DateTime);
    }

    public static implicit operator DateTime(DateTimeWrapper dtr)
    {
        return dtr._dt;
    }

    public static implicit operator DateTimeWrapper(DateTime dt)
    {
        return new DateTimeWrapper(dt);
    }

    protected DateTimeWrapper(DateTime dt)
    {
        _dt = dt;
    }

    private readonly DateTime _dt;
}

DB Context

public DbSet Customers { get; set; }

EdmModel

ODataConventionModelBuilder builder = new ODataConventionModelBuilder();

builder.EntitySet("Customers");

var cu = builder.StructuralTypes.First(t => t.ClrType == typeof(Customer));
cu.AddProperty(typeof(Customer).GetProperty("BirthdayOffset"));
var customer = builder.EntityType();

customer.Ignore(t => t.Birthday);
var model = builder.GetEdmModel();

config.MapODataServiceRoute("odata", "odata", model);

Controller

Add the OData Controller as normal.

Test

Payload