Attribute.IsDefined doesn't see attributes applied with MetadataType class

Question

If I apply attributes to a partial class via the MetadataType attribute, those attributes are not found via Attribute.IsDefined(). Anyone know why, or what

Answer 1

Given the following classes:

public partial class Person
{
    public int PersonId { get; set; }
}

[MetadataType(typeof(PersonMetadata))]
public partial class Person
{
    public partial class PersonMetadata
    {
        [Key]
        public int PersonId { get; set; }
    }
}

I needed to get see if Key has been defined on a property for Person class. I then needed to get the value of the property. Using @AdamGrid answer, I modified the code like this to get it:

private static object GetPrimaryKeyValue(TEntity entity)
{
    MetadataTypeAttribute[] metadataTypes = typeof(TEntity).GetCustomAttributes(typeof(MetadataTypeAttribute), true).OfType().ToArray();
    MetadataTypeAttribute metadata = metadataTypes.FirstOrDefault();
    if (metadata == null)
    {
        ThrowNotFound();
    }

    PropertyInfo[] properties = metadata.MetadataClassType.GetProperties();
    PropertyInfo primaryKeyProperty =
        properties.SingleOrDefault(x => Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(x, typeof(KeyAttribute)) as KeyAttribute != null);
    if (primaryKeyProperty == null)
    {
        ThrowNotFound();
    }

    object primaryKeyValue = typeof(TEntity).GetProperties().Single(x => x.Name == primaryKeyProperty.Name).GetValue(entity);

    return primaryKeyValue;
}

private static void ThrowNotFound()
{
    throw new InvalidOperationException
            ($"The type {typeof(TEntity)} does not have a property with attribute KeyAttribute to indicate the primary key. You must add that attribute to one property of the class.");
}