News
A Refreshed OData Client Code Generator
Version 2.0.0, released earlier this month, contains a bevy usability, functionality, and configurability improvements, as well as rounds up a number of bug fixes.
Microsoft's latest release of the OData Client Code Generator was released earlier this month. Version 2.0.0 contains usability, functionality, and configurability improvements, as well as some bug fixes.
OData Client Code Generator is described by Microsoft as an "item template that simplifies the process of accessing OData v4 services by generating C# and VB.Net client-side proxy classes." OData 4 allows developers to create REST-based data services to be published and edited by Web clients using simple HTTP messages. The services are used in conjunction with the OData Client Library for .NET.
Among the usability changes, version 2 has improved exception handling in the code generator and proxy services. It has also redesigned the type of generated class for singletons, from DataServiceQuery<T> to DataServiceQuerySingle<T>. "the generated client side proxy can better support complex queries and support them in a more usable way," blogs the OData Team.
Functionality improvements include: code generator now supports proxy generation that can use metadata documents referenced externally; client-side proxy can reference a locally stored metadata document upon generation; code generator now supports "function imports, action imports, actions & functions bound to collection of entities, actions & functions bound to an entity type."
As for configurability, the OData Team blogs that "a configuration is added to the configuration file "ODataClient.tt" enable the conversion from lower camel case property, entity and namespace names (e.g. "myName") to upper camel case ones (e.g. "MyName"). "
This version also rounds out three key fixes:
- Generated client code was missing System.Nullable<> for nullable EnumType.
- A namespace collision occurred due to a missing global:: prefix in some of the global namespaces in generated code.
- T4 templates appended a trailing slash to the end of the metadata document URI; it's actually the default address for "Metadata as a Service."
OData Client Code Generator 2.0.0 is available through the Visual Studio Gallery here.
About the Author
You Tell 'Em, Readers: If you've read this far, know that Michael Domingo, Visual Studio Magazine Editor in Chief, is here to serve you, dear readers, and wants to get you the information you so richly deserve. What news, content, topics, issues do you want to see covered in Visual Studio Magazine? He's listening at [email protected].