Loading Navigation Properties into DTO (using the plain WCF web service)

[Daniel Frumkin]

I'm trying to extend the generate WCF plain service with some of my own custom logic.  I want to add a function that takes a DTO object, gets a list of entities from a navigation property and runs a query against the repository based on the entities returned from the navigation property.   


I've added a method to the .svc and to the service.cs layer.

How do I get my Dto's be loaded with the navigation properties?  Or is the way I'm going about extending the service all wrong?

// method added to the .svc
public IEnumerable<ProductDto> ReadProductByBrandGroup(BrandGroupDto brand){
    var mappings = brand.BrandMappings.ToList(); //this should return a list of strings but instead returns null
    return this.ProductService.FindProductsByBrandGroup(brand); //this works
}

//method added ProductService class in the service.cs layer
public IEnumerable<ProductDto> FindProductsByBrandGroup(BrandGroupDto brandGroup)
{
   var bMaps = brandGroup.BrandMappings;
   List<string> brandNames = bMaps.Select(x=>x.BrandName).ToList<string>() ;
   var query = this.Find(x => brandNames.Contains(x.BrandName));
   return query;
}

I've excluded code added to the IProductService and the [OperationContract] for ReadProductByBrandGroup

UPDATE:  Did a little more digging and found the solution.  http://www.telerik.com/help/openaccess-orm/developer-guide-wcfservices-plain-service-handle-relationships.html

(ps: um how do you remove formatted code blocks from your post?

[Viktor Zhivkov]

Hi Daniel,

The documentation article that you have found should demonstrate the behaviour that you want to achieve. Can you confirm that you have found the solution that you have been looking for?

If you need any assistance with this or any other tasks involving OpenAccess, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards,
Viktor Zhivkov
the Telerik team