Entity Framework + ODATA: side-stepping the pagination - entity-framework

Question

The project I'm working on has the Entity Framework on top of an OData layer. The Odata layer has it's server side pagination turned to a value of 75. My reading on the subject leads me to believe that this pagination value is used across the board, rather than a per table basis. The table that I'm currently looking to extract all the data from is, of course, more than 75 rows. Using the entity framework, my code is simply thus:
public IQueryable<ProductColor> GetProductColors()
{
return db.ProductColors;
}
where db is the entity context. This is returning the first 75 records. I read something where I could append a parameter inlinecount set to allpages giving me the following code:
public IQueryable<ProductColor> GetProductColors()
{
return db.ProductColors.AddQueryOption("inlinecount","allpages");
}
However, this too returns 75 rows!
Can anyone shed light on how to truly get all the records regardless of the OData server-side pagination stuff?
important: I cannot remove the pagination or turn it off! It's extremely valuable in other scenarios where performance is a concern.
Update:
Through some more searching I've found an MSDN that describes how to do this task.
I'd love to be able to turn it into a full Generic method but, this was as close as I could get to a generic without using reflection:
public IQueryable<T> TakeAll<T>(QueryOperationResponse<T> qor)
{
var collection = new List<T>();
DataServiceQueryContinuation<T> next = null;
QueryOperationResponse<T> response = qor;
do
{
if (next != null)
{
response = db.Execute<T>(next) as QueryOperationResponse<T>;
}
foreach (var elem in response)
{
collection.Add(elem);
}
} while ((next = response.GetContinuation()) != null);
return collection.AsQueryable();
}
calling it like:
public IQueryable<ProductColor> GetProductColors()
{
QueryOperationResponse<ProductColor> response = db.ProductColors.Execute() as QueryOperationResponse<ProductColor>;
var productColors = this.TakeAll<ProductColor>(response);
return productColors.AsQueryable();
}

Answer 1

If unable turn off paging you'll receive 75 row by call, always. You can get all rows in following ways:
Add another IQueryable<ProductColor> AllProductColors and modify
public static void InitializeService(DataServiceConfiguration config)
{
config.UseVerboseErrors = true;
config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("*", EntitySetRights.AllRead);
config.SetEntitySetPageSize("ProductColors", 75); - Note only paged queries are present
config.SetServiceOperationAccessRule("*", ServiceOperationRights.AllRead);
config.DataServiceBehavior.MaxProtocolVersion = DataServiceProtocolVersion.V2;
}
You should call ProductColors as many as needed, for example
var cat = new NetflixCatalog(new Uri("http://odata.netflix.com/v1/Catalog/"));
var x = from t in cat.Titles
where t.ReleaseYear == 2009
select t;
var response = (QueryOperationResponse<Title>)((DataServiceQuery<Title>)x).Execute();
while (true)
{
foreach (Title title in response)
{
Console.WriteLine(title.Name);
}
var continuation = response.GetContinuation();
if (continuation == null)
{
break;
}
response = cat.Execute(continuation);
}
I use Rx with following code
public sealed class DataSequence<TEntry> : IObservable<TEntry>
{
private readonly DataServiceContext context;
private readonly Logger logger = LogManager.GetCurrentClassLogger();
private readonly IQueryable<TEntry> query;
public DataSequence(IQueryable<TEntry> query, DataServiceContext context)
{
this.query = query;
this.context = context;
}
public IDisposable Subscribe(IObserver<TEntry> observer)
{
QueryOperationResponse<TEntry> response;
try
{
response = (QueryOperationResponse<TEntry>)((DataServiceQuery<TEntry>)query).Execute();
if (response == null)
{
return Disposable.Empty;
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
logger.Error(ex);
return Disposable.Empty;
}
var initialState = new State
{
CanContinue = true,
Response = response
};
IObservable<TEntry> sequence = Observable.Generate(
initialState,
state => state.CanContinue,
MoveToNextState,
GetCurrentValue,
Scheduler.ThreadPool).Merge();
return new CompositeDisposable(initialState, sequence.Subscribe(observer));
}
private static IObservable<TEntry> GetCurrentValue(State state)
{
if (state.Response == null)
{
return Observable.Empty<TEntry>();
}
return state.Response.ToObservable();
}
private State MoveToNextState(State state)
{
DataServiceQueryContinuation<TEntry> continuation = state.Response.GetContinuation();
if (continuation == null)
{
state.CanContinue = false;
return state;
}
QueryOperationResponse<TEntry> response;
try
{
response = context.Execute(continuation);
}
catch (Exception)
{
state.CanContinue = false;
return state;
}
state.Response = response;
return state;
}
private sealed class State : IDisposable
{
public bool CanContinue { get; set; }
public QueryOperationResponse<TEntry> Response { get; set; }
public void Dispose()
{
CanContinue = false;
}
}
}
so for get any data thru OData, create a sequence and Rx does the rest
var sequence = new DataSequence<Product>(context.Products, context);
sequence.OnErrorResumeNext(Observable.Empty<Product>())
.ObserveOnDispatcher().SubscribeOn(Scheduler.NewThread).Subscribe(AddProduct, logger.Error);

Answer 2

The page size is set by the service author and can be set per entity set (but a service may choose to apply the same page size to all entity sets). There's no way to avoid it from the client (which is by design since it's a security feature).
The inlinecount option asks the server to include the total count of the results (just the number), it doesn't disable the paging.
From the client the only way to read all the data is to issue the request which will return the first page and it may contain a next link which you request to read the next page and so on until the last response doesn't have the next link.
If you're using the WCF Data Services client library it has support for continuations (the next link) and a simple sample can be found in this blog post (for example): http://blogs.msdn.com/b/phaniraj/archive/2010/04/25/server-driven-paging-with-wcf-data-services.aspx