Get Response Content

Applies To: # OData client v7 supported OData Client V7

In Basic CRUD operations page, we looked at how to carry out basic CRUD operations using the OData Client. In this page, we'll go ahead and drill a little deeper into how to handle the response object for each of these operations. We'll start with data modification responses for create, update and delete operations. We'll also look at query operations for read operations.

Data modification response

We get a Data Modification Response after calling cache updating functions like UpdateObject and then SaveChanges() or SaveChangesAsync().

Changes are tracked in the DataServiceContext instance but not sent to the server immediately. After you are finished with the required changes for a specified activity, call SaveChanges to submit all the changes to the odata service. SaveChanges will send a either a "POST", “PUT”, "PATCH" or “DELETE” request.

How changes are submitted to the odata service depends on the SaveChangesOptions flag passed to the SaveChanges() method. The examples below will submit changes as a batch request to the odata service.

context.SaveChanges(SaveChangesOptions.BatchWithIndependentOperations);
context.SaveChanges(SaveChangesOptions.BatchWithSingleChangeset);

A DataServiceResponse object is returned after the SaveChanges operation is complete. The DataServiceResponse object includes a sequence of OperationResponse objects that, in turn, contain a sequence of EntityDescriptor or LinkDescriptor instances that represent the changes persisted or attempted. When an entity is created or modified in the data service, the EntityDescriptor includes a reference to the updated entity, including any server-generated property values, such as the generated ID value.

When the service doesn't respond with 204 No Content to data modification requests, the response contains a non-empty body. The code below helps to retrieve the body content:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var context = new DefaultContainer(new Uri("https://services.odata.org/v4/TripPinServiceRW/"));

    var person = Person.CreatePerson("russell", "Russell", "Whyte", new long());

    context.AddToPeople(person);

    DataServiceResponse responses = context.SaveChanges();

    foreach (OperationResponse response in responses)
    {
        var changeResponse = (ChangeOperationResponse) response;
        var entityDescriptor = (EntityDescriptor) changeResponse.Descriptor;
        var personCreated = (Person) entityDescriptor.Entity; // the person created on the service
    }
}

The DataServiceResponse has the following properties that enable you to access additional information about a modification response:

• BatchHeaders - contains headers from an HTTP response associated with a batch request.
• BatchStatusCode- contains status code from an HTTP response associated with a batch request.
• IsBatchResponse - gets a Boolean value that indicates whether the response contains multiple results.

The DataServiceResponse is enumerated to retrieve responses to operations being tracked by OperationResponse objects within the DataServiceResponse.

Query Responses

We get a QueryOperationResponse after calling Execute() or ExecuteAsync() on DataServiceQuery<TElement>. Calling Execute() will send a "GET" request.

When executed, the DataServiceQuery<TElement> returns an IEnumerable<T> of the requested entity type. This query result can be cast to a QueryOperationResponse<T> object, as in the following example:

var context = new DefaultContainer(new Uri("https://services.odata.org/v4/TripPinServiceRW/"));
DataServiceQuery<Person> query = context.People;
// Execute the query for all customers and get the response object.
QueryOperationResponse<Person> response =
    query.Execute() as QueryOperationResponse<Person>;

The entity type instances that represent entities in the data service are created on the client by a process called object materialization. The QueryOperationResponse<T> object implements IEnumerable<T> to provide access to the results of the query.

The QueryOperationResponse<T> also has the following members that enable you to access additional information about a query result:

• Error - gets an error thrown by the operation, if any has occurred.
• Headers- contains the collection of HTTP response headers associated with the query response.
• Query - gets the original DataServiceQuery<TElement> that generated the QueryOperationResponse<T>.
• StatusCode - gets the HTTP response code for the query response.
• TotalCount - gets the total number of entities in the entity set when the IncludeTotalCount method was called on the DataServiceQuery<TElement>.
• GetContinuation - returns a DataServiceQueryContinuation object that contains the URI of the next page of results.