[2.0] Treat Views as Entities?

[cilerler]

As a user, I would like to be able to expose my views via RESTier. This way, RESTier will serve as a single service to expose the database.

Tip

While OData supports keyless views, RESTier currently does not.

Note

I created this as a separate issue with a lean example, so it can serve as a placeholder for an important feature.
Even though there is a workaround in the original post, it defeats the purpose of using RESTier when it comes to views.

Assemblies affected

RESTier 1.1.0-rc.2.20231126.0

Reproduce steps

1. Add a new file CurrentProductList.cs with the snippet below to here

   using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
   
   using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;
   
   namespace Microsoft.Restier.Samples.Northwind.AspNetCore.Data
   {
       [Keyless]
       public class CurrentProductList
       {
           [Column("ProductID")]
           public int ProductId { get; set; }
           public string ProductName { get; set; }
       }
   }

2. Add the snippet below here

   public virtual DbSet<CurrentProductList> CurrentProductList { get; set; }

3. Add the snippet below here

   modelBuilder.Entity<CurrentProductList>(entity =>
   {
       entity.ToView("CurrentProductListt");
       entity.Property(e => e.ProductId);
       entity.Property(e => e.ProductName);
   });

Expected result

The views should be added without errors.

Actual result

An error occurs at here as detailed below.

@$"The entity '{pair.Key}' does not have a key specified. Entities tagged with the [Keyless] attribute 
(or otherwise do not have a key specified) are not supported in either OData or Restier. 
Please map the object as a ComplexType and implement as an [UnboundOperation] on your API instead."

[robertmclaws]

Investigate whether or not we can support Views as if they are entities, how we would determine if a View has CRUD support, and what to do if the entities are keyless, as everything in Restier usually requires a key.

[bytefish]

@robertmclaws Wouldn’t it be a good idea to map the View to an OData Function, and using a ComplexType as a return value?