WebApi and OData - Without Entity Framework

OData is pretty nice, all said. Makes displaying data in a grid way easier. Microsoft has done some pretty cool things with WebAPI, gotten rid of the last bits of weirdness that remain in MVC (imo). However, their odata implementation adds more typical MS weirdness...

While most oData parameters just "work" and apply directly to your IQueryable, unfortunately $inlinecount isn't one of them.
Fortunately there's a pretty easy workaround.

 Add WebApi and oData using NuGet.
Do this to your method.


The key to this is returning the OData PageResult. It's pretty neat that MS' oData implementation will just work on your IQueryable, without modification. It's just that WebAPI won't return a PageResult when it sees the $inlinecount parameter, like it will when you use an oData controller. My issue with the oData controller is that it forces you into exposing your entire model for each object in your graph. I'm not trying to expose all of my data, I'm just trying to get an easy oData endpoint to feed my sites. Rarely do I need to expose my entire object graph to the user, and those queries are way too heavy. I also don't want a lot of JS baggage by filtering and selecting only the properties I need. This solution works much better for me.