CODEWITHSUNDEEP
odata
Massimiliano
Massimiliano

Reputation: 16980

Is it a valid OData URI (and is there a bug in OData ABNF doc)?

In a discussion with my colleague a question came up as to whether you have to add eq true after a call to substringof method in the OData URL filter:

http://localhost/Collection/WorkItems()?$filter=substringof('crash',Title)
http://localhost/Collection/WorkItems()?$filter=substringof('crash',Title) eq true

Now I'm consulting with the ABNF for OData revised on 4/27/2012. Looking at the filter expression form, it wants a boolCommonExpr:

filter                      =   "$filter" [ WSP ] "=" [ WSP] boolCommonExpr

A boolCommonExpr lists boolMethodCallExpr as one of its alternatives. But there is no definition for the boolMethodCallExpr symbol in the ABNF!

So, I'm guessing it is a bug in the ABNF and the correct alternative listed there must be boolMethodExpr, not boolMethodCallExpr:

boolMethodExpr              =   endsWithMethodCallExpr /
                                startsWithMethodCallExpr /
                                substringOfMethodCallExpr /                                         
                                intersectsMethodCallExpr /
                                anyMethodCallExpr /
                                allMethodCallExpr

In this case a call to substringof method is allowed to go without eq true in the URI (as well as with eq true).

Is my understanding correct?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 201

Answers (1)

Matt Meehan
Matt Meehan

Reputation: 174

You should not need to have " eq true" on the end of the URL. Any of the built-in functions that return Boolean should be good enough on their own. This looks like it was probably just a typo in the ABNF (especially given boolMethodCallExpr isn't defined). That particular document isn't even complete, and has several TODOs in it. A more definitive ABNF should be forthcoming as OASIS standardization of OData comes together.

Upvotes: 1

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