Cannot perform `any` filter operation on enum collection attribute

DESCRIPTION

Cannot filter on enum attribute. Syntax not quite clear, error misses information.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

I have an entity Users with an attribute Role, which is an enum of [Admin, Doctor…]. In Postman, a simple GET /users will return a collection of all users.

I want to filter on Role.

I use the GET with url /users?filter=any(roles,'Admin')

In C# the roles are

        public enum Role
        {
            Admin,
            Doctor,
            Nurse,
            Assistant
        }

The user:

    public class User : Identifiable<Guid>, IManagedEntity
    {
        [Key]
        public override Guid Id { get; set; }

        [Attr]
        [Required]
        public string Email { get; set; }

        [Attr]
        public bool EmailConfirmed { get; set; }
        
        [Attr(Capabilities = AttrCapabilities.AllowChange), NotMapped]
        public string Password { get; set; }
        
        [JsonIgnore]
        public string? PasswordHash { get; set; }

        [Attr]
        public Role[]? Roles { get; set; }
    }  

EXPECTED BEHAVIOR

When I do a GET with the correct syntax for a filter on enum Role, I want to get a collection of users that has the specific Role.

ACTUAL BEHAVIOR

Postman receives an error message:

{
    "errors": [
        {
            "id": "ea9d21c3-d86f-4228-aaca-9afb124ee0da",
            "status": "400",
            "title": "The specified filter is invalid.",
            "detail": ", expected.",
            "source": {
                "parameter": "filter"
            }
        }
    ]
}

The detail field appears to be missing information.

Logging in IDE (Rider) shows:

info: JsonApiDotNetCore.Middleware.ExceptionHandler[0]
      Errors = [
        {
          "Id": "ea9d21c3-d86f-4228-aaca-9afb124ee0da",
          "Status": "400",
          "Title": "The specified filter is invalid.",
          "Detail": ", expected.",
          "Source": {
            "Parameter": "filter"
          }
        }
      ]
      JsonApiDotNetCore.Errors.InvalidQueryStringParameterException: Errors = [
        {
          "Id": "ea9d21c3-d86f-4228-aaca-9afb124ee0da",
          "Status": "400",
          "Title": "The specified filter is invalid.",
          "Detail": ", expected.",
          "Source": {
            "Parameter": "filter"
          }
        }
      ]
       ---> JsonApiDotNetCore.Queries.Internal.Parsing.QueryParseException: , expected.
         at void JsonApiDotNetCore.Queries.Internal.Parsing.QueryExpressionParser.EatSingleCharacterToken(TokenKind kind) in C:/projects/jsonapidotnetcore/src/JsonApiDotNetCore/Queries/Internal/Parsing/QueryExpressionParser.cs:line 85
         at EqualsAnyOfExpression JsonApiDotNetCore.Queries.Internal.Parsing.FilterParser.ParseAny() in C:/projects/jsonapidotnetcore/src/JsonApiDotNetCore/Queries/Internal/Parsing/FilterParser.cs:line 204
         at FilterExpression JsonApiDotNetCore.Queries.Internal.Parsing.FilterParser.ParseFilter() in C:/projects/jsonapidotnetcore/src/JsonApiDotNetCore/Queries/Internal/Parsing/FilterParser.cs:line 80
         at FilterExpression JsonApiDotNetCore.Queries.Internal.Parsing.FilterParser.Parse(string source, ResourceContext resourceContextInScope) in C:/projects/jsonapidotnetcore/src/JsonApiDotNetCore/Queries/Internal/Parsing/FilterParser.cs:line 42
         at FilterExpression JsonApiDotNetCore.QueryStrings.Internal.FilterQueryStringParameterReader.GetFilter(string parameterValue, ResourceFieldChainExpression scope) in C:/projects/jsonapidotnetcore/src/JsonApiDotNetCore/QueryStrings/Internal/FilterQueryStringParameterReader.cs:line 135
         at void JsonApiDotNetCore.QueryStrings.Internal.FilterQueryStringParameterReader.ReadSingleValue(string parameterName, string parameterValue) in C:/projects/jsonapidotnetcore/src/JsonApiDotNetCore/QueryStrings/Internal/FilterQueryStringParameterReader.cs:line 110
         --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
         at void JsonApiDotNetCore.QueryStrings.Internal.FilterQueryStringParameterReader.ReadSingleValue(string parameterName, string parameterValue) in C:/projects/jsonapidotnetcore/src/JsonApiDotNetCore/QueryStrings/Internal/FilterQueryStringParameterReader.cs:line 116
         at void JsonApiDotNetCore.QueryStrings.Internal.FilterQueryStringParameterReader.Read(string parameterName, StringValues parameterValue) in C:/projects/jsonapidotnetcore/src/JsonApiDotNetCore/QueryStrings/Internal/FilterQueryStringParameterReader.cs:line 78
         at void JsonApiDotNetCore.QueryStrings.Internal.QueryStringReader.ReadAll(DisableQueryStringAttribute disableQueryStringAttribute) in C:/projects/jsonapidotnetcore/src/JsonApiDotNetCore/QueryStrings/Internal/QueryStringReader.cs:line 61
         at async Task JsonApiDotNetCore.Middleware.AsyncQueryStringActionFilter.OnActionExecutionAsync(ActionExecutingContext context, ActionExecutionDelegate next) in C:/projects/jsonapidotnetcore/src/JsonApiDotNetCore/Middleware/AsyncQueryStringActionFilter.cs:line 30
         at async Task Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeNextActionFilterAsync()+Awaited(?)
         at void Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.Rethrow(ActionExecutedContextSealed context)
         at Task Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.Next(ref State next, ref Scope scope, ref object state, ref bool isCompleted)
         at Task Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeInnerFilterAsync()
         at async Task Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.InvokeNextExceptionFilterAsync()+Awaited(?)

VERSIONS USED

• JsonApiDotNetCore version: 4.2.0
• ASP.NET Core version: net5.0
• Entity Framework Core version: EF Core 6.4.4
• Database provider:

[bart-degreed]

This is by design. All filter operators act on a single value, never on arrays. How would you store an array in a database column?

The ‘equals’ function means: the target attribute must match the following constant. In contrast, the ‘set’ function means: the target attribute must match one constant from the following set, which is why you get an error when your set contains only one element – that is not a set and you should use ‘equals’ instead.

To accomplish the filter you want, don’t use an array but model roles as a to-many relationship.

public class User : Identifiable
{
    [HasMany]
    public ISet<UserRole> Roles { get; set; }
}

public class UserRole : Identifiable
{
    [Attr]
    public Role Value { get; set; }
}

Then the next filters return all users. But for each user, it includes only the subset of roles that match the condition.

GET http://localhost/users?include=roles&filter[roles]=equals(value,'Admin')

or:

GET http://localhost/users?include=roles&filter[roles]=any(value,'Doctor','Nurse')

If, on the other hand, you want to filter on users, so return only users in a specific role, use the following:

GET http://localhost/users?filter=has(roles,equals(value,'Admin'))

or:

GET http://localhost/users?filter=has(roles,any(value,'Doctor','Nurse'))

[Bezz242]

Hoi Bart,

Thx for the clear explanation. I’ll take it back to the team. Roles User many-to-many makes sense.

Cheerz, Eric