Filter a multiple-select user field using SharePoint's OData API

Question

If a SharePoint list has a multiple-select user field (DeveloperSecondary):

What is the right way to filter by this field? Both of these queries produce a 404 error:

http://server/_vti_bin/listdata.svc/list?$filter=(DeveloperSecondary/Results/UserName eq 'foo')

http://server/_vti_bin/listdata.svc/list?$filter=(DeveloperSecondary/UserName eq 'foo')

If this was a single-select user field, the OData query would be:

http://server/_vti_bin/listdata.svc/list?$filter=(SingleSelectUserField/UserName eq 'foo')

Answer 1

Unfortunately $filter query option for multi-valued user field is not supported in SharePoint 2010 OData API.

As a workaround you could consider to apply filter to the returned results as demonstrated below:

$requestUrl = "http://contoso.intranet.dev/_vti_bin/listdata.svc/TheList?`$expand=DeveloperSecondary"
$data = Execute-RequestJson -Url $requestUrl -UseDefaultCredentials $true
#filter items
$data.d.results | % { $_.DeveloperSecondary.results | Where-Object {($_.Name -eq 'John Doe')} }

where

Function Execute-RequestJson()
{
Param(
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
  [string]$Url,
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
  [System.Net.ICredentials]$Credentials,
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
  [bool]$UseDefaultCredentials = $True,
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
  [Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WebRequestMethod]$Method = [Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WebRequestMethod]::Get 
)

   $client = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
   if($Credentials) {
     $client.Credentials = $Credentials
   }
   elseif($UseDefaultCredentials){
     $client.Credentials = [System.Net.CredentialCache]::DefaultCredentials 
   }
   $client.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/json;odata=verbose")
   $client.Headers.Add("Accept", "application/json;odata=verbose")
   $data = $client.DownloadString($Url)
   $client.Dispose()
   return $data | ConvertFrom-Json
}