OData property with internal setter -- like UpdateDate

Question

I have a model with a class called "Animal".
The "Animal" class has several properties but let's focus on the following properties:

1. CreateDate
2. CreateUser

In the "Animal" class I can get the CreateDate to work by doing the following:

[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Computed)]
public DateTime CreateDate { get; set; }

This lets me generate the CreateDate in the database by setting the default value in the database as "GetDate()".
When an outside caller tries to "set" the CreateDate field on the OData service, it ignores the data being passed.
This makes it a "read only" property for outside callers.

I need to do something similar to the CreateUser except I need to set the CreateUser = System.Threading.Thread.CurrentPrincipal.Identity.Name on the OData server.

If I try a private set then the OData service does not expose the property at all.
If I try a public set then the outside caller can change the property.
In the "Animal" constructor I have set the internal _CreateUser = System.Threading.Thread.CurrentPrincipal.Identity.Name

I'm not sure how to set it on the server side.

Answer 1

Here is what I got to work.

In the model I have the following:

public string CreateUser { get; set; }

[NotMapped]
public string CreateUserName
{
    get
    {
        return CreateUser;
    }
    set
    {
        CreateUser = CreateUser ?? System.Threading.Thread.CurrentPrincipal.Identity.Name;
    }
}

And then in the WebApiConfig I had the following:

builder.EntitySet<Animal>("Animals"));
builder.EntityType<Animal>().Ignore(p => p.CreateUser); // hide CreateUser
builder.StructuralTypes.First(t => t.ClrType == typeof(Animal))
    .AddProperty(typeof(Animal).GetProperty(nameof(Animal.CreateUserName))); // show CreateUserName