[MDK] Expand associations without sync to database

[miqueias_maia]

I'm having an issue to display on screen some entities that aren't sync with backend database, only stored locally.

I'm creating this entity associating "User" PK and "Scope" PK. They are exposed in the same CAP endpoint and are present on xml metadata file.

The local store works good, but I can't bind the expand values inputted in the Query, only the PKs. As soon, as you can see, on query options we can select the Expand entities:

It only works as we want when we sync the local storage with database. Exists an way to bind the expand values without database sync?

[bill_froelich]

Can you please elaborate on "can't bind the expand values inputted in the Query, only the PK"? Can you provide the $metadata of your CAP service?

Also when you are creating the local entities, are you also creating the links / relationships?

[miqueias_maia]

bill.froelich, on the compound component (key value type) that I'm using to bind the created entity, in query options to entitySet target, i've selected the fields disponible to expand, in this case, User and Scope.

If i set on keyname or value any property from User or Scope, nothing appear, only white spaces. It only shows correctly if I sync the offline data to backend database. On my entity metadata I have these properties as you can see:

      <EntityType Name="SwpSpecialistScope">
        <Key>
          <PropertyRef Name="user_document"/>
          <PropertyRef Name="scope_id"/>
        </Key>
        <NavigationProperty Name="user" Type="safeWorkPermissionService.User">
          <ReferentialConstraint Property="user_document" ReferencedProperty="document"/>
        </NavigationProperty>
        <Property Name="user_document" Type="Edm.String" MaxLength="50" Nullable="false"/>
        <NavigationProperty Name="scope" Type="safeWorkPermissionService.Scope">
          <ReferentialConstraint Property="scope_id" ReferencedProperty="id"/>
          <ReferentialConstraint Property="scope_language" ReferencedProperty="language"/>
        </NavigationProperty>
        <Property Name="scope_id" Type="Edm.String" MaxLength="10" Nullable="false"/>
      </EntityType>

About "createLinks" into createEntity action, when select Users and Scope, it shows values, but not correctly. If I select the 3rd option in any list picker form field, on the compound key value component will appear the 1st value from the list picker, not that i've selected. I can't delete a entity too.

The unique way to make it works is only displaying the basic informations used in the relationship (user_document and scope_id), but we really want to show the User and Scope name.

[miqueias_maia]

Do I have to set anything here to select a specific value (not the first value) from the entitySet?

I'm not used to read link concepts. MDK is a new world for me.

[bill_froelich]

Can you share the control definition for where you are having a problem? I'm having trouble following where the error is occurring.

Thanks

[miqueias_maia]

We have 2 pages. First one is the form. Here I can do expands as we want:

createspecialistscope.txt

When this page closes, the user will be redirected to previous pages, that must list the data inputted. Here we cant bind expand data that we've select on query:

specialists.txt

In resume, in the first page (form), we can display data from expand option. In the second, it doesn't work.

[miqueias_maia]

bill.froelich ou jitendrakumar.kansal, could you help with this question?

[miqueias_maia · Accepted solution]

I solved this question by my own iniciative and I'm writing here to help the newbies as me.

In simple words, to make expands works fine, we need to create related links as Bill did talk in the comments. But if we only select "createLinks" to a specific entity and not set the options, the entity will be created with the first object from the data.

In this case, we need to put on options the correct id of the object that we want use, like the following example:

This will return only the entity that we've selected in the view and create relationship correctly.

The documentation is not so clear to understand some concepts, so we have to try to understand the correct behavior.