Udt using EntityFramework core

[Regenhardt]

Now that #56 is done, can we get UDT support in Oracle.EntityFrameworkCore too?
Would be nice to just

entity.Property(e => e.ComplexValue).HasColumnType("ComplexType").HasColumnName("ComplexValue")

and map it to a C# class.

[alexkeh]

@Regenhardt Are you looking for an ODP.NET NetTopologySuite implementation or something more native to Oracle UDTs?

Or are you looking for some tooling to auto-generate the custom UDT C# class as the Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio does for unmanaged ODP.NET?

[Regenhardt]

I'm looking for a way of working with UDTs in an oracle database using entity framework core. Couldn't find an example for that, and I haven't read anything about that in #56, so I'm assuming it isn't implemented yet. I'd gladly be proven wrong by a simple example for how to map a UDT using EF though :-)

Minimally, I'm still trying to get this setup working: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68007637/map-efcore-to-oracle-custom-composite-type

[alexkeh]

That's correct. It's not been implemented yet. The question becomes how to manifest UDT data that works for most EF Core data. If the use case is primarily spatial data, then ODP.NET supporting NetTopologySuite in EF Core may be the easiest.

If it's generic UDTs, then some more investigation needs to occur. It may not be possible to make generic UDT functionality to be available in EF Core until the provider model allows it.

I do encourage anyone interested in this functionality to vote with a thumbs up for this feature and to be specific exactly what UDT features they need so that my team can scope the features developers want the most.

[Regenhardt]

Since I'm not entirely sure what different features there are in the topic UDT, I'll try to describe a minimal use case I'd like to see implemented in the EFcore provider:

I have a custom type in the database:

CREATE TYPE STAMP( 
    timestamp DATE, 
    num INTEGER 
)

Then have a table:

CREATE TABLE LOGS(
  event nvarchar(100),
  from STAMP,
  to STAMP
)

Now in SQL I can read a log like this:

SELECT event, FROM LOGS
WHERE (from).timestamp between date'2021-06-07' AND date'2021-06-09'

In C#, the model I'd want this to be mapped to would be this, annotated for the custom type:

[CustomType("STAMP")]
public class Stamp
{
  [CustomField("event")] // Or just [Field]? Or does something already exist that makes sense to be reused like [Column]?
  public string Event { get; set; }
  [CustomField("timestamp")] // Or let it automap if case-insensitive mapping works and throw otherwise?
  public DateTime Timestamp { get; set; }
  [CustomField("num")]
  public int Num { get; set; }
}

So then i can go

return await entities.Logs.where(log =>  
    log.From.TimeStamp > new DateTime(2021,6,7) && log.From.TimeStamp < new DateTime(2021,6,9)).ToListAsync();

[nikjw-lmk]

Just to add my interest. I would be interested in an ODP.NET NetTopologySuite implementation. Like the ones you see for Postgresql and Sql Server. Thanks

[rtcpw]

Spatial support has been requested in #89, but the issue has been closed with simple isn't implemented response.