Arango db field casing issue with linq queries

[adamlubek]

hey, first of all, thanks for cool library :)

Down to business: in arango, I've got Person collection with last name fields (notice second object's field starts with lower case):
[{"LastName":"a"},{"lastName":"b"},{"LastName":"c"}]

In C#, I've got Person class with LastName field.

public class Person
{
    public string LastName;
}

Now, db.Query().ToList() returns all 3 objects with LastName properly initialized with respective values. However, linq query db.Query().Where(e => AQL.Contains(e.LastName, "b")).ToList() doesn't return anything. I'm guessing this is not intentional?

[ra0o0f]

the reason that db.Query().ToList() returns the lastName(with the lower l) member is because json.net deserialize object members if it's camelcased in the json(in your case lastName is camelcase of LastName). but this behavior is not at serializing objects( AQL.Contains(e.LastName, "b") will translate to aql syntax contains(e.LastName,"b") ).

lastName & LastName are two different document members for the ArangoDB database. you could have both of them in an object. did you load Person collection with import tools? if yes try to validate the member names before inserting them(.net client also has a method for import, db.Advanced.BulkImport which is not in nuget package yet)

also there are helper methods in .net client that you can override member name resolving( which does not solve your problem, you should rename lastName & LastName fields to one thing)

                sharedSetting.Collection.ChangeCollectionPropertyForType<Person>(x =>
                {
                    // will resolve all collection members name from PascalCase(c#) to camelcase(ArangoDB)
                    x.Naming = NamingConvention.ToCamelCase;
                });

                sharedSetting.Collection.ChangeDocumentPropertyForType<Person>(x => x.LastName, (p) =>
                {
                    // set the name for just one member
                    p.PropertyName = "lastName";

                    // naming convection for just one member
                    p.Naming = NamingConvention.ToCamelCase;
                });

[adamlubek]

thanks for prompt and detailed response. However, I hope that you see why I find this confusing. From my perspective it would be better if this behavior was more consistent i.e. either arango lastName wouldn't be mapped to LastName in C# while using db.Query().ToList() or if field content was included while using db.Query().Where(e => AQL.Contains(e.LastName, "b")).ToList()

[ra0o0f]

you're right, the resolving names should be consistent either in serializing/serializing, i wont close the issue for now.

[ra0o0f]

@adamlubek about consistent member name resolving, json.net behaves First attempts to get an exact case match of propertyName and then a case insensitive match according to http://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/M_Newtonsoft_Json_Serialization_JsonPropertyCollection_GetClosestMatchProperty.htm