System.InvalidOperationException: The LINQ expression could not be translated.

[marrrschine]

Hey,
I'm not sure if it's a bug or I'm just boneheaded.
Anyway, when trying to sort a nested object by date, I run into the following exception:

System.InvalidOperationException: The LINQ expression 'DbSet<Job>()
    .OrderBy(j => (object)j.Created == null ? 01/01/0001 00:00:00 : j.Created.At)' could not be translated. Either rewrite the query in a form that can be translated, or switch to client evaluation explicitly by inserting a call to 'AsEnumerable', 'AsAsyncEnumerable', 'ToList', or 'ToListAsync'. See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2101038 for more information.

The API controller method is pretty much like in the SieveTests (but returning new JsonResult instead of Json since a plain Web API controller should inherit from ControllerBase and not from Controller)

[HttpGet]
public JsonResult GetJobs([FromQuery] SieveModel sieveModel)
{
    var result = _context.Jobs.AsNoTracking();
    result = _jobProcessor.Apply(sieveModel, result);
    return new JsonResult(result.ToList());
}

The respective API call is

curl -X GET "http://localhost:5500/api/Jobs?Sorts=sort_by_nested_property" -H "accept: text/plain"

Class JobProcessor added as scoped service in Startup.cs

public class JobProcessor : SieveProcessor
{
    public JobProcessor(
        IOptions<SieveOptions> options,
        ISieveCustomFilterMethods customFilterMethods) : base(options, customFilterMethods)
        { }

    protected override SievePropertyMapper MapProperties(SievePropertyMapper mapper)
    {
        mapper.Property<Job>(p => p.Created.At)
        .CanSort()
        .HasName("sort_by_nested_property");

        return mapper;
    }
}

Class Job

public class Job
{
    public Guid Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public Status Created { get; set; }
}

Class Status

public class Status
{
    public string State { get; set; }
    public string By { get; set; }
    public DateTime At { get; set; }
}

$ dotnet --version
5.0.102

Does anyone have an idea what is wrong here?

[maulik-modi]

@marrrschine , Do you mind sharing Datamodel?

[marrrschine]

which one do you mean specifically @maulik-modi?

[maulik-modi]

EF DataContext

[marrrschine]

public class JobContext : DbContext
    {
        public JobContext(DbContextOptions<JobContext> options) : base(options)
        {    
        }

        protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder builder)
        {
            base.OnModelCreating(builder);

            // Configure model relations
            builder.ApplyConfiguration(new JobConfiguration());
        }

        public DbSet<Job> Jobs { get; set; }
    }

public class JobConfiguration : IEntityTypeConfiguration<Job>
    {
        public void Configure(EntityTypeBuilder<Job> builder)
        {
            builder
                .Property(x => x.Id)
                .ValueGeneratedOnAdd();

            builder
                .Property(x => x.Name)
                .HasMaxLength(100);

            builder
                .Property(x => x.Status)
                .HasConversion(
                    c => JsonConvert
                        .SerializeObject(c, new JsonSerializerSettings
                        {
                            NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore
                        }),
                    c => JsonConvert
                        .DeserializeObject<IList<Status>>(c, new JsonSerializerSettings
                        {
                            NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore
                        })
                );
        }
    }