PropertyRoute

A PropertyRoute represents a sequence of PropertyInfo objects, starting from the System.Type of a root entity (either an Entity or a ModelEntity). It unambiguously identifies a logical database column.

There is only one canonical representation of a PropertyRoute because inheritance is not supported, and the sequence of PropertyInfo cannot traverse to a different Entity.

PropertyRoute is a key concept for property authorization and for overriding FieldAttributes.

The PropertyRouteType enum defines the possible types of property routes:

• Root: The starting point of the route, e.g., "(OrderEntity)".
• FieldOrProperty: The last segment is a PropertyInfo or FieldInfo. This is the only complete type of a PropertyRoute, e.g., "(OrderEntity).CancellationDate".
• Mixin: A partial route accessing a Mixin, e.g., "(OrderEntity)[CorruptMixin]".
• LiteEntity: A partial route accessing the Entity property of a Lite<T>, e.g., "(OrderEntity).Employee.Entity".
• MListItems: A partial route accessing the indexer of an MList, e.g., "(OrderEntity).Details[0]".

The main members of the PropertyRoute class are:

public class PropertyRoute : IEquatable<PropertyRoute>, ISerializable
{
    public PropertyRouteType PropertyRouteType { get; }
    public FieldInfo? FieldInfo { get; } // Optional
    public PropertyInfo? PropertyInfo { get; } // Optional
    public PropertyRoute? Parent { get; } // Null for PropertyRouteType.Root

    public Type Type { get; } // The type returned by this PropertyRoute
    public Type RootType { get; } // The type of the top-most parent (Root)
}

PropertyRoute provides methods for string representation and parsing:

public class PropertyRoute
{
    public override string ToString(); // Returns e.g. '(OrderEntity).Details[0].SubTotalPrice'
    public string PropertyString(); // Returns just 'Details[0].SubTotalPrice'
    public static PropertyRoute Parse(Type rootType, string propertyString); // Parses a propertyString given the rootType
}