Question

Is it possible to use oData queries with MVC 3 Actions if I return a Queryable? Like so:

public JsonResult GetComplaints()
{
    var complaints = db.Complaints.AsQueryable();
    return Json(complaints, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}

or

public IQueryable<Complaint> GetComplaints()
{
    return db.Complaints.AsQueryable();
}

If I call it like so:

$.ajax({
    url: '@Url.Action("GetComplaints")?$filter=startswith(CompanyName, \'123\')',
    type: 'GET',
    success: function (data) {
        console.log(data);
    }
});

Answer 1

Your second example action with the IQueryable<Complaint> can function as an OData endpoint, but only if you are using Web API and the method is inside an ApiController.

Regular MVC controllers don’t support odata queries out of the box.

You can start learning about the OData support in Web.API from this article

OData can be installed as a Nuget package:

PM> Install-Package Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.OData