AspNet Categorize the messages by UserName when asking for Query - asp.net-mvc

Question

My database is structured as below
public partial class AspNetUserMessage
{
public string From { get; set; }
public string To { get; set; }
public string Text { get; set; }
public System.DateTime SentDate { get; set; }
public Nullable<System.DateTime> ReadDate { get; set; }
public int Id { get; set; }
}
I have an API point which returns all the messages sent by a user e.g
[
{
"From": "0617c281-5488-4009-bf37-761f6cfea2df",
"To": "f54b7bf4-c7b5-482c-83b8-5b61e78ea398",
"Text": "i love this backend!!",
"SentDate": "2020-04-10T00:00:00",
"ReadDate": "2020-04-10T00:00:00",
"Id": 1
},
{
"From": "0617c281-5488-4009-bf37-761f6cfea2df",
"To": "f54b7bf4-c7b5-482c-83b8-5b61e78ea398",
"Text": "this is a sample msg",
"SentDate": "0001-01-01T00:00:00",
"ReadDate": null,
"Id": 2
},
{
"From": "0617c281-5488-4009-bf37-761f6cfea2df",
"To": "f54b7bf4-c7b5-482c-83b8-5b61e78ea398",
"Text": "id test",
"SentDate": "0001-01-01T00:00:00",
"ReadDate": null,
"Id": 3
},
{
"From": "0617c281-5488-4009-bf37-761f6cfea2df",
"To": "f54b7bf4-c7b5-482c-83b8-5b61e78ea398",
"Text": "blocked test",
"SentDate": "0001-01-01T00:00:00",
"ReadDate": null,
"Id": 4
},
{
"From": "0617c281-5488-4009-bf37-761f6cfea2df",
"To": "f54b7bf4-c7b5-482c-83b8-5b61e78ea398",
"Text": "blocked other way test",
"SentDate": "0001-01-01T00:00:00",
"ReadDate": null,
"Id": 5
},
{
"From": "0617c281-5488-4009-bf37-761f6cfea2df",
"To": "f54b7bf4-c7b5-482c-83b8-5b61e78ea398",
"Text": "date test",
"SentDate": "2020-04-11T00:00:00",
"ReadDate": null,
"Id": 6
},
{
"From": "0617c281-5488-4009-bf37-761f6cfea2df",
"To": "f54b7bf4-c7b5-482c-83b8-5b61e78ea398",
"Text": "date test",
"SentDate": "2020-04-11T00:00:00",
"ReadDate": null,
"Id": 7
},
{
"From": "0617c281-5488-4009-bf37-761f6cfea2df",
"To": "f54b7bf4-c7b5-482c-83b8-5b61e78ea398",
"Text": "id test",
"SentDate": "0001-01-01T00:00:00",
"ReadDate": null,
"Id": 8
},
{
"From": "0617c281-5488-4009-bf37-761f6cfea2df",
"To": "f54b7bf4-c7b5-482c-83b8-5b61e78ea398",
"Text": "id test",
"SentDate": "0001-01-01T00:00:00",
"ReadDate": null,
"Id": 9
}
]
My code is the following:
public IEnumerable<AspNetUserMessage> GetAllMessages([FromBody]MessageRequest Request)
{
try
{
// Get all the messages sent or received by the user
var messages = db.AspNetUserMessages.Where(o => o.From == Request.From || o.To == Request.From).ToList();
return messages;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// Log the error to the database
LogException(e);
return null;
}
}
What I want to do is instead of returning all the messages, I want to return a categorized version of the messages. E.g
User1 sent 4 messages to User2;
User1 sent 2 messages to User3
For user1 output should be
[
{
"SentTo": "User2"
"Messages": [All 4 Messages sent to User2 here]
},
{
"SentTo": "User3"
"Messages": [All 2 Messages sent to User3 here]
}
]
How can I achieve this modifying my GetAllMessages function

Answer 1

You have to make a a new model that uses your AspNetUserMessage and fill it.
Make a new model, for now I named it SentMessagesModel
public class SentMessagesModel{
public string SentTo {get;set;}
public List<AspNetUserMessage> Messages {get;set;}
// All 4 Messages sent to User2 here
}
Then make a new controller action that uses the new model. Use the code below
public List<SentMessagesModel> GetAllMessages([FromBody]MessageRequest Request)
{
try
{
// Get all the messages sent or received by the user
var messages = db.AspNetUserMessages.Where(o => o.From == Request.From).ToList();
var groupByTo = messages.GroupBy(m=>m.To);
List<SentMessagesModel> sentMessages = new List<SentMessagesModel>();
foreach(var currentGroup in groupByTo){
sentMessages.Add(new SentMessagesModel(){ SentTo = currentGroup.Key, Messages = currentGroup.ToList() })
}
return sentMessages;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// Log the error to the database
LogException(e);
return null;
}
}