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9. Customizing operations with traits

For all standard lifecycle operations you can customize the operation parameters and response body by passing a special model type to the Traits parameter of the operation template, typically the second parameter of the operation template. You can also customize the whole set of resource operations by passing traits to the ResourceOperations interface.

You can combine multiple traits using the model intersection operator &. Here’s an example of defining the ServiceTraits with SupportsRepeatableRequests, SupportsConditionalRequests and SupportsClientRequestId. These are then passed into the Azure.Core.ResourceOperations template:

import "@azure-tools/typespec-azure-core";
using Azure.Core;
using Azure.Core.Traits;
alias ServiceTraits = SupportsRepeatableRequests &
SupportsConditionalRequests &
SupportsClientRequestId;
alias Operations = Azure.Core.ResourceOperations<ServiceTraits>;

Traits can be applied simultaneously at both the interface and operation level, they will be composed together when your operation is defined.

For example, if you wanted to add standard list operation query parameters to the listWidgets operation, you could use the ListQueryParametersTrait:

/** List Widget resources */
op listWidgets is Operations.ResourceList<
Widget,
ListQueryParametersTrait<StandardListQueryParameters & SelectQueryParameter>
>;

Useful trait types

The following trait types can be used for typical operation customization patterns:

QueryParametersTrait<TParams, Contexts>

This trait adds query parameters to operation signatures. It accepts a model type containing the query parameters that will be mixed in to the operation signature:

op getWidget is Operations.ResourceRead<
Widget,
QueryParametersTrait<{
@query foo: string;
}>
>;

NOTE: All properties in TParams must be marked with @query or an error will be raised.

The Contexts parameter is configured to apply the query parameters to all operations by default.

To constrain the types of operations that these query parameters will apply to, pass one ore more of the following values:

  • TraitContext.Read: Applies to read operations
  • TraitContext.Create: Applies to create operations
  • TraitContext.Update: Applies to update operations
  • TraitContext.Delete: Applies to delete operations
  • TraitContext.List: Applies to list operations
  • TraitContext.Action: Applies to custom action operations

Here is an example of applying query parameters to Read and List operations:

alias MyQueryParams = QueryParametersTrait<
{
@query foo: string;
},
TraitContext.Read | TraitContext.List
>;
// This will have a `foo` parameter added
op getWidget is Operations.ResourceRead<Widget, MyQueryParams>;
// This will not get the `foo` parameter because it doesn't match the contexts
op deleteWidget is Operations.ResourceDelete<
Widget,
QueryParametersTrait<{
@query foo: string;
}>
>;

ListQueryParametersTrait<TParams>

This is a helper trait that specialized QueryParametersTrait to the TraitContext.List context. For example:

alias MyListQueryParams = ListQueryParametersTrait<{
@query foo: string;
}>;
// Will get the `foo` parameter
op listWidgets is Operations.ResourceList<Widget, MyListQueryParams>;
// Will not get the `foo` parameter
op deleteWidget is Operations.ResourceDelete<Widget, MyListQueryParams>;

RequestHeadersTrait<TParams, Contexts>

This trait adds request headers to operation signatures. It accepts a model type containing the request headers that will be mixed in to the operation signature:

op getWidget is ResourceRead<
Widget,
RequestHeadersTrait<{
@header foo: string;
}>
>;

NOTE: All properties in TParams must be marked with @header or an error will be raised.

You can specify Contexts where this trait applies in the way as described for the QueryParametersTrait.

ResponseHeadersTrait<TParams, Contexts>

This trait adds response headers to operation signatures. It accepts a model type containing the response headers that will be mixed in to the operation signature:

op getWidget is ResourceRead<
Widget,
ResponseHeadersTrait<{
@header foo: string;
}>
>;

NOTE: All properties in TParams must be marked with @header or an error will be raised.

You can specify Contexts where this trait applies in the way as described for the QueryParametersTrait.

Applying traits to all resource operations

If you would like to apply the same traits to all resource operations, you can do so by adding them to the traits object for your instance of the ResourceOperations interface. Here’s an example of adding a request header called foo to all resource operations:

import "@azure-tools/typespec-azure-core";
using Azure.Core;
using Azure.Core.Traits;
alias ServiceTraits = SupportsRepeatableRequests &
SupportsConditionalRequests &
SupportsClientRequestId &
RequestHeadersTrait<{
@header foo: string;
}>;
alias Operations = ResourceOperations<ServiceTraits>;
op deleteWidget is Operations.ResourceDelete<Widget>;

This defines deleteWidget by using the ResourceDelete template defined inside of your customized Operations interface.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The ResourceOperations interface requires that an explicit set of traits be included to describe whether certain Azure service features are supported.

Here is the list of the required traits with the names of the trait models to enable and disable those features:

  • RepeatableRequests: SupportsRepeatableRequests and NoRepeatableRequests
  • ConditionalRequests: SupportsConditionalRequests and NoConditionalRequests
  • ClientRequestId: SupportsClientRequestId and NoClientRequestId

Customizing the API version parameter

You can use the VersionParameterTrait to customize the API version parameter for resource operations, either at the level of interface or individual operation. To do this, use the TraitOverride type to override the existing api-version query parameter:

/** The ApiVersion path parameter. */
model ApiVersionPathParameter {
/** The API version to use for this operation. */
@segment("api")
@path("api-version")
apiVersion: string;
}
op deleteWidget is ResourceDelete<
Widget,
TraitOverride<VersionParameterTrait<ApiVersionPathParameter>>
>;

Using the TraitOverride modifier with the VersionParameterTrait<ApiVersionPathParameter> causes any existing VersionParameterTrait instances in the operation signature to be overridden by the one you have supplied.

This will result in an operation that has the route path /api/{apiVersion}/widgets/{widgetName} while also removing the old api-version query parameter from the operation signature.

Versioning the use of traits

It is possible that a service will begin to support a particular feature or trait in a later version. There are two ways to express that a trait is being added in a later service version:

Using the TVersionAdded parameter of some trait types

NOTE: Versioning of Azure Core service specifications is covered in more detail on this page.

Some standard trait types accept an optional TVersionAdded parameter which enables you to specify the service version enum representing the version where support for this trait is added:

  • SupportsClientRequestId
  • SupportsRepeatableRequests
  • SupportsConditionalRequests

Here is an example of adding support for repeatable requests in a later service version:

import "@azure-tools/typespec-azure-core";
using Azure.Core;
using Azure.Core.Traits;
using TypeSpec.Versioning;
@service({
title: "Contoso Widget Manager",
})
@versioned(Contoso.WidgetManager.Versions)
namespace Contoso.WidgetManager;
enum Versions {
@useDependency(Azure.Core.Versions.v1_0_Preview_2)
v2022_08_31: "v20220831",
@useDependency(Azure.Core.Versions.v1_0_Preview_2)
v2022_11_30: "v20221130",
}
alias ServiceTraits = SupportsRepeatableRequests<Versions.v2022_11_30> &
SupportsConditionalRequests &
SupportsClientRequestId;
alias Operations = ResourceOperations<ServiceTraits>;

Define a custom trait and add the @traitAdded decorator

Building on the previous example, we can add a custom header trait at a later service version using the @traitAdded decorator:

/** A custom trait added at a later service version. */
@traitAdded(Versions.v2022_11_30)
model CustomRequestHeadersTrait
is RequestHeadersTrait<{
@TypeSpec.Http.header foo: string;
}>;
alias ServiceTraits = SupportsRepeatableRequests<Versions.v2022_11_30> &
SupportsConditionalRequests &
SupportsClientRequestId &
CustomRequestHeadersTrait;
alias Operations = ResourceOperations<ServiceTraits>;