LinkEntity not returned by ChannelService.GetInboundLinksForEntityAndLinkType

This article explains why the call ChannelService.GetInboundLinksForEntityAndLinkType doesn't return a LinkEntityId.

Question

If you ask for links using DataService, you get link objects back with the LinkEntityId property populated, if appropriate. However, if you use ChannelService for the same request, LinkEntityId is always empty.

Tested calls

Context.ExtensionManager.DataService.GetInboundLinksForEntityAndLinkType
Context.ExtensionManager.ChannelService.GetInboundLinksForEntityAndLinkType

Answer

The output might differ because the data service is looking in the link table while the channel service is looking at the channel structure. However, they should be in sync.

If the calls don't return the same link object, try rebuilding the channel.

Further reading

Retrieving entity type information from channels

Retrieving links from channels