REST Controllers examples

1 Introduction

This page contains examples of how to Create REST Controllers with Wissance.WebApiToolkit.

1.1 ReadOnly REST Controller

This controller class contains the following methods:

• GET /api/[controller]/?[page={page}&size={size}&sort={sort}&order={order}] to get collection of PagedDataDto<T>
• GET /api/[controller]/{id} to get one object by id

Consider we have to create the Book Controller with EntityFramework:

1. Create a book entity and implement the IModelIdentifiable<T> interface.

public class BookEntity : IModelIdentifiable<int>
{
    public int Id {get; set;}
    public string Title {get; set;}
    public string Authors {get; set;} // for simplicity
    public DateTimeOffset Created {get; set;}
    public DateTimeOffset Updated {get; set;}
}

ModelContext Must derive from DbContext and have appropriate DbSet<BookEntity>

public interface IModelContext
{
    DbSet<BookEntity> Books {get;set;}
}

public ModelContext: DbContext<ModelContext>, IModelContext
{
    // todo: not mrntioned here constructor, entity mapping and so on
    public DbSet<BookEntity> Books {get; set;}
}

2. Create a DTO - BookDto

public class BookDto
{
    public int Id {get; set;}
    public string Title {get; set;}
    public string Authors {get; set;} 
}

3. Create a factory function

public static class BookFactory
{
    public static BookDto Create(BookEntity entity)
    {
        return new BookDto
        {
            Id = entity.Id,
            Title = entity.Title,
            Authors = entity.Authors;
        };
    }
}

4. Declare a manager class with a minimal amount of code

public class BookManager : EfModelManager<BookDto, BookEntity, int, EmptyAdditionalFilters>
{
    public BookManager(ModelContext dbContext, Func<CodeEntity, IDictionary<string, string>, bool> filterFunc, Func<BookEntity, BookDto> createFunc, 
                           ILoggerFactory loggerFactory) 
            : base(dbContext, filterFunc, createFunc, null, null, loggerFactory)
        {
        } 
    
    private readonly ModelContext _modelContext;
}

5. Declare a controller class with also a minimal (like a Manager above) amount of code:

[ApiController]
public class BookController : BasicReadController<BookDto, BookEntity, int, EmptyAdditionalFilters>
{
    public BookController(BookManager manager)
    {
        Manager = manager;
    }
}

1.2 FullCRUD REST Controller

Full CRUD controller (BasicCrudController) = basic read controller (BasicReadController) + Create, Update, and Delete operations :

• POST /api/[controller] - for a new object creation
• PUT /api/[controller]/{id} - for edit an object by id
• DELETE /api/[controller]/{id} - for delete an object by id

Consider the same Book Resources, all what we need:

1. Change controller base class to BasicCrudController

[ApiController]
public class BookController : BasicCrudController<BookDto, BookEntity, int, EmptyAdditionalFilters>
{
    public BookController(BookManager manager)
    {
        Manager = manager;
    }
}

2. Extend Factory class with 2 function to perform Create and Update operations

public static class BookFactory
{
    public static BookDto Create(BookEntity entity)
    {
        return new BookDto
        {
            Id = entity.Id,
            Title = entity.Title,
            Authors = entity.Authors;
        };
    }

    public static BookEntity Create(BookDto dto)
    {
        BookEntity entity = new BookEntity()
        {
            Title = dto.Title,
            Authors = dto.Authors;
        };

        return entity;
    }

    public static void Update(BookDto data, int id, BookEntity entity)
    {
        entity.Title = data.Title;
        entity.Authors = data.Authors;
    }
}

Pass Create && Update function to manager class:

public class BookManager : EfModelManager<BookDto, BookEntity, int, EmptyAdditionalFilters>
{
    public BookManager(ModelContext dbContext, Func<CodeEntity, IDictionary<string, string>, bool> filterFunc, Func<BookEntity, BookDto> createFunc, 
                           ILoggerFactory loggerFactory) 
            : base(dbContext, filterFunc, createFunc, BookFactory.Create, BookFactory.Update, loggerFactory)
        {
        } 
    
    private readonly ModelContext _modelContext;
}

1.3 BULK REST Controller

Full CRUD with Bulk operations (operations over multiple objects at once), Base class - BasicBulkCrudController = basic read controller (BasicReadController) + BulkCreate, BulkUpdate and BulkDelete operations, but all methods have route prefix - /api/bulk/:

• POST /api/bulk/[controller] - for a multiple new objects creation
• PUT /api/bulk/[controller] - for editing multiple objects
• DELETE /api/bulk/[controller]/{idList} - for deleting multiple objects by ids.

Since version 4.0 Managers with EntityFramework have default BulkCreate and BulkUpdate methods; therefore, considering the previously defined Book resource, the only thing we need is to change the Controller base class to BasicBulkCrudController :

[ApiController]
public class BookController : BasicBulkCrudController<BookDto, BookEntity, int, EmptyAdditionalFilters>
{
    public BookController(BookManager manager)
    {
        Manager = manager;
    }
}