Post or Put multiple items in a single request - asp.net-web-api

Question

Is it possible to Post or Put more than a single item at a time, in a single request?
From
GET /api/books Get all books.
POST /api/books Create a new book.
PUT /api/books/{id} Update an existing book.
To
POST /api/books Create books.
PUT /api/books Update books.

Answer 1

Let's say you have a class called Book, defined as:
public class Book
{
public string Title { get; set; }
public string Author { get; set; }
}
Now we have a simple Web.Api controller with a POST method:
public class BooksController : ApiController
{
[HttpPost]
[Route("books")]
public HttpResponseMessage PostBooks([FromBody] IEnumerable<Book> books)
{
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Created);
}
}
The method doesn't do anything with the data, it's purely so it compiles and runs. My first attribute indicates this is a POST, the second attribute determines the route, I'm using attribute based routing because I just like it more, but you can roll your own routing rules.
Now the PostBooks method takes in a parameter of type Ienumerable<Book>, not just a single parameter of type Book.
When I now stand up this little endpoint, and hit it with the following url:
http://localhost:port/books
And specify the request to be a POST and supply the following payload in the body of the request:
[
{
"Title":"This is a book",
"Author":"Joe Bloggs"
},
{
"Title":"This is a book: The reckoning",
"Author":"Joe Bloggs"
}
]
My breakpoint is hit and Web.API managed to deserialize my payload into the books parameter when it comes into the PostBooks method:
The same applies for a PUT, the only thing that needs changing is the attribute.

Answer 2

Finally I use like below's code.
// Post Multi
// POST: api/books
[Route("api/books")]
[ResponseType(typeof(IEnumerable<Book>))]
public IHttpActionResult Postbooks(IEnumerable<Book> books)
{
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
return BadRequest(ModelState);
}
foreach (var item in books)
{
db.Book.Add(item);
}
try
{
db.SaveChanges();
}
catch (DbUpdateException)
{
throw;
}
return Ok(books);
}