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Creating API with MVC ApiController part 2

In my previous post I wrote about first steps in creating Rest-full API by using ApiController. Now it`s time to make next step and go a little bit dipper inside web services created in MVC. In this post I want to describe two very important aspect:
  • creating a real life scenario for web service implementation of POCO entity
  • extend presented scenario and make it asynchronous
To complete this tutorial one more class is needed. This class is a simple fake of some database which  is wrapper around a very few collections and allow all CRUD operation. Moreover the implementation of this fake database uses a singleton design pattern to prevent creating instance of it each time and maintain state between web service calls.

Code Snippet
  1. /// <summary>
  2.         /// Represents a fake database.
  3.         /// </summary>
  4.         public sealed class FakeDbContext
  5.         {
  6.             private static volatile FakeDbContext instance;
  7.             private static object syncRoot = new Object();
  8.  
  9.             private FakeDbContext()
  10.             {
  11.                 this.Users = new List<User>();
  12.                 this.Dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();
  13.             }
  14.  
  15.             public static FakeDbContext Instance
  16.             {
  17.                 get
  18.                 {
  19.                     if (instance == null)
  20.                     {
  21.                         lock (syncRoot)
  22.                         {
  23.                             if (instance == null)
  24.                                 instance = new FakeDbContext();
  25.                         }
  26.                     }
  27.  
  28.                     return instance;
  29.                 }
  30.             }
  31.  
  32.             public List<User> Users { get; set; }
  33.  
  34.             public Dictionary<string, string> Dictionary { get; set; }
  35.         }

The real life scenario that we want to implement is a simple web service which expose all CRUD operation and of course it`s base on REST. In the following class each API functions return the same type HttpResponseMessage which represent a standard HTTP response. This type contains two important properties: StatusCode - which represent a  HTTP response status code and Content - which store body of the response if any. The the easiest to produce a HttpResponseMessage is calling one of many build-in functions which are responsible for creating a fully qualified response based on several input parameter:
Code Snippet
  1. /// <summary>
  2.         /// Represent a controller for managing <see cref="User"/>.
  3.         /// </summary>
  4.         public class UserController : ApiController
  5.         {
  6.             public UserController()
  7.             {
  8.                 if (!FakeDbContext.Instance.Users.Any())
  9.                 {
  10.                     FakeDbContext.Instance.Users = new List<User>()
  11.                 {
  12.                     new  User(){ Id = 1, FirstName = "Roberto", LastName="Carlos", Email="robi_carlo@gmail.com"},
  13.                     new  User(){ Id = 2, FirstName = "Zinédine", LastName="Zidane", Email="zizu@live.com"},
  14.                     new  User(){ Id = 2, FirstName = "Peter", LastName="Schmeichel", Email="scheisse@yahoo.com"},
  15.                 };
  16.                 }
  17.             }
  18.  
  19.             // GET api/person
  20.             [HttpGet]
  21.             public HttpResponseMessage Get()
  22.             {
  23.                 return Request.CreateResponse<ReadOnlyCollection<User>>(HttpStatusCode.OK, FakeDbContext.Instance.Users.AsReadOnly());
  24.             }
  25.  
  26.             // GET api/person/5
  27.             [HttpGet]
  28.             public HttpResponseMessage Get(int id)
  29.             {
  30.                 var resultUser = FakeDbContext.Instance.Users.FirstOrDefault(u => u.Id == id);
  31.                 if (resultUser == null)
  32.                 {
  33.                     return Request.CreateErrorResponse(HttpStatusCode.NotFound, "User dones`t exists.");
  34.                 }
  35.  
  36.                 return Request.CreateResponse<User>(HttpStatusCode.OK, resultUser);
  37.             }
  38.  
  39.             // POST api/person
  40.             [HttpPost]
  41.             public HttpResponseMessage Post(User value)
  42.             {
  43.                 if (value == null)
  44.                 {
  45.                     return Request.CreateErrorResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, "Null User object.");
  46.                 }
  47.  
  48.                 // Checking user already exists in a list.
  49.                 if (FakeDbContext.Instance.Users.Contains(value))
  50.                 {
  51.                     return Request.CreateErrorResponse(HttpStatusCode.Conflict, "User already exists.");
  52.                 }
  53.                 else
  54.                 {
  55.                     FakeDbContext.Instance.Users.Add(value);
  56.                 }
  57.  
  58.                 return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Created);
  59.             }
  60.  
  61.             // PUT api/person/5
  62.             [HttpPut]
  63.             public HttpResponseMessage Put(int id, [FromBody] User value)
  64.             {
  65.                 if (value == null)
  66.                 {
  67.                     return Request.CreateErrorResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, "Null User object.");
  68.                 }
  69.  
  70.                 if (!FakeDbContext.Instance.Users.Any(u => u.Id == id))
  71.                 {
  72.                     return Request.CreateErrorResponse(HttpStatusCode.NotFound, "User dones`t exists.");
  73.                 }
  74.                 else
  75.                 {
  76.                     FakeDbContext.Instance.Users.Remove(value);
  77.                     FakeDbContext.Instance.Users.Add(value);
  78.                 }
  79.  
  80.                 return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK);
  81.             }
  82.  
  83.             // DELETE api/person/5
  84.             [HttpDelete]
  85.             public HttpResponseMessage Delete(int id)
  86.             {
  87.                 var personToDelete = FakeDbContext.Instance.Users.FirstOrDefault(u => u.Id == id);
  88.                 if (personToDelete == null)
  89.                 {
  90.                     return Request.CreateErrorResponse(HttpStatusCode.NotFound, "User dones`t exists.");
  91.                 }
  92.                 else
  93.                 {
  94.                     FakeDbContext.Instance.Users.Remove(personToDelete);
  95.                 }
  96.  
  97.                 return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK);
  98.             }
  99.         }

Now our service is ready to use and we run it and we can call each GET, POST, PUT and DELETE function by using any of HTTP Client.

Picture 1. Calling GET and POST API  from test HTTP Client.
Whole source code of the project is available here.

 Thank you.
Location: Dublin, Ireland

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