Because the model that gets posted to the WebApi controller is detached from any entity-framework (EF) context, the only option is to load the object graph (parent including its children) from the database and compare which children have been added, deleted or updated. (Unless you would track the changes with your own tracking mechanism during the detached state (in the browser or wherever) which in my opinion is more complex than the following.) It could look like this:
public void Update(UpdateParentModel model)
{
var existingParent = _dbContext.Parents
.Where(p => p.Id == model.Id)
.Include(p => p.Children)
.SingleOrDefault();
if (existingParent != null)
{
// Update parent
_dbContext.Entry(existingParent).CurrentValues.SetValues(model);
// Delete children
foreach (var existingChild in existingParent.Children.ToList())
{
if (!model.Children.Any(c => c.Id == existingChild.Id))
_dbContext.Children.Remove(existingChild);
}
// Update and Insert children
foreach (var childModel in model.Children)
{
var existingChild = existingParent.Children
.Where(c => c.Id == childModel.Id && c.Id != default(int))
.SingleOrDefault();
if (existingChild != null)
// Update child
_dbContext.Entry(existingChild).CurrentValues.SetValues(childModel);
else
{
// Insert child
var newChild = new Child
{
Data = childModel.Data,
//...
};
existingParent.Children.Add(newChild);
}
}
_dbContext.SaveChanges();
}
}
...CurrentValues.SetValues
can take any object and maps property values to the attached entity based on the property name. If the property names in your model are different from the names in the entity you can’t use this method and must assign the values one by one.