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I am using webapi and angularjs in my ASP.net MVC app. Everything is working good but in my insert (post) method I need to check if a value exists in the db before doing an insert. I am not sure where that should go. I ruled out the webapi because a void does not return a value. The logical place seems to be the controller, but I cannot find the right way to call my angular getEmployee(id) method from within the insert controller method. Any help is appreciated.

Angular controller (post):

$scope.insertEmployee = function (employee) {
    employeeFactory.insertEmployee(employee)
        .success(function (emp) {
            $scope.employee = emp;
        })
        .error(function (error) {
            $scope.status = 'Unable to load employee data: ' + error.message;
        });
};

Angular factory (post):

factory.insertEmployee = function (employee) {
    url = baseAddress + "employee/insert/";
    $http.post(url, employee).success(function (data) {
        alert("Saved Successfully!!");
    }).error(function (data) {
        $scope.error = "An Error has occured while saving employee! " + data;
    });
};

webapi controller post method:

    [Route("api/employee/insert/")]
    public void Post(Employee employee)
    {
        if (ModelState.IsValid)
        {
            context.Employee.Add(employee);
            context.SaveChanges();
        }
    }

Angular controller (get):

$scope.getEmployees = function (term) {
    employeeFactory.getEmployees(term)
        .success(function (data) {
            $scope.employees = data;
        })
        .error(function (error) {
            $scope.status = 'Unable to load employee data: ' + error.message;
        });
};
share|improve this question
    
how come '$scope' is inside 'insertEmployee'? –  Ben Diamant Feb 10 at 19:11
    
I don't know. It is an example I found on the internet. noob with angular –  steveareeno Feb 11 at 16:59

3 Answers 3

up vote 1 down vote accepted

I would suggest doing this in your web-api server side. You can construct an exception and throw it. Some pseudo-code:

   [Route("api/employee/insert/")]
    public void Post(Employee employee)
    {
        if (ModelState.IsValid)
        {
            // verify doesn't already exist
            if(...item-already-exists...) {
               var resp = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.Conflict)
               {
                  Content = new StringContent("Employee already exists!")),
                  ReasonPhrase = "Employee already exists!"
               }
               throw new HttpResponseException(resp);
            }

            context.Employee.Add(employee);
            context.SaveChanges();
        }
    }
share|improve this answer
    
Thanks. this is what I thought but having two controllers (MVC and Angular) threw me for a loop, especially since webapi controller methods don't have return values –  steveareeno Feb 11 at 17:04
up vote 1 down vote

Your factory doesn't match your controller. If you want to use success and error from employeeFactory.insertEmployee, it needs to return the promise:

factory.insertEmployee = function (employee) {
  url = baseAddress + "employee/insert/";
  return $http.post(url, employee);
};

So then you can do

employeeFactory.insertEmployee(employee).success( ... )

Now to answer your question you could either do a database read in insertEmployee to check if the value exists before you insert it. Or save a server call and do the check during the insert request: if the employee exists, return an error or a specific message to tell the client.

share|improve this answer
    
Thanks. I will make the adjustment. –  steveareeno Feb 11 at 17:00
up vote 0 down vote

With the help of floribon and Nicholas Smith I managed to come up with a solution that bubbles the error up to my view, which I display in a div element. This is only bare bones, but is a start.

My angular controller:

$scope.insertEmployee = function (employee) {
    employeeFactory.insertEmployee(employee)
        .success(function (data) {
            $scope.employee = data;
            $scope.status = 'The item was saved';
        })
        .error(function (error) {
            $scope.status = 'Unable to save the employee data: ' + error;
        });
};

My angular factory:

factory.insertEmployee = function (employee) {
    url = baseAddress + "employee/insert/";
    return $http.post(url, employee);
};

my webapi controller:

    [Route("api/employee/insert/")]
    public HttpResponseMessage Post(Employee employee)
    {
        HttpResponseMessage response;

        // check for the employee
        var employeeCheck = context.Employee
                        .Where(b => b.EmployeeNumber == employee.EmployeeNumber)
                        .FirstOrDefault();

        if (employeeCheck == null)
        {
            // save the item here
            response = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK);
        }
        else
        {
            response = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Conflict, "The item already exists");
        }
        return response;
    }

The result is the message is "Unable to save the employee data: The item already exists".

share|improve this answer

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