Discussion: Requests where there is no model eg. creating multiple

[iezer]

I'm working with an API that has a endpoint for creating multiple objects:

// Request
// POST /invitations
payload = { data: attributes { email: 'a@b.com,x@y.com' } }

// Response
data: [
 { id: '1', type: 'invitation', { attributes: { email: 'a@b.com' } } },
 { id: '2', type: 'invitation', { attributes: { email: 'x@y.com' } } }
]

With the recent changes to this addon I can actually implement this pretty easily:

// app/models/invitation.js
import DS from 'ember-data';
import { collectionAction, serializeAndPush } from 'ember-api-actions';

export default DS.Model.extend(
 email: DS.attr(),
 createMultiple: collectionAction({
    type: 'POST',
    urlType: 'createRecord',
    pushPayload: true,
    path: '',
    before(attributes) {
      return { data: { attributes } };
    },
    after: serializeAndPush
  }),

But to use it I have to temporarily create a record:

const newInvitation = this.store.createRecord('invitation');
newInvitation.createMultiple({ email: 'a@b.com,x@y.com' }).finally(() => {
  newInvitation.rollbackAttributes();
});

Not bad, but I'd love it if there was a way to attach this hook to the model class and not have to create the extra model.

// app/models/invitations.js
const InvitationModel = DS.Model.extend({
 email: DS.attr()
});

InvitationModel.reopenClass({
  createMultiple: collectionAction({
    type: 'POST',
    urlType: 'createRecord',
    pushPayload: true,
    path: '',
    before(attributes) {
      return { data: { attributes } };
    },
    after: serializeAndPush
  })
});

return InvitationModel;

I think this is possible but the issues are that the class doesn't have access to the container or the store, the factory does however, although I don't know if we want that to be the API.

Here are some options of what the API would look like. I think option 3 is the most viable. Thoughts?

// 1.
return store.modelFor('invitation').createMultiple({ email: 'a@b.com,x@y.com' });

// 2. The factory is a wrapper that knows about the class, store, and container, so it might be a good entry point.
return store.modelFactoryFor('invitation').createMultiple({ email: 'a@b.com,x@y.com' });

// 3.
return store.modelFor('invitation').createMultiple(store, { email: 'a@b.com,x@y.com' });

[mike-north]

I'll have to give this some thought.

For option 3, it seems odd that we're sort of operating on the store, and then have to pass the store in as an argument. Maybe a standalone function is best for this case

createMultiple(store, 'invitation', { email: 'a@b.com,x@y.com' });

[wanxie]

Any updates on this?

I also encountered many times where I need to use the collectionAction without a model instance.