ServiceStack use the same "model" to multiple services

Question

I am new to ServiceStack and I am not currently familiar with the structure on how to develop a good API. I am trying to use the same Player model to do 2 separate things:

//POSTS SECTION
    [Route("/getplayernamechanged", "POST")]
    [Route("/getplayernamechanged2", "POST")] //I want to use this route to return a Player name concat with the string "just another test"
    public class Player
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
    }

    public class PlayerResponse
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public ResponseStatus ResponseStatus { get; set; }
    }

    public class PlayerService : Service
    {
        public object Any(Player request)
        {
            return new PlayerResponse { Name = request.Name+" just a test"};
        }
    }

How can I do this? Thanks

Answer 1

You need to define two different request objects so ServiceStack can differentiate between the two requests.

// Route 1
[Route("/getplayernamechanged", "POST")]
public class ChangePlayerNameRequest : IReturn<PlayerResponse>
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

// Route 2
[Route("/getplayernamechanged2", "POST")]
public class ChangePlayerNameAndConcatRequest : IReturn<PlayerResponse>
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

public class PlayerResponse
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public ResponseStatus ResponseStatus { get; set; }
}

Then you need to make separate action methods to handle each of the cases:

public class PlayerService : Service
{
    // Route 1 handled here
    public PlayerResponse Post(ChangePlayerNameRequest request)
    {
        return new PlayerResponse { Name = request.Name + " something else" };
    }

    // Route 2 handled here
    public PlayerResponse Post(ChangePlayerNameAndConcatRequest request)
    {
        return new PlayerResponse { Name = request.Name + " just a test"};
    }
}

Note I have set the return type as PlayerResponse and defined IReturn<PlayerResponse> on the DTOs. This will ensure your metadata is correct. Hope this helps, let me know if you issues in the comments.

---

If you want to use the same Player model for the request objects then you could extend from Player:

public class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

// Route 1
[Route("/getplayernamechanged", "POST")]
public class ChangePlayerNameRequest : Player, IReturn<PlayerResponse>
{
}

// Route 2
[Route("/getplayernamechanged2", "POST")]
public class ChangePlayerNameAndConcatRequest : Player, IReturn<PlayerResponse>
{
}

But it is best to avoid inheritance in DTOs where possible.