public HttpResponseMessage Patch(PatchModel<Todo> todoPatch) { // You first have to fetch the model from the database. // DbContext makes partial database updates trivial ! // But you always first need to fetch the data from the database... Todo updateModel = _db.Todoes.Find( todoPatch.GetKeys(_db)); // now you can apply the received updates on our fetched model todoPatch.UpdateModel(updateModel); // and save the changes _db.SaveChanges(); // http status code 204 marks the request as excecuted return new HttpResponseMessage<Todo>(HttpStatusCode.NoContent); }