REST post with metadata column?

Question

I have a jquery script that uploads a file to document library.

I'm trying to set a choice column in the same call, but can't seem to get it to work. The upload is working, but Col1 is a choice column and 'Personal Statement' is a valid choice, but it does not take so I end up with the default value.

If I can't do this with one REST call, how do I get the ID of the file just uploaded to do a REST Merge?

reqExecutor.executeAsync({
    url: url,
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
        "Accept": "application/json; odata=verbose",
        "X-RequestDigest": digest
    },
    data: JSON.stringify({ '__metadata': { 'type': 'SP.List', 'co1': 'Personal Statement' }, 'Title': 'New title'  }),


    contentType: "application/json;odata=verbose",
    binaryStringRequestBody: true,
    body: fileData,
    success:successHandler,
    error: errorHandler

Answer 1

You can't update field values in the same call that uploads the document, you have to do that in a separate call. The response from the call that uploads the document will be a SP.File object representing the file that was just created. This object will have a deffered property called ListItemAllFields, which you can use to get the URL needed to make a call to get the list item associated with the file. Once you have the list item you can then make a call to set the field value.

function uploadDocument(buffer, fileName) {
    var url = String.format("{0}/_api/Web/Lists/getByTitle('Project Documents')/RootFolder/Files/Add(url='{1}', overwrite=true)",
        _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl, fileName);

    var call = jQuery.ajax({
        url: url,
        type: "POST",
        data: buffer,
        processData: false,
        headers: {
            Accept: "application/json;odata=verbose",
            "X-RequestDigest": jQuery("#__REQUESTDIGEST").val(),
            "Content-Length": buffer.byteLength
        }
    });

    return call;
}

function getItem(file) {
    var call = jQuery.ajax({
        url: file.ListItemAllFields.__deferred.uri,
        type: "GET",
        dataType: "json",
        headers: {
            Accept: "application/json;odata=verbose"
        }
    });

    return call;
}

function updateItemFields(item) {
    var now = new Date();
    var call = jQuery.ajax({
        url: _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl +
            "/_api/Web/Lists/getByTitle('Project Documents')/Items(" +
            item.Id + ")",
        type: "POST",
        data: JSON.stringify({
            "__metadata": { type: "SP.Data.Project_x0020_DocumentsItem" },
            CoordinatorId: _spPageContextInfo.userId,
            Year: now.getFullYear()
        }),
        headers: {
            Accept: "application/json;odata=verbose",
            "Content-Type": "application/json;odata=verbose",
            "X-RequestDigest": jQuery("#__REQUESTDIGEST").val(),
            "IF-MATCH": item.__metadata.etag,
            "X-Http-Method": "MERGE"
        }
    });

    return call;
}

I cover all of this in my SharePoint 2013 Client Object Model and REST API course on Pluralsight. If you don't have a subscription you get can a free trial here so you can watch the clip.