module ViewModel::Controller

def parse_viewmodel_updates
  data_param = params.fetch(:data) do
    raise ViewModel::Error.new(status: 400, detail: "Missing 'data' parameter")
  end
  refs_param = params.fetch(:references, {})
  update_hash = _extract_update_data(data_param)
  refs        = _extract_param_hash(refs_param)
  return update_hash, refs
end