ASP.NET Web Api Routing Broken

Question

I am unable to get basic routing to work in my asp.net web api project. I have followed examples on asp.net ( http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/web-api-routing-and-actions ) and I have searched throughout stackoverflow in an attempt to find a solution. Whatever examples I have tried, I cannot get attribute routing to work.

This is my controller:

public class EmployeeController : ApiController
{
    private readonly IRepository<Employee> _employees; 

    public EmployeeController(IRepository<Employee> repo)
    {
        _employees = repo;
    }


    [Route("")]
    public IEnumerable<Employee> GetEmployees()
    {
        return _employees.Queryable();
    }


    [Route("{id:int}")]
    public Employee GetEmployee(int id)
    {
        return _employees.Queryable().FirstOrDefault();
    }
}

This is my Global.asax.cs:

public class WebApiApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
    protected void Application_Start()
    {
        GlobalConfiguration.Configure(WebApiConfig.Register);
    }
}

This is my WebApiConfig.cs:

public static class WebApiConfig
{
    public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)
    {
        // Web API configuration and services

        // Web API routes
        config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();

        config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "DefaultApi",
            routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
            defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
        );
    }
}

No matter what I attempt, I end up either with a 404 or as in the case of the code above, I get the message

No HTTP resource was found that matches the request URI ' http://localhost:2442/api/employee/1 '.

No action was found on the controller 'Employee' that matches the request.

with or without the integer parameter.

Answer 1

Did you try putting the RoutePrefix attribute on your class like this:

[RoutePrefix("api/employee")]
public class EmployeeController : ApiController

Answer 2

Either use the attribute routing for your controller, or don't use it all. That means you need to decorate your controller with RoutePrefix instead of relying on the configured routes.

[RoutePrefix("api/employee")
public class EmployeeController : ApiController
{
    private readonly IRepository<Employee> _employees; 
    public EmployeeController(IRepository<Employee> repo)
    {
        _employees = repo;
    }
    [Route("")]
    public IEnumerable<Employee> GetEmployees()
    {
        return _employees.Queryable();
    }
    [Route("{id}")]
    public Employee GetEmployee(int id)
    {
        return _employees.Queryable().FirstOrDefault();
    }
}

or in the below example, we rely on the defined route instead of using attribute routing.

public class EmployeeController : ApiController
{
    private readonly IRepository<Employee> _employees; 
    public EmployeeController(IRepository<Employee> repo)
    {
        _employees = repo;
    }
    public IEnumerable<Employee> GetEmployees()
    {
        return _employees.Queryable();
    }
    public Employee GetEmployee(int id)
    {
        return _employees.Queryable().FirstOrDefault();
    }
}

If you mix and match, it confuses things.