A catch-all route with Web API and ASP.NET MVC?

Question

I am developing a web application using ASP.NET MVC and Web API. I need the following mapping:

http://mysite/     => Welcome page (MVC)
http://mysite/Help => Help page (MVC)
http://mysite/anything_else_here => Web API Search with "anything_else_here" param

I use the following bindings:

// RouteConfig.cs, MVC routing        
routes.MapRoute(
            name: "Default",
            url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
            defaults: new { controller = "Home", 
                 action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }

and

//WebApiConfig.cs
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "CatchAll",
            routeTemplate: "{q}",
            defaults: new { controller = "Search", action = "GetGeneric" },
            constraints: new  { q = @"\S+" }

This config works fine for all queries EXCEPT for those where there is a percentage mark (used for space encoding).

Eg queries like

http://mysite/shop
http://mysite/get+discount
http://mysite/redeem+code

work fine, but

http://mysite/shopping%20experience
http://mysite/get%20discount
http://mysite/redeem%20code

don't. Instead, I get an error 404 "The resource cannot be found".

Any ideas how I can catch these queries?

The constrain "\\S+" does match the percentage mark.

Answer 1

In my opinion, this is by design. Your contraints are tested, but only after decoding the part of the URL that fits the parameter. Your %20 is actually a space.

Your plus sign is not an encoded character and gets treated literally, so it matches the 'non-whitespace' class of the constraint expression.

Which begs the question: why do you have a constraint on that route?