Read HttpResponseMessage in Ajax onSuccess

Question

This is my APIController method -

[HttpPost]
public HttpResponseMessage Get(string url) {
    string responseString = GetWebApiData(url);

    HttpResponseMessage response = new HttpResponseMessage();

    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(responseString) && responseString.ToString().IsValid()) {
        response.ReasonPhrase = "Valid";
        response.StatusCode = HttpStatusCode.OK;
    } else {
        response.ReasonPhrase = "Invalid";
        response.StatusCode = HttpStatusCode.BadRequest;
    }

    return response;
}

This is my ajax call to above method -

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: "http://localhost:50/api/DC/" + formData,
    contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
    dataType: "json",
    success: function(data, textStatus, xhr) {


    },
    failure: function(response) {
        alert(response.responseText);
    },
    error: function(response) {
        alert(response.responseText);
    }
});

I am not able to read the HttpResponseMessage returned by the API Method. For both the conditions of OK and Bad Request, status code returned in 'xhr' of ajax method is '204' & 'No Content'. I need to validate based on response code. Any help pls!

I tried success: function(response) too, response was undefined.

Answer 1

The response is 204 No content because you literally don't add any content. All you're doing is setting the response code. You can add content to the response like this:

response.Content = new StringContent("Return data goes here");

Alternatively use the Request.CreateResponse() / CreateErrorResponse() to create the HttpResponseMessage for you:

[HttpPost]
public HttpResponseMessage Get(string url)
{
    string responseString = GetWebApiData(url);
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(responseString) && responseString.ToString().IsValid())
    {
        return Request.CreateResponse("Valid"); // I'd suggest returning an object here to be serialised to JSON or XML
    }

    return Request.CreateErrorResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, "Invalid");
}