.Net Core 2.2 Web API Routing

Question

I have the following controller which I wanted to use as an Web API Controller for ajax posts to retrieve data from my user table.

namespace MyProjectName.Controllers.API
{
    [Route("api/[controller]")]
    [ApiController]
    public class UsersController : ControllerBase
    {
        private readonly myContext _context;
        public UsersController(myContext context)
        {
            _context = context;
        }

        [HttpGet]
        public List<string> GetInstitutionNamesById(int id)
        {
            // returns desired list
        }
    }
}

Now I'd expect the routing of this Function to be like this: /api/users/getinstitutionnamesbyid but apparently it seems to be just /api/users which I find really confusing (what if I add additional HttpGet Functions?).

Can anyone explain me what I am doing wrong? Am I using Web Api Controllers not the Intended way? Is my routing wrong?

Thanks in Advance.

Answer 1

[Route("api/[controller]")]

With this template, you're explicitly stating that you only care about the name of the controller. In your example, GetInstitutionNamesById is the name of the action , which isn't being considered by the template.

There are a few options for achieving what you're asking for here:

1. Change your [Route] template to include the action name:

    [Route("api/[controller]/[action]")] 

   This option applies to all actions within your controller.

2. Change the HttpGet constraint attribute to specify the action implicitly :

    [HttpGet("[action]")] 

   This option ensures that the name of your action method will always be used as the route segment.

3. Change the HttpGet constraint attribute to specify the action explicitly :

    [HttpGet("GetInstitutionNamesById")] 

   This option allows you to use a route segment that differs from the name of the action method itself.

In terms of whether you're using routing in the correct way here - that's somewhat opinion-based. Generally, you'll see that APIs are attempting to be RESTful, using route templates that match resources, etc. With this approach, you might have something more like the following:

/api/Users/{userId}/InstitutionNames

In this case, you might have a separate InstitutionNames controller or you might bundle it up into the Users controller. There really are many ways to do this, but I won't go into any more on that here as it's a little off-topic and opinion-based.

Answer 2

You just need to name it this way

    [HttpGet("[action]/{id}")]
    public List<string> GetInstitutionNamesById(int id)
    {
        // returns desired list
    }

and from ajax call /api/users/GetInstitutionNamesById/1