How to create Ror style Restful routing in Asp.net MVC Web Api

Question

How to configure routing in asp.net web api, to that I can code for the following actions in my ApiController inherited class?

|======================================================================================|
|Http Verb| Path             | Action   | Used for                                     |
|======================================================================================|
| GET     | /photos          |  index   | display a list of all photos                 |
| GET     | /photos/new      |  new     | return an HTML form for creating a new photo |
| POST    | /photos/         |  create  | create a new photo                           |
| GET     | /photos/:id      |  show    | display a specific photo                     |
| GET     | /photos/:id/edit |  edit    | return an HTML form for editing a photo      |
| PUT     | /photos/:id      |  update  | update a specific photo                      |
| DELETE  | /photos/:id      |  destroy | delete a specific photo                      |

Are you trying to return a browser-friendly HTML page, an API-style data response, or some of both? It sounds to me like you're trying to return HTML, in which case you don't want to use WebAPI. You just want to use MVC. — Brian Reischl
– Brian Reischl, Commented Jun 28, 2013 at 14:53
Hi Brian, I am returning json, working on a Single page application using Knockout and SammyJS — Jas
– Jas, Commented Jun 28, 2013 at 15:09

Jas · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-28 15:26:17Z

1

Below is my own working solution for this:
//Route configuration:

//GET     | /photos          |  index   | display a list of all photos    
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
    name: "DefaultIndex",
    routeTemplate: "api/{controller}",
    defaults: new {action = "Index"},
    constraints: new { httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint(HttpMethod.Get) }
);

//POST    | /photos/         |  create  | create a new photo
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
    name: "DefaultCreate",
    routeTemplate: "api/{controller}",
    defaults: new { action = "Create" },
    constraints: new { httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint(HttpMethod.Post) }
);

//GET     | /photos/new      |  new     | return an HTML form for creating a new photo |
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
    name: "DefaultNew",
    routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/new",
    defaults: new { action = "New" },
    constraints: new { httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint(HttpMethod.Get) }
);

//GET     | /photos/:id      |  show    | display a specific photo    
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
    name: "DefaultShow",
    routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
    defaults: new { action = "Show" },
    constraints: new { httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint(HttpMethod.Get) }
);

//PUT     | /photos/:id      |  update  | update a specific photo   
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
    name: "DefaultUpdate",
    routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
    defaults: new { action = "Update" },
    constraints: new { httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint(HttpMethod.Put) }
);

//DELETE  | /photos/:id      |  destroy | delete a specific photo 
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
    name: "DefaultDestroy",
    routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
    defaults: new { action = "Destroy" },
    constraints: new { httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint(HttpMethod.Delete) }
);

config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
    name: "DefaultEdit",
    routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}/edit",
    defaults: new { action = "Edit" },
    constraints: new { httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint(HttpMethod.Get) }
);

//ApiController Actions

// GET api/photo
[ActionName("Index")]
public string Get()
{
    return "Index Action called";
}


// GET api/photos/5
[ActionName("Show")]
public string Get(int id)
{
    return "Show action called"
}

// GET api/photos/5/edit
[HttpGet]
public string Edit(int id)
{
    return "Edit action called";
}

// POST api/photos
[ActionName("Create")]
public void Post([FromBody]string value)
{

}

// GET api/photos/new
[HttpGet]
public string New()
{
    return "New called";
}

// PUT api/photos/5
[ActionName("Update")]
public void Put(int id, [FromBody]string value)
{
}

// DELETE api/photos/5
[ActionName("Destroy")]
public void Delete(int id)
{
}

answered Jun 28, 2013 at 15:26

Jas

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2 Comments

PositiveGuy Over a year ago

you have it all wrong, this is not restful. Restful doesn't say you have CRUD names in the url. That's totally not how REST is done. You use HTTP verbs in the HttpReques that determine whether you are doing an update, create, delte (so GET, POST, ETC.) determines the action, you shouldn't be having your action in the url. You map the RESTful url to the action method in your controller. In controller is where you will have methods Create Delete, Update. Not methods called GEt. You have it backwards.

Casper Sloth Paulsen Over a year ago

Hmm, I going to assume you haven't worked with WebApi? In which case his example is perfectly fine. The reason he writes GET, is because the framework picks it up as a HttpGet for that given function in that controller.

Kugel · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-11 02:02:59Z

1

I found http://restfulrouting.com/ to be very useful. It allows nested resources too.

answered Sep 11, 2013 at 2:02

Kugel

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