Routing based on query string parameter name

Question

I\'m trying to configure routing in my MVC4 WebAPI project.

I want to be able to search for products based on their name or their type like so:

/api/pr

Answer 1

You don't need to include your query parameters in the route. There should only be one simple route map to cover the Http Methods on all of your ApiControllers:

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

The only time you need to adjust the routes is if you want to move a parameter into the actual path, which you don't seem to be doing. Then your GET http method to search by two fields would be:

public IEnumerable Get(string name, string type){
    //..your code will have to deal with nulls of each parameter
}

If you want to explicitly search by one field at a time then you should think about using different controllers for different purposes. Ie, a SearchProductByTypeController that has a single Get(string type) method. The route would then be /api/SearchProductByTypeController?type=gadget