How to add custom methods to ASP.NET WebAPI controller?

Question

In ASP.NET MVC WebAPI project by default we have created following controller

 public class ValuesController : ApiController
    {
        /         


        

Answer 1

I am not sure I follow as you have GET and POST right there in your code, but in any case you have other options:

Option 1

First, you can configure your custom Routes in the App_Start folder in the WebApiConfig.cs file. Here is what I normally use:

    // GET /api/{resource}/{action}
    config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
        name: "Web API RPC",
        routeTemplate: "{controller}/{action}",
        defaults: new { },
        constraints: new { action = @"[A-Za-z]+", httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint("GET") }
        );
    
    // GET|PUT|DELETE /api/{resource}/{id}/{code}
    config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
        name: "Web API Resource",
        routeTemplate: "{controller}/{id}/{code}",
        defaults: new { code = RouteParameter.Optional },
        constraints: new { id = @"\d+" }
        );

    // GET /api/{resource}
    config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
        name: "Web API Get All",
        routeTemplate: "{controller}",
        defaults: new { action = "Get" },
        constraints: new { httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint("GET") }
        );

    // PUT /api/{resource}
    config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
        name: "Web API Update",
        routeTemplate: "{controller}",
        defaults: new { action = "Put" },
        constraints: new { httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint("PUT") }
        );

    // POST /api/{resource}
    config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
        name: "Web API Post",
        routeTemplate: "{controller}",
        defaults: new { action = "Post" },
        constraints: new { httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint("POST") }
        );

    // POST /api/{resource}/{action}
    config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
        name: "Web API RPC Post",
        routeTemplate: "{controller}/{action}",
        defaults: new { },
        constraints: new { action = @"[A-Za-z]+", httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint("POST") }
        );

I use a combination of RESTful endpoints as well as RPC endpoints. For some purists, this is grounds for a holy war. For me, I use a combination of the two because it is a powerful combination and I can't find any sane reason not to.

Option 2

As the others have pointed out and as I myself am doing more of these days, use attribute routing:

    [HttpGet]
    [GET("SomeController/SomeUrlSegment/{someParameter}")]
    public int SomeUrlSegment(string someParameter)
    {
        //do stuff
    }

I needed a NuGet package for attribute routing to make this work (just search NuGet for "Attribute Routing"), but I think that MVC 5/WebAPI 2 has it natively.

Hope this helps.