Best practice for passing enum params in Web API

Question

I have a RESTful Web API project, and I have 2 different Enum scenarios that I\'m unsure of re best practice.

Scenario 1 : Straightforward Enum Param

Answer 1

The simplest answer is, "It doesn't matter".

If the parameter in your controller method is of the enumeration type

public IHttpActionResult Foo(RuleType ruleType)

In WebAPI, It Just Works - no matter if the client request URL specifies the parmeter value as ?ruleType=1 or ?ruleType=EmailAddress

If the client specifies a value that isn't valid for the enumeration, an exception is thrown (The parameters dictionary contains a null entry for parameter 'ruleType' of non-nullable type 'RuleType' for method 'Foo' ... and the client gets a 400 Bad Request response.