CODEWITHSUNDEEP
asp.net-web-api2attributerouting
TechQuery
TechQuery

Reputation: 253

ASP.NET WebAPI2 Attribute Routing and SubFolders

I'm using Attribute Routing in WebAPI. My question is more on creating sub-folders under controllers in WebAPI (not in MVC, I'm using Areas for that)

I searched what kind of impact it would cause to the existing routing pattern and mostly they referred like adding custom routing template in WebAPIConfig.cs. But since I'm using AttributeRouting, is it really required to create custom template??

I tested my code and it seems to be working fine without any custom templates and I'm also able to achieve modularization by creating sub-folders under Controllers folder but would like to know the best practice and solution.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 540

Answers (2)

Elmar
Elmar

Reputation: 332

FYI: There is one small 'catcha' that you need to be aware off when (re)organizing your controllers in subfolders using attribute routing. Make sure your controller class has a unique name! Otherwise attribute routing gets confused and will not work. To illustrate:

// File: ~/Controllers/Customers/DetailsController.cs
namespace MyProject.Controllers.Customerss 
{
    [RoutePrefix("~/api/customers/{id}")]
    public class DetailsController: ApiController {
        [HttpGet]
        public IHttpMessageResult GetItem(int id) {...}
    }
}

and 

// File: ~/Controllers/Orders/DetailsController.cs
namespace MyProject.Controllers.Orders 
{
    [RoutePrefix("~/api/orders/{id}")]
    public class DetailsController: ApiController {
        [HttpGet]
        public IHttpMessageResult GetItem(int id) {...}
    }
}

Although, cleary having different routes and certainly pointing to different controller classes it will throw off the attribute routing. By changing the controller classes to CustomerDetailsControlller and OrderDetailsController the routing issue resolved itself.

Upvotes: 2

Zhaph - Ben Duguid
Zhaph - Ben Duguid

Reputation: 26956

No - as you've found you don't need to create custom templates if you're using Attribute Routing.

The underlying method (MapAttributeRoutes) calls into the Controller factory to find all classes that inherit from Controller and then checks those for a Route attribute - so where they sit in the namespace hierarchy shouldn't matter.

If you are trying to mix Attribute and Convention routing and have sub-folders for convention based routes then you will need to define a custom template.

Upvotes: 2

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