Asp.net-mvc – How to add Web API to an existing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Application project

asp.net-mvcasp.net-mvc-4asp.net-web-apivisual studio 2012

I wish to add an ASP.NET Web API to an ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Application project, developed in Visual Studio 2012. Which steps must I perform to add a functioning Web API to the project? I'm aware that I need a controller deriving from ApiController, but that's about all I know.

Let me know if I need to provide more details.

Best Answer

The steps I needed to perform were:

Add reference to System.Web.Http.WebHost.
Add App_Start\WebApiConfig.cs (see code snippet below).
Import namespace System.Web.Http in Global.asax.cs.
Call WebApiConfig.Register(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration) in MvcApplication.Application_Start() (in file Global.asax.cs), before registering the default Web Application route as that would otherwise take precedence.
Add a controller deriving from System.Web.Http.ApiController.

I could then learn enough from the tutorial (Your First ASP.NET Web API) to define my API controller.

App_Start\WebApiConfig.cs:

using System.Web.Http;

class WebApiConfig
{
    public static void Register(HttpConfiguration configuration)
    {
        configuration.Routes.MapHttpRoute("API Default", "api/{controller}/{id}",
            new { id = RouteParameter.Optional });
    }
}

Global.asax.cs:

using System.Web.Http;

...

protected void Application_Start()
{
    AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();

    RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
    WebApiConfig.Register(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);
    RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
    BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
}

Update 10.16.2015:

Word has it, the NuGet package Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi must be installed for the above to work.

Related Solutions

C# – File Upload ASP.NET MVC 3.0

You don't use a file input control. Server side controls are not used in ASP.NET MVC. Checkout the following blog post which illustrates how to achieve this in ASP.NET MVC.

So you would start by creating an HTML form which would contain a file input:

@using (Html.BeginForm("Index", "Home", FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }))
{
    <input type="file" name="file" />
    <input type="submit" value="OK" />
}

and then you would have a controller to handle the upload:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    // This action renders the form
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }

    // This action handles the form POST and the upload
    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(HttpPostedFileBase file)
    {
        // Verify that the user selected a file
        if (file != null && file.ContentLength > 0) 
        {
            // extract only the filename
            var fileName = Path.GetFileName(file.FileName);
            // store the file inside ~/App_Data/uploads folder
            var path = Path.Combine(Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/uploads"), fileName);
            file.SaveAs(path);
        }
        // redirect back to the index action to show the form once again
        return RedirectToAction("Index");        
    }
}

Json – How to get ASP.NET Web API to return JSON instead of XML using Chrome

Note: Read the comments of this answer, it can produce a XSS Vulnerability if you are using the default error handing of WebAPI

I just add the following in App_Start / WebApiConfig.cs class in my MVC Web API project.

config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SupportedMediaTypes
    .Add(new MediaTypeHeaderValue("text/html") );

That makes sure you get JSON on most queries, but you can get XML when you send text/xml.

If you need to have the response Content-Type as application/json please check Todd's answer below.

NameSpace is using System.Net.Http.Headers.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – File Upload ASP.NET MVC 3.0

Json – How to get ASP.NET Web API to return JSON instead of XML using Chrome

Note: Read the comments of this answer, it can produce a XSS Vulnerability if you are using the default error handing of WebAPI

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