.NET MVC 4 WebAPI POST not working

Question

Core problem: GET works, POST doesn't. I'm new to WebAPI so I'm probably doing something stupid, but I've poked around quite a bit on the 'net trying to figure out why this isn't working.

Fairly simple WebAPI C# app. I've tried to get this down to very simple routes:

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

        // Add a route where action is supplied, i.e. api/csv/LoadToSQL
        config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "ActionApi",
            routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{action}"
        );

Controller class:

public class CsvController : ApiController
{
    // GET api/csv
    public IEnumerable<string> Get()
    {
        return new string[] { "value1", "value2" };
    }

    // GET api/csv/name
    public string Get(string csvName)
    {
        return "value";
    }

    // POST - api/csv/LoadToSQL
    // Load a CSV to SQL
    [HttpPost]
    [ActionName("LoadToSQL")]
    public HttpResponseMessage LoadToSQL(
        string storageAccount,
        string accessKey,
        string containerName,
        string csvFileName,
        string connectionString,
        string targetDatabaseName,
        string targetTableName)
    {
        try
        {
            // Retrieve storage account from connection string.
            CloudStorageAccount blobStorage = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(storageAccount);

Start it up locally and connect Fiddler. Try a GET; works:

Fiddler GET output

Try a POST - fails:

Fiddler POST output

My original implementation had just

    // POST - api/csv
    // Load a CSV to SQL
    public HttpResponseMessage Post(

but that didn't work so I started trying to add specific routes and verb decorations.

It just doesn't seem to see the POST action against this controller no matter what I do.

Any thoughts?

UPDATE - per answer below, the correct route to make this work is:

        // Add a route where action is supplied, i.e. api/csv/LoadToSQL
        config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "ActionApi",
            routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{action}/{storageAccount}/{accessKey}/{containerName}/{csvFileName}/{connectionString}/{targetDatabaseName}/{targetTableName}"
        );

This shows all the parameters to the POST request.

you are expecting multiple parameters but your route only has one, so your method cannot be resolved. Either add all the parameters to the route {storageAccount}/{accessKey}/etc..., or pass a single object that has the properties you need. — dbugger, Dec 06 '14 at 03:10
OK, like I said... something stupid. THANK YOU @dbugger... That wss in fact it. I was trying to pass the parameters as query parameters. Will update the Route to show the fix that made this work. — Mike Kelly, Dec 06 '14 at 03:17

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 14 '16 at 08:05

You can replace your method to be more clear and clean if you like so

1- declare a class with your options

public class LoadToSqlData
{
   public string storageAccount {get; set;}
   public string accessKey {get; set;}
   public string containerName {get; set;}
   public string csvFileName {get; set;}
   public string connectionString {get; set;}
   public string targetDatabaseName {get; set;}
   public string targetTableName {get; set;}
}

2- Declare your method to be :

[HttpPost]
[ActionName("ActionApi")]
[Route("api/Csv/LoadToSQL")]
public HttpResponseMessage LoadToSQL([FromBody]LoadToSqlData data)

Notice the usage of the [Route],[ActionName] and the [FromBody] attributes.

Hope that helps.

This works - as does the earlier suggestion, but this is probably a better way to go as the earlier responder noted. I updated this to fix a minor error - the members of the class should be public. — Mike Kelly, Dec 13 '14 at 23:32

.NET MVC 4 WebAPI POST not working

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