HTTP Methods
Instead of using the naming convention for HTTP methods, you can explicitly specify the HTTP method for an action by decorating the action method with the HttpGet, HttpPut, HttpPost, or HttpDelete attribute.
In the following example, the FindProduct method is mapped to GET requests:
public class ProductsController : ApiController
{
[HttpGet]
public Product FindProduct(id) {}
}
To allow multiple HTTP methods for an action, or to allow HTTP methods other than GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE, use the AcceptVerbsattribute, which takes a list of HTTP methods.
public class ProductsController : ApiController
{
[AcceptVerbs("GET", "HEAD")]
public Product FindProduct(id) { }
// WebDAV method
[AcceptVerbs("MKCOL")]
public void MakeCollection() { }
}
Routing by Action Name
With the default routing template, Web API uses the HTTP method to select the action. However, you can also create a route where the action name is included in the URI:
routes.MapHttpRoute(
name: "ActionApi",
routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
);
In this route template, the {action} parameter names the action method on the controller. With this style of routing, use attributes to specify the allowed HTTP methods. For example, suppose your controller has the following method:
public class ProductsController : ApiController
{
[HttpGet]
public string Details(int id);
}
In this case, a GET request for “api/products/details/1” would map to the Details method. This style of routing is similar to ASP.NET MVC, and may be appropriate for an RPC-style API.
You can override the action name by using the ActionName attribute. In the following example, there are two actions that map to "api/products/thumbnail/id. One supports GET and the other supports POST:
public class ProductsController : ApiController
{
[HttpGet]
[ActionName("Thumbnail")]
public HttpResponseMessage GetThumbnailImage(int id);
[HttpPost]
[ActionName("Thumbnail")]
public void AddThumbnailImage(int id);
}
Non-Actions
To prevent a method from getting invoked as an action, use the NonAction attribute. This signals to the framework that the method is not an action, even if it would otherwise match the routing rules.
// Not an action method.
[NonAction]
public string GetPrivateData() { ... }