ASP.NET WebAPI - No action was found

Question

I have the following code, but the request ends (Foo() / Bar()) always in No action was found on the controller 'Device' that matches the request.

I've a custom route in my WebApiConfig:

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

My ASP.NET WebAPI controller:

[HttpPost]
public void UpdateToken(string newToken)
{
    _deviceHandler.UpdateToken(newToken);
}

To query my ASP.NET WebAPI I'm using RestSharp.

private static void Send(string resource, Method method, object payload)
{
    var client = new RestClient(baseUrl);
    var request = new RestRequest(resource, method);
    request.XmlSerializer = new JsonSerializer();
    request.RequestFormat = DataFormat.Json;
    request.AddBody(payload);

    var response = client.Execute(request);
    // ... handling response (exceptions, errors, ...)
}

public void Foo()
{
    var newToken = "1234567890";
    Send("/api/device/updatetoken", RestSharp.Method.POST, newToken );
}

public void Bar()
{
    var newToken = new { newToken = "1234567890" };
    Send("/api/device/updatetoken", RestSharp.Method.POST, newToken );
}

The only way to avoid this error is creating a wrapper class with a property (get;set;) in it which has the name of the controller argument (newToken).

I have a lot of requests which sends one or two custom strings (undefined length) as post (get is limited in length). But to create for each scenario a wrapper implementation is real overhead! I'm looking for another way to go.

PS: I hope I haven't made any mistakes by simplifying the scenario =)

Answer 1

Primitives are by default bound from the URI. If you want a primitive to come from the body, you should use the [FromBody] attribute like this:

[HttpPost]
public void UpdateToken([FromBody] string newToken)
{
    _deviceHandler.UpdateToken(newToken);
}

The string will then be deserialized using the appropriate formatter. If it's JSON, the request body should look like this:

"1234567890"