C# Web API Help Documentation IHttpActionResult

Question

I have a C# Web API and I am trying to get the auto created help documentation to work with IHttpActionResult. I stripped down the example below so its a little easier to read.

For the object, below is a simple example. BusinessObject is just a wrapper. The CollectionBase is CollectionBase : ObservableCollection<T>, ILoadable where T : BusinessObject. Its an older code base that is auto generated but reusing it for this.

    public class Value : BusinessObject
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
    }
    public class Values : CollectionBase<Value>
    {
        public override Value LoadObject(System.Data.IDataRecord record)
        {
            return new Value();
        }
    }

For the API side of things. The following works.

public class Values : ApiController
{
    public IEnumerable<Value> GetThis()
    {
        Values values = new Values();
        return values;
    }
}

The issue comes when I try to do

    public IHttpActionResult GetThis()
    {
        Values values = new Values();
        return Ok(values);
    }

It doesn't recognize that it should use a different return type. The 'Resource Description' ends up being IHttpActionResult with no sample output. Now I can add

config.SetActualResponseType(typeof(IEnumerable<Value>), "Values", "GetThis");

and it will show a sample output but the 'Resource Description' will still be IHttpActionResult. That is the main issue I am having. I would like to use IHttpActionResult because its very easy to use and can return error codes if needed very easily. I would just like to be able to auto construct the documentation.

UPDATE: Upon some further research, I did fine this post. Resource Description on Web API Help page is showing "None."

Bascially, you add the response type attribute to the method.

[ResponseType(typeof(IEnumerable<Value>))]
public IHttpActionResult GetThis()
{
    Values values = new Values();
    return Ok(values);
}

Although this technically works and I have modified my existing code to use this. It would still be nice if there was a way to have it automatically figure it out somehow. Not sure if this is possible or not.

Answer 1

This works for what I am doing. Its a little tedious to have to include every time but it allows me to return error codes if necessary and retain the help documentation functionality.

[ResponseType(typeof(IEnumerable<Value>))]
public IHttpActionResult GetThis()
{
    Values values = new Values();
    return Ok(values);
}

Resource Description on Web API Help page is showing "None."