Enable web api attribute routing in global.asax

Question

I'd like to enable Attribute Routing for Web API as it looks like it will make routing easier to define. The example here: http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/web-api-routing-and-actions/attribute-routing-in-web-api-2 shows how it is done in the WebApiConfig.cs file:

using System.Web.Http;

namespace WebApplication
{
    public static class WebApiConfig
    {
        public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)
        {
            // Web API routes
            config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();

            // Other Web API configuration not shown.
        }
    }
}

However, my project is an old web forms project, originally started in .Net 2.0 (it's now 4.5 following several upgrades over the years). I don't have a WebApiConfig.cs file and instead my current routes are defined directly in the global.asax Application_Start method using:

RouteTable.Routes.MapHttpRoute(...)

Can anyone explain the best way to enable attribute based routing in this situation? Thanks

Answer 1

You can just do GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.MapHttpAttributeRoutes(); in your Global.asax file.

GlobalConfiguration.Configuration object is passed to WebApiConfig file, so you can use this class to configure all you need in Global.asax

Answer 2

You should put these 2 lines before your route definitions and it will work happily

  GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();
  GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.EnsureInitialized();

Cheers