Call web API string parameter

Question

I have this function

[System.Web.Http.HttpGet]
[System.Web.Http.ActionName("StartProcess")]
public object StartProcess(string items)
{
    //do stuff
}

trying to call with

$.ajax({
     url: '/api/Details/StartProcess',
     type: 'get',
     contentType: 'application/json',
     data: items,
     success: function() {
         logger.log('Successful', "", "", true);
     },
     error: function(error) {
         var jsonValue = jQuery.parseJSON(error.responseText);
     });

Keep getting 404 error. The rest of my calls work but this is the first one that I need to send a parameter.

items is just a comma delimited string.

this is my route info.

routes.MapRoute(
    name: "Default",
    url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
    defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id=Urlameter.Optional }
);

Any ideas what I am missing?

Answer 1

you are getting 404 error because your routing table is not able to resolve the url "/api/Details/StartProcess"

In order to make the WebAPI routing work you need to modify the "MapHttpRoute()" function of route collection and not the "MapRoute()"

So please change the API routing as below (assuming you are using default api) and it should work fine.

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