Ninject error in WebAPI 2.1 - Make sure that the controller has a parameterless public constructor

Question

I have the following packages and their dependencies installed in my WebAPI project:

Ninject.Web.WebApi Ninject.Web.WebApi.OwinHost

I am running this purely as a web-api project. No MVC.

When I run my application and send a POST to the AccountController's Register action I get the following error returned:

{
"message":"An error has occurred.",
"exceptionMessage":"An error occurred when trying to create a controller of type 'AccountController'. Make sure that the controller has a parameterless public constructor.",
"exceptionType":"System.InvalidOperationException",
"stackTrace":"   at System.Web.Http.Dispatcher.DefaultHttpControllerActivator.Create(HttpRequestMessage request, HttpControllerDescriptor controllerDescriptor, Type controllerType)\r\n   at System.Web.Http.Controllers.HttpControllerDescriptor.CreateController(HttpRequestMessage request)\r\n   at System.Web.Http.Dispatcher.HttpControllerDispatcher.SendAsyncCore(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken)\r\n   at System.Web.Http.Dispatcher.HttpControllerDispatcher.<SendAsync>d__0.MoveNext()",
"innerException":{
"message":"An error has occurred.",
"exceptionMessage":"Type 'RPT.Api.Controllers.AccountController' does not have a default constructor",
"exceptionType":"System.ArgumentException",
"stackTrace":"   at System.Linq.Expressions.Expression.New(Type type)\r\n   at System.Web.Http.Dispatcher.DefaultHttpControllerActivator.GetInstanceOrActivator(HttpRequestMessage request, Type controllerType, Func`1& activator)\r\n   at System.Web.Http.Dispatcher.DefaultHttpControllerActivator.Create(HttpRequestMessage request, HttpControllerDescriptor controllerDescriptor, Type controllerType)"
}
}

Can anyone help me as the only details I can find on Google seem to be from 2012.

Note: I've also tried AutoFac instead of Ninject and get the same error there too. Most frustrating.

Here's my NinjectWebCommon.cs:

using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity;
using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.EntityFramework;
using RPT.Data;
using RPT.Services;
using RPT.Services.Interfaces;

[assembly: WebActivatorEx.PreApplicationStartMethod(typeof(RPT.Api.NinjectWebCommon), "Start")]
[assembly: WebActivatorEx.ApplicationShutdownMethodAttribute(typeof(RPT.Api.NinjectWebCommon), "Stop")]

namespace RPT.Api
{
    using System;
    using System.Web;

    using Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.DynamicModuleHelper;

    using Ninject;
    using Ninject.Web.Common;

    public static class NinjectWebCommon
    {
        private static readonly Bootstrapper bootstrapper = new Bootstrapper();

        /// <summary>
        /// Starts the application
        /// </summary>
        public static void Start()
        {
            DynamicModuleUtility.RegisterModule(typeof(OnePerRequestHttpModule));
            DynamicModuleUtility.RegisterModule(typeof(NinjectHttpModule));
            bootstrapper.Initialize(CreateKernel);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Stops the application.
        /// </summary>
        public static void Stop()
        {
            bootstrapper.ShutDown();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Creates the kernel that will manage your application.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>The created kernel.</returns>
        private static IKernel CreateKernel()
        {
            var kernel = new StandardKernel();
            try
            {
                kernel.Bind<Func<IKernel>>().ToMethod(ctx => () => new Bootstrapper().Kernel);
                kernel.Bind<IHttpModule>().To<HttpApplicationInitializationHttpModule>();

                RegisterServices(kernel);


                return kernel;
            }
            catch
            {
                kernel.Dispose();
                throw;
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Load your modules or register your services here!
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="kernel">The kernel.</param>
        private static void RegisterServices(IKernel kernel)
        {
            kernel.Bind<RptContext>().ToSelf();

            kernel.Bind<IUserStore<IdentityUser>>().To<UserStore<IdentityUser>>();
            kernel.Bind<UserManager<IdentityUser>>().ToSelf();

            kernel.Bind<IAccountService>().To<AccountService>();
        }
    }
}

Here's my AccountController:

using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Web.Http;
using System.Web.ModelBinding;
using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity;
using RPT.Api.Models;
using RPT.Services.Interfaces;

namespace RPT.Api.Controllers
{
    [RoutePrefix("api/account")]
    public class AccountController : ApiController
    {
        #region Initialisation

        private readonly IAccountService _accountService;

        public AccountController(IAccountService accountService) : base()
        {
            _accountService = accountService;
        }

        #endregion

        #region Actions

        [AllowAnonymous]
        [Route("register")]
        public async Task<IHttpActionResult> Register(UserRegistrationViewModel model)
        {
            if (!ModelState.IsValid)
            {
                return BadRequest(ModelState);
            }

            var result = await _accountService.RegisterUser(model.UserName, model.Password);

            var errorResult = GetErrorResult(result);

            return errorResult ?? Ok();
        }

        #endregion

        #region Internal

        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (disposing)
            {
                _accountService.Dispose();
            }

            base.Dispose(disposing);
        }
        private IHttpActionResult GetErrorResult(IdentityResult result)
        {
            if (result == null)
            {
                return InternalServerError();
            }

            if (result.Succeeded) return null;
            if (result.Errors != null)
            {
                foreach (var error in result.Errors)
                {
                    ModelState.AddModelError("", error);
                }
            }

            if (ModelState.IsValid)
            {
                // No ModelState errors are available to send, so just return an empty BadRequest.
                return BadRequest();
            }

            return BadRequest(ModelState);
        }

        #endregion
    }
}

Answer 1

Did you modify your OWIN Startup class to call app.UseNinjectWebApi and app.UseNinjectMiddleware rather than calling app.UseWebApi?

Startup.cs in the Ninject Web API samples does this...

Answer 2

What worked for me was adding the NuGet package Ninject.Web.WebApi.WebHost as described here: https://github.com/ninject/Ninject.Web.WebApi/wiki/Setting-up-an-mvc-webapi-application

Answer 3

In my case, the reason was resolver could not find a mapping. That is suppose say HomeController has a dependency on IDumb, the resolver could not find a concrete implementation of Dumb with implements IDumb. In other words the error message

**No parameterless constructor defined for this object
An error occurred when trying to create a controller of type 'ToDoListT1.WebApp.Controllers.HomeController'. Make sure that the controller has a parameterless public constructor**

is completely misleading. In my case I just resolved by adding a reference to the project of the class Dumb. It should have been something like "No mapping for IDumb could be found.". I am not sure the problem is with NInject or MS. What ever it took me hours to find this out.