Question

I’ve been having trouble trying to be able to have multiple “Get” methods while also having a default of /api/{controller}. Here is an example with dummy code (yes I realize it would return the exact same).

Error: "Multiple actions were found that match the request" when I try to go to /api/courses

Going to /api/courses/all works fine and so does /api/courses/3

// GET api/courses
public IEnumerable<Courses> Get()
{
    return Db.Courses.OrderBy(x => x.Name);
}

// GET api/courses/all
[ActionName("all")]
public IEnumerable<Courses> GetAll()
{
    return Db.Courses.OrderBy(x => x.Name);
}

// GET api/courses/id
[ActionName("all")]
public Courses Get(int id)
{
    return Db.Courses.Where(x => x.id == id);
}

RouteConfig looks like:

routes.MapHttpRoute(
       "ApiControllerOnly",
       "api/{controller}"
);

// Allow for numeric Ids to be passed in
routes.MapHttpRoute(
       "ApiControllerAndIntegerId",
       "api/{controller}/{id}",
       null,
       new { id = @"^\d+$" }
);

routes.MapHttpRoute(
       "ApiControllerAction",
       "api/{controller}/{action}"
);

What I want to be able to do is call:

/api/courses - returns Get()
/api/courses/all - returns GetAll()
/api/courses/3 - returns Get(id = 3)

Edit:

It also needs to allow for Put, Post, etc to work as well such as Putting a course on /api/courses/

Answer 1

Error: “Multiple actions were found that match the request” when I try to go to /api/courses

By specifying the default action to be “Get” for the ApiControllerOnly route, I was able to get /api/courses to work. Does this work for your scenario?

        routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "ApiControllerOnly",
            routeTemplate: "api/{controller}",
            defaults: new { action = "Get" }
        );

Edit:

If you have additional Put/Post/etc methods in you APIController, you should consider using HttpMethodConstraint on the ApiControllerOnly route and add another route (i.e. ApiControllerOnly2) for the Put/Post/etc methods:

        config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "ApiControllerOnly",
            routeTemplate: "api/{controller}",
            defaults: new { action = @"Get" },
            constraints: new { httpMethod = new HttpMethodConstraint(HttpMethod.Get) }
        );

        config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "ApiControllerOnly2",
            routeTemplate: "api/{controller}"
        );
        config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "ApiControllerAndIntegerId",
            routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
            defaults: null,
            constraints: new { id = @"^\d+$" }
        );

        config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "ApiControllerAction",
            routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{action}"
        );