In my ApiController I need to handle this requests:
GET: api/User?role=theRole
GET: api/User?division=?theDivision
...
GET: api/User?other=stringValue
All these requests could be handled via a method like:
public HttpResponseMessage Get(String stringParam)
but obviously I cannot use overloading...
How can I solve this situation? Should I use a single method with optional parameters?
According to this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12620238/632604 you can write your methods like this:
public class UsersController : ApiController
{
// GET api/values/5
public string GetUsersByRole(string role)
{
return "Role: " + role;
}
public string GetUsersByDivision(string division)
{
return "Division: " + division;
}
}
And Web API will route the requests just like you required:
One thing that you could consider doing would be modifying the default routes in your WebApiConfig file, you'll see how the default route is set as
routes.MapHttpRoute(
name: "API Default",
routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
);
Change this to
routes.MapHttpRoute(
name: "API Default",
routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
);
You could then tag each web API action with the correct HTTP action such as [HttpGet]. To learn more about routing and handling multiple HTTP actions in Web API take a look at http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/web-api-routing-and-actions/routing-in-aspnet-web-api
GET: api/User?stringParam=role%20theRole .....