Is it a good idea to add WebAPI into an existing ASP.NET MVC project?

Question

We have an existing ASP.NET MVC 5 project. We want to use WebAPI too.

Is it a good idea to install WebAPI into the MVC project using Nuget? Or would it be better to create a new project in the same VS Solution specifically for WebAPI? If the latter, how would the routing be done?

I gather having MVC and WebAPI in the same project can cause issues with Dependency Injection. Is this true?

What issues? I use them both in the same solution without issue all the time. — Mister Epic, Apr 24 '14 at 16:43
And you say you use them in the same solution... are they in the same VS project too? — Anthony, Apr 24 '14 at 16:44
True. I suppose that was actually a subquestion! My main question is still my concern that adding WebAPI packages to the main web project will cause it to just bloat, and wouldn't it be cleaner to have it in a separate project. Or is that just a non-issue? — Anthony, Apr 24 '14 at 16:51
You might want to see my [question/answer](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11990036/how-to-add-web-api-to-an-existing-asp-net-mvc-4-web-application-project/12001645#12001645) on introducing Web API into an MVC 4 project. — aknuds1, Apr 25 '14 at 18:01

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 25 '14 at 17:59

You can put the together in the same project, install the nuget package and then add the startup classes (you can see how to do that in the template).

I can't speak to dependency resolver issues though.

However I would ask myself first why would you want MVC + Web API, in many cases you can just use MVC to do that job, and thus you stay with one framework.

I'd really consider Web API if you want to use content negotiation, OData or if you have a lot of ready made Web API code you want to port.

Is it a good idea to add WebAPI into an existing ASP.NET MVC project?

1 Answers1