ASP.NET WebAPI returning Http 405

Question

I have a WebApi controller

[RoutePrefix("api/invitations")]
public class InvitationsApiController : ApiController

And an action method:

[Route]
[HttpPost]
public IHttpActionResult Create([FromBody] CreateCommand command)

When i try to POST to http://host/api/invitations i get a "“405 Method Not Allowed”

But when I use another route like:

[Route("test")]
[HttpPost]
public IHttpActionResult Create([FromBody] CreateCommand command)

WebApiConfig.cs

public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)
{
    // Web API configuration and services
    SetupFormatters(config);

    // Web API routes
    config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();

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

And make a POST to http://host/api/invitations/test its working. I have controllers that works just perfect when requesting to "root".

More details on Http error:

HTTP Error 405.0 - Method Not Allowed The page you are looking for cannot be displayed because an invalid method (HTTP verb) is being used.

Detailed Error Information: 
Module    DefaultDocumentModule
Notification    ExecuteRequestHandler  
Handler    StaticFile  Error
Code    0x80070001  
Requested URL   http://localhost:8008/api/invitations  
Physical Path <removed>   
Logon Method  Anonymous  
Logon User    Anonymous

Any suggestions what might be wrong?

do you have a route conflict? 2 methods decorated the same way? — Garr Godfrey, Sep 01 '15 at 07:54
Do you happen to have a physical/virtual directory in the `~/api/invitations` path? Otherwise, you'll have to show your `Web.Config`... — haim770, Sep 01 '15 at 07:55
Remove the [Route] attribute from your method or change it to [Route("")] — HaukurHaf, Sep 01 '15 at 08:02
@YuvalItzchakov + HaukurHaf tried that as well, same result. — Rune Jensen, Sep 01 '15 at 08:24
You have a physical directory named `API` and another physical directory named `Invitations` in it? Why? — haim770, Sep 01 '15 at 08:26
Can you post your startup code too? Are you, by any chance, also using convention based routing too? — Anish Patel, Sep 01 '15 at 08:28
Does calling `http://host/api/invitations/create` work? What happens when you annotate your action with `[ActionName("Post")]`? — Carsten, Sep 01 '15 at 08:31
@YuvalItzchakov Its running on IIS, sure i am sending a POST request. — Rune Jensen, Sep 01 '15 at 12:30
Change `RoutePrefix` to `Route`: `[Route("api/invitations")]` at the controller level — Yuval Itzchakov, Sep 01 '15 at 12:40
delete `config.Routes.MapHttpRoute( name: "DefaultApi", routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}", defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional });` — Anish Patel, Sep 01 '15 at 12:49
The module returning the error is `DefaultDocumentModule` and the handler is `StaticFile`. It means that you really have a physical directory in `~/api/invitations`. What's in there? — haim770, Sep 01 '15 at 13:56
@haim770 ~/API/Invitations contains InvitationsApiController.cs — Rune Jensen, Sep 02 '15 at 06:02

Yuval Itzchakov · Answer 1 · 2015-09-01T12:41:06.527

2

Change your controller RoutePrefix declaration to Route at the controller level:

[Route("api/invitations")]
public class InvitationsApiController : ApiController

RoutePrefix doesn't add the route to the route table. This means, that if you want to use RoutePrefix, you'll have to prefix each action by itself, for example:

[RoutePrefix("api/invitations")]
public class InvitationsApiController : ApiController

[Route("")]
[HttpPost]
public IHttpActionResult Create([FromBody] CreateCommand command)

edited Sep 01 '15 at 12:41

answered Sep 01 '15 at 08:02

Yuval Itzchakov

146,575
32
257
321

1

Yes, but it has nothing to do with the error being returned – haim770 Sep 01 '15 at 08:24
@haim770 Did you try [Route("")] instead of [Route]? – Jason Hughes Sep 01 '15 at 13:52

haim770 · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-09T07:15:59.297

The problem is that you're having a physical directory that is matching your route (/api/invitations). Because such physical directory exists, IIS native DirectoryListingModule and DefaultDocumentModule modules (that are not allowing the POST verb) are taking over the request before the TransferRequestHandler (that is used by MVC and WebAPI) is able to handle it.

There is no reason to put your InvitationsController.cs in the same directory stucture that is going to match the requested route. That's why we have routing in the first place, to be able to register routes dynamically regardless of the physical location of the controller.

The common convention (that is also the default WebAPI template structure) is to put your controllers in the ~/Controllers directory (or ~/Controllers/Api). But you can actually put them in any directory as long as they're getting compiled as part of the project.

That is working like a charm =) actually pretty obvious when explained. Thanks! — Rune Jensen, Sep 02 '15 at 08:35
This is exactly what was happening to me. I flattened the directory structure and it started working. Thanks! — K0D4, Sep 08 '15 at 21:41

ASP.NET WebAPI returning Http 405

2 Answers2