All POST MVC Requests give 404 error

Question

I have an MVC App which is giving a 404 errors when i use POST requests.

Here's the pertinent bits of code:

I have a WebAPI controller(although this also happens with "pure" MVC controllers) with a single method in it:

public class GetSomeDataController : ApiController
{
    [HttpPost]
    public string GetNumbers([FromBody]string value)
    {
        // Get 10 randomised numbers

        return //The numbers as JSON;
    }
}

In the JavaScript i have an ajax request:

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: "/Api/GetSomeData/GetNumbers/",
    data: JSON.stringify(requestData),
    contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
    dataType: "json",
    processData: false, // Pass the data in the body of the request rather than in the URI.
})
.done(function (ajaxResult) {
    // handle the results
})
.fail(function (e) {
    // Handle errors
});

When i debug it from within VS 2013 i get my 10 numbers back no problem at all. However when i run the exact same code in IIS 8.5...

The page itself is an MVC routed page so routing is working on the server, but it does not Work when I call a controller action from a POST.

The error page reports that the StaticFile handler appears to be trying to handle the request - which of course fails.

I am going out of my head trying to figure out what is going on. Does anyone have any ideas?

These are the things i can remember trying:

Adding various things to web.config (No Discernible effect):

<system.web>
    <httpModules>
        <add name="UrlRoutingModule"
            type="System.Web.Routing.UrlRoutingModule,
            System.Web.Routing, Version=3.5.0.0,
            Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    </httpModules>
</system.web>
<system.webServer>
    <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false"/>
</system.webServer>

,

<system.webServer>
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
</system.webServer>

and

<system.webServer>
  <modules>
    <remove name="UrlRoutingModule-4.0" />
    <add name="UrlRoutingModule-4.0" type="System.Web.Routing.UrlRoutingModule" preCondition="" />
  </modules>
</system.webServer>

• I am definitely running in Integrated mode
• The application pool is running under an account with access to the folder
• The application pool is running in .NET 4.0
• Disabling and re-enabling ASP.NET 4.5 in Windows features and settings
• aspnet_regiis - i (not supported for IIS 8.5)

• Tracing the request: (No new information)

• Changing the ExtensionlessUrlHandler-Integrated-4.0 request path to "*"

• Changing the ExtensionlessUrlHandler-Integrated-4.0 verbs (POST is already included in the list)

Answer 1

The answer turns put to be nothing to do with IIS or routing.

When debugging in Local IIS or running the site from IIS i was running the application as a sub application - i.e. the address to my application wan't http://localhost/ it was Http://localhost/WebScratchPad/.

The AJAX request was aimiing at Http://localhost/Api/GetSomeData/GetNumbers/ because of this line in the $.ajax request:

url: "/Api/GetSomeData/GetNumbers/",

They should have gone to Http://localhost/WebScratchPad/Api/GetSomeData/GetNumbers/

by doing this:

url: "/WebScratchPad/Api/GetSomeData/GetNumbers/",

So much for poking around in the Web.config!

Of course this isn't the entire solution as idealy that would be dynamic - my application shouldn't have to be installed on a sub application of some website served by IIS - so i will pass a prefix in from the configuration or similar to allow the "/WebScratchPad/" portion to be a little dynamic as per this SO answer.