Azure Mobile Apps Custom API .Net backend - Second Controller

Question

Profanities ! (blowing off some steam, now to the question.)

A month ago I had these questions running:

msdn - Azure Mobile Apps Custom API .Net backend

stackoverflow - Azure Mobile Apps Custom API .Net backend

Happy with myself that I solved the issue. I then did not have time to look at this, beacuse of more pressing matters on the client side.
Now the server is again in focus. I now need to create a new controller and a new route. Copy-paste from the answer in stackoverflow, and done...

Ohhhhh NO! (NOT again) I simply do not get why it is so much harder to get this working than on the old MobileService.

What do you have to do to get controllers registered ? :/

I have tried publishing the controller individually from the project instead of only during it through the publishing of the entire app-service, with no success.

EXTRA

The current Starup class:

public partial class Startup
{
    public static void ConfigureMobileApp(IAppBuilder app)
    {
        HttpConfiguration config = new HttpConfiguration();

        //For more information on Web API tracing, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=620686 
        config.EnableSystemDiagnosticsTracing();
        config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();

        new MobileAppConfiguration()
            .UseDefaultConfiguration()
            .ApplyTo(config);
        // Also tried with .MapApiController

        // Use Entity Framework Code First to create database tables based on your DbContext
        Database.SetInitializer(new BCMobileAppInitializer());

        // To prevent Entity Framework from modifying your database schema, use a null database initializer
        // Database.SetInitializer<BCMobileAppContext>(null);

        MobileAppSettingsDictionary settings = config.GetMobileAppSettingsProvider().GetMobileAppSettings();

        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(settings.HostName))
        {
            // This middleware is intended to be used locally for debugging. By default, HostName will
            // only have a value when running in an App Service application.
            app.UseAppServiceAuthentication(new AppServiceAuthenticationOptions
            {
                SigningKey = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SigningKey"],
                ValidAudiences = new[] { ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ValidAudience"] },
                ValidIssuers = new[] { ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ValidIssuer"] },
                TokenHandler = config.GetAppServiceTokenHandler()
            });
        }
        app.UseWebApi(config);
    }
}

The new controller:

using System.Web.Http;
using Microsoft.Azure.Mobile.Server.Config;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Web.Http.Tracing;
using Microsoft.Azure.Mobile.Server;
using BCMobileAppService.Models;
using System.Linq;
using DTO;
using System;

namespace BCMobileAppService.Controllers
{
[MobileAppController]
public class TestController2 : ApiController
{
    // Post api/Test
    [HttpPost, Route("api/user/create")]
    public IHttpActionResult Post(UsernameCheckDto dto)
    {
        var telemetry = new Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.TelemetryClient();
        telemetry.TrackTrace("UsernameCheck", Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.DataContracts.SeverityLevel.Information);
        using (BCMobileAppContext db = new BCMobileAppContext())
        {

            telemetry.TrackTrace("UsernameCheck 2");
            string Username_NoSpaces = dto.Username.Replace(" ", "");
            telemetry.TrackTrace("UsernameCheck 3");
            var user = db.Users.FirstOrDefault(u => u.Username_NoSpaces == Username_NoSpaces);
            telemetry.TrackTrace("UsernameCheck 4");

            if (user == null && !Username_NoSpaces.Contains(","))
            {
                telemetry.TrackTrace("UsernameCheck Done 1");
                return Ok(true);
            }
            telemetry.TrackTrace("UsernameCheck Done 2");
            return Ok(false);


        }
    }

    // Get api/values
    [HttpGet, Route("api/user/create")]
    public IHttpActionResult Get(string hej)
    {
        string retVal = "Hello World! " + hej;
        return Ok(retVal);
    }
}
}

Answer 1

Hello,

Thank you for posting here!

404 error seems because of, if the request URI did not match a route for the mobile API application.

You can try following:

Add a default value specifying the TestController2 controller to the first rout.

For more details, kindly refer the below link:

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/webdev/2013/04/04/debugging-asp-net-web-api-with-route-debugger/

Hope it helps.

Regards,

Swikruti

Answer 2

Hello Swikruti,

I agree that the route must be wrong, but as the picture shows and the code should be the same?

Trying the link you suggested gave me this:

Trying the helper from this link did not help either.

Other suggestions?

**Update**

I have enabled swagger but no API's are showing, even those who work. How do I enable swagger to find all API's?

Answer 3

Hi,

I think the main problem is that your class name is TestController2.

Change it to Test2Controller, and that should solve the problem.

WebApi expects Controller class names to follow a certain convention.  TestController2 doesn't get discovered as a controller during route mapping because it doesn't end with "Controller".

Here's a blog post describing why this is: http://www.strathweb.com/2013/02/but-i-dont-want-to-call-web-api-controllers-controller/

Answer 4

Okay I will try this tomorrow THX!

Also could it make sense to map the routes instead manually? If so how would I do this?

Furthermore I have changed the question to try and map the routes instead of relying on MapApiControllers. The mapping should be done as this link states

EXAMPLE How would I map api/user/create as the code shows above to this format:

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

Answer 5

This is what happens in your snippet:

HttpConfiguration config = new HttpConfiguration();

        //For more information on Web API tracing, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=620686 
        config.EnableSystemDiagnosticsTracing();
        config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();

        new MobileAppConfiguration()
            .UseDefaultConfiguration()
            .ApplyTo(config);

ApplyTo calls MapApiControllers

https://github.com/Azure/azure-mobile-apps-net-server/blob/master/src/Microsoft.Azure.Mobile.Server/Config/MobileAppConfiguration.cs#L95

You can check the source, and follow that pattern in your Startup.MobileApp to register custom controllers and routes. 

I would suggest a different name than DefaultApi, though. We already use "Home", "Tables", and "DefaultApis".  So registering under those names would cause conflicts.

https://github.com/Azure/azure-mobile-apps-net-server/blob/master/src/Microsoft.Azure.Mobile.Server/Config/RouteNames.cs

Answer 6

The snippet is the same that I am using more or less, but I will update my code and try.

I am aware that the EXAMPLE I showed was not correct. It was meant how do I create the mapping I

config.route,MapHttpRoute(

/* How do I map my route in this way*/
/* i.e. api/user/create how is this done correctly*/

)

I am going to try the other suggestions tonight, thank you so much for the info.