Problems when adding Web API to an existing ASP.NET Web Forms Application

Question

Some background info first. I have a working website in the form of a Web Forms Application created in VS 2012 Express. Then i tried adding a Web API, by adding a ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Application project and selecting Web API.

So the whole project has three different projects now.

• DAL (data access layer)
• Web Forms Application
• Web API

(I have read tutorials for adding the API to an existing project, but having the Web API in a different project is a requirement.)

To keep it simple i am only using the controllers that are included from the start until i solve this.

My problem is that i get 404 Not Found Errors when i try to run for example:

 http://localhost:49919/api/Values 

Now i guess this is because i am trying to access the API from my site which is another project. But even after looking for hours for solutions online i couldn't find anything that solves my problem. I found some people with the same problem, but the solutions for them didn't work for me.

The things i have tried so far is:

• Added a reference to the API in the Site project.

• Adding this code to the API Web.Config. Which if understand correctly should allow access between projects.

   <system.webServer> <httpProtocol> <customHeaders> <clear/> <add name="Access-Control-Allow-Origin" value="*" /> <add name="Access-Control-Allow-Headers" value="Content-Type" /> <add name="Access-Control-Allow-Methods" value="GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS" /> </customHeaders > </httpProtocol > </system.webServer > 

My routing in the WebApiConfig looks like this:

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

Global.asax in the API looks like this:

protected void Application_Start() { AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas(); WebApiConfig.Register(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration); FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters); RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes); BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles); } 

I tried making a whole new project with just a Web API and it worked without any editing.

This is my first time working with Web API, so i appreciate all the help i can get.

Edit: Thought i would add the purpose of the API. I will use it to get the latest messages from DAL and show it with jQuery/AJAX on the site.

Edit2: Changed the IIS port on the API to the same one as my website.

Website http://localhost:49919/

API http://localhost:49919/api/(/api because they can't have the same url)

The links look like this now 49919/api/api/values, but that can be fixed.

Ofcourse it was something as simple as that, but i had no idea that needed to be done.

Answer 1

The solution i used for my problem:

I changed the IIS port on the API project to the same one as my website project.

Website http://localhost:49919/

API http://localhost:49919/api/

( /api because they can't have the same url )

The links look like this now 49919/api/api/values, but that can be fixed.