WebApi2 IHttpActionResult strongly typed return values

Question

It is possible and not ideal to do this: (a vastly simplified example!)

[Serializable]
public class MyRecord
{
    public string key {get; set;}
    public          


        

Answer 1

First of all, it is a good practice to return IHttpActionResult, indicating the corresponding http status. Something like:

public async Task Get(string SomeKey)
{
    if(ExistsInDB(SomeKey))
        return Ok(SomeRecordFromDB(SomeKey));

    return NotFound();
}

But if you really want to have a strongly typed api, you can do something like:

 public async Task Get()
 {
     return new StronglyTypeResponse();
 }

Or, create a typed response, and you'll keep the http status code, etc in your response:

public class StronglyTypeResponse
{

}

public class StronglyTypedResult : IHttpActionResult
{
    HttpConfiguration _configuration;
    T _content;
    HttpStatusCode _statusCode;
    HttpRequestMessage _request;

    public StronglyTypedResult(T content, HttpStatusCode statusCode, HttpRequestMessage request, HttpConfiguration configuration)
    {
        _content = content;
        _request = request;
        _configuration = configuration;
        _statusCode = statusCode;
    }

    public Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        var response = new HttpResponseMessage(_statusCode)
        {
            Content = new ObjectContent(_content, _configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter),
            RequestMessage = _request,
            ReasonPhrase = "some phrase"
        };

        return Task.FromResult(response);
    }
}

And then you can create your method:

public async Task> Get()
{
    return new StronglyTypedResult(new StronglyTypeResponse(), HttpStatusCode.OK, Request, Configuration);
}

Creating your own custom generic IHttpActionResult

It's basically the same:

public class IHttpActionResult : System.Web.Http.IHttpActionResult
{
    HttpConfiguration _configuration;
    T _content;
    HttpStatusCode _statusCode;
    HttpRequestMessage _request;

    public IHttpActionResult(T content, HttpStatusCode statusCode, HttpRequestMessage request, HttpConfiguration configuration)
    {
        _content = content;
        _request = request;
        _configuration = configuration;
        _statusCode = statusCode;
    }

    public Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        var response = new HttpResponseMessage(_statusCode)
        {
            Content = new ObjectContent(_content, _configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter),
            RequestMessage = _request,
            ReasonPhrase = "some phrase"
        };

        return Task.FromResult(response);
    }
}

And now you can return the class you want with a typed IHttpActionResult:

public async Task> Get()
{
    var yourclass = new YourClass();

    return new IHttpActionResult(yourclass, HttpStatusCode.OK, Request, Configuration);
}