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

The problem with using strongly typed method signatures is that there is no way for you to return an "error" object if something is wrong with the request, be it validation errors or not found errors.

So if you want to use strongly typed signatures then you either have to included some sort of "error" object reference in your return type or explicitly throw exceptions..

The good thing about using HttpActionResult is that you are not constrained to a specific return type. So you could, for example, return OK(someObject) or BadRequest(errorObject). However, it is up to the developer to write the method correctly and double check that nothing happens like the example you mentioned above.