Returning http status code from Web Api controller

Question

I\'m trying to return a status code of 304 not modified for a GET method in a web api controller.

The only way I succeeded was something like this:

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Answer 1

For ASP.NET Web Api 2, this post from MS suggests to change the method's return type to IHttpActionResult. You can then return a built in IHttpActionResult implementation like Ok, BadRequest, etc (see here) or return your own implementation.

For your code, it could be done like:

public IHttpActionResult GetUser(int userId, DateTime lastModifiedAtClient)
{
    var user = new DataEntities().Users.First(p => p.Id == userId);
    if (user.LastModified <= lastModifiedAtClient)
    {
        return StatusCode(HttpStatusCode.NotModified);
    }
    return Ok(user);
}

Answer 2

I did not know the answer so asked the ASP.NET team here.

So the trick is to change the signature to HttpResponseMessage and use Request.CreateResponse.

[ResponseType(typeof(User))]
public HttpResponseMessage GetUser(HttpRequestMessage request, int userId, DateTime lastModifiedAtClient)
{
    var user = new DataEntities().Users.First(p => p.Id == userId);
    if (user.LastModified <= lastModifiedAtClient)
    {
         return new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.NotModified);
    }
    return request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, user);
}

Answer 3

I hate bumping old articles but this is the first result for this in google search and I had a heck of a time with this problem (even with the support of you guys). So here goes nothing...

Hopefully my solution will help those that also was confused.

namespace MyApplication.WebAPI.Controllers
{
    public class BaseController : ApiController
    {
        public T SendResponse<T>(T response, HttpStatusCode statusCode = HttpStatusCode.OK)
        {
            if (statusCode != HttpStatusCode.OK)
            {
                // leave it up to microsoft to make this way more complicated than it needs to be
                // seriously i used to be able to just set the status and leave it at that but nooo... now 
                // i need to throw an exception 
                var badResponse =
                    new HttpResponseMessage(statusCode)
                    {
                        Content =  new StringContent(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(response), Encoding.UTF8, "application/json")
                    };

                throw new HttpResponseException(badResponse);
            }
            return response;
        }
    }
}

and then just inherit from the BaseController

[RoutePrefix("api/devicemanagement")]
public class DeviceManagementController : BaseController
{...

and then using it

[HttpGet]
[Route("device/search/{property}/{value}")]
public SearchForDeviceResponse SearchForDevice(string property, string value)
{
    //todo: limit search property here?
    var response = new SearchForDeviceResponse();

    var results = _deviceManagementBusiness.SearchForDevices(property, value);

    response.Success = true;
    response.Data = results;

    var statusCode = results == null || !results.Any() ? HttpStatusCode.NoContent : HttpStatusCode.OK;

    return SendResponse(response, statusCode);
}

Answer 4

I don't like having to change my signature to use the HttpCreateResponse type, so I came up with a little bit of an extended solution to hide that.

public class HttpActionResult : IHttpActionResult
{
    public HttpActionResult(HttpRequestMessage request) : this(request, HttpStatusCode.OK)
    {
    }

    public HttpActionResult(HttpRequestMessage request, HttpStatusCode code) : this(request, code, null)
    {
    }

    public HttpActionResult(HttpRequestMessage request, HttpStatusCode code, object result)
    {
        Request = request;
        Code = code;
        Result = result;
    }

    public HttpRequestMessage Request { get; }
    public HttpStatusCode Code { get; }
    public object Result { get; }

    public Task<HttpResponseMessage> ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        return Task.FromResult(Request.CreateResponse(Code, Result));
    }
}

You can then add a method to your ApiController (or better your base controller) like this:

protected IHttpActionResult CustomResult(HttpStatusCode code, object data) 
{
    // Request here is the property on the controller.
    return new HttpActionResult(Request, code, data);
}

Then you can return it just like any of the built in methods:

[HttpPost]
public IHttpActionResult Post(Model model)
{
    return model.Id == 1 ?
                Ok() :
                CustomResult(HttpStatusCode.NotAcceptable, new { 
                    data = model, 
                    error = "The ID needs to be 1." 
                });
}

Answer 5

Change the GetXxx API method to return HttpResponseMessage and then return a typed version for the full response and the untyped version for the NotModified response.

    public HttpResponseMessage GetComputingDevice(string id)
    {
        ComputingDevice computingDevice =
            _db.Devices.OfType<ComputingDevice>()
                .SingleOrDefault(c => c.AssetId == id);

        if (computingDevice == null)
        {
            return this.Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.NotFound);
        }

        if (this.Request.ClientHasStaleData(computingDevice.ModifiedDate))
        {
            return this.Request.CreateResponse<ComputingDevice>(
                HttpStatusCode.OK, computingDevice);
        }
        else
        {
            return this.Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.NotModified);
        }
    }

*The ClientHasStale data is my extension for checking ETag and IfModifiedSince headers.

The MVC framework should still serialize and return your object.

NOTE

I think the generic version is being removed in some future version of the Web API.

Answer 6

Try this :

return new ContentResult() { 
    StatusCode = 404, 
    Content = "Not found" 
};