ApiController returns 404 when ID contains period

Question

I have an ApiController and I want to use email addresses as the ID parameter for requests:

// GET api/employees/email@address.com
public CompactEmployee Get         


        

Answer 1

This is what worked for me:

I was running on targetFramework = 4.6.1. I have upgraded to 4.6.2 and added this in web.config:

<system.web>
        <customErrors mode="Off"/>
        <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.6.2"/>
        <!-- This will allow to search for stuff that contains . & etc.-->
        <httpRuntime targetFramework="4.6.2" maxRequestLength="100000" maxUrlLength="2048" relaxedUrlToFileSystemMapping="true" requestPathInvalidCharacters=""/>
  </system.web>

The requestPathInvalidCharacters="" is to be able to have stuff like & etc in URI, in encoded form, of course.

Answer 2

Check your IIS settings:

Home Directory -> Configuration

Edit the .aspx application extension and ensure that the setting Verify that file exists is off.

UPDATE

I've just tested with a default MVC4 Web API project

URL: http://localhost:10983/api/values/cool@email.com

Action in ValuesController:

public string Get(string id)
{
    return id;
}

This was the response:

<string xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/">cool@email.com</string>

Answer 3

Would adding a trailing slash work for your scenario?

http://localhost:33021/api/employees/employee@company.com/