Different return types for ASP.NET Web API

Question

I am attempting to write truly RESTful web services over HTTP using ASP.NET MVC 4 Web API.

The current challenge I have is to return different return types (entity-body)

Answer 1

I derived the clean answer to this question from an answer I received on this other question.

If I make my return value HttpResponseMessage, I can return whatever status or content I need to by returning either a new HttpResponseMessage().

EDIT 5/10/2012: Thanks to input from @DarrelMiller, removed deprecated HttpResponseMessage<T> and replaced with call to HttpRequestMessage.CreateResponse<T>() extension method. NOTE: This extension method is not available in the MVC4/WebAPI beta. You need to build from source or get the nightly build.

Oversimplified example:

public HttpResponseMessage Post(MyResource myResource)
{
    ...
    if (goodStuff)
    {
        return ControllerContext.Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Created, myNewResource);
    }
    else if (badStuff)
    {
        return ControllerContext.Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, badRequest);
    }
    else
    {
        return new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError);
    }
}