ASP.NET Core routing options Say, I have a single server for some views and some apis, so I'd route views by default, while the api would go under /api. The question is what's the correct way to achieve the routing? - Am I supposed to use this https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/mvc/controllers/routing?view=aspnetcore-6.0#areas , stick an [Area("api")] on all api controllers? - Is there a way to have all api controllers be imported from a separate assembly, making them end up in the right grouping on the bases of assembly? Or by namespace prefix? - Should I explicitly stick a Route to all controllers? So to be a bit more clear, I want my api controllers resolving to /api/whatever, while all the rest should go to /. I've read the entire page linked above, but it doesn't really mention such a use case, and suggests no best practices in that regard. Ideally it would be the second option, but the first one also seems fine, if the constant were to be factored out.

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Root Question Message

AntonC11/1/2022

ASP.NET Core routing options

Say, I have a single server for some views and some apis, so I'd route views by default, while the api would go under /api. The question is what's the correct way to achieve the routing?
- Am I supposed to use this https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/mvc/controllers/routing?view=aspnetcore-6.0#areas , stick an [Area("api")] on all api controllers?
- Is there a way to have all api controllers be imported from a separate assembly, making them end up in the right grouping on the bases of assembly? Or by namespace prefix?
- Should I explicitly stick a Route to all controllers?

So to be a bit more clear, I want my api controllers resolving to /api/whatever, while all the rest should go to /. I've read the entire page linked above, but it doesn't really mention such a use case, and suggests no best practices in that regard.
Ideally it would be the second option, but the first one also seems fine, if the constant were to be factored out.

Angius11/1/2022

I just use an area for my API

Angius11/1/2022

No, sorry, not even that

Angius11/1/2022

I just have an /Api directory and API controllers there lol

AntonC11/1/2022

How do you map them to /api?

Angius11/1/2022

namespace Ogma3.Api.V1;

[Route("api/[controller]", Name = nameof(ErrorController))]
[ApiController]
public class ErrorController : ControllerBase
{
    [HttpGet]
    public ActionResult<Result> OnGet([FromQuery] int? code)
    {
        var text = code.HasValue
            ? ReasonPhrases.GetReasonPhrase((int)code)
            : "Unknown Error";
        return new JsonResult(new Result(code, text))
        {
            StatusCode = code ?? 0
        };
    }

    public sealed record Result(int? Code, string Reason);
}

an example

Angius11/1/2022

My namespaces follow the directories

AntonC11/1/2022

Yeah imo that's shit

AntonC11/1/2022

the route thing

Angius11/1/2022

Yeah, most probably lol

Angius11/1/2022

Just use areas, then

Angius11/1/2022

You still need [Route("[controller]")] tho

AntonC11/1/2022

no i don't?

AntonC11/1/2022

Look at the examples in the docs

AntonC11/1/2022

ApiController already makes the class attribute-routed only, no?

Angius11/1/2022

Ah, huh, maybe

AntonC11/1/2022

Do you use the explicit route name for something in your app?

Angius11/1/2022

For the entirety of my API

Angius11/1/2022

But now you told me I might not need to lol

Angius11/1/2022

I'll probably refactor it to being an area

AntonC11/1/2022

No I mean do you consume it?

Angius11/1/2022

I do, yeah

Angius11/1/2022

/api/whatever/...

AntonC11/1/2022

I mean the Name

AntonC11/1/2022

why do you need to specify it explicitly at all

AntonC11/1/2022

[Route("blah", Name = nameof(...))]

AntonC11/1/2022

What do you use the name for

Angius11/1/2022

To generate the URL that I sometimes need

AntonC11/1/2022

So you're doing that because by default the name is the name of the class, without the controller part, so you're adding that explicitly, so that you could get the link by doing nameof(WhateverController)

AntonC11/1/2022

So I assume there's no built-in function to get the controller name by type?

AntonC11/1/2022

Like nameof(WhateverController)[.. ^("Controller".Length)] I guess

AntonC11/1/2022

Do you create the link in a way similar to GetLink(controller = nameof(WhateverController), action = nameof(WhateverController.Action))?

Angius11/1/2022

Yeah, I use the nameof() approach

Angius11/1/2022

I think in one place I do some substringing because... I don't even remember why, but apparently I had to

AntonC11/1/2022

I'm kinda disappointed about this one, seems like a rough edge

AntonC11/1/2022

I mean, having to either remove the controller part manually, or rename the routes

Angius11/1/2022

You could prolly write your own helper

AntonC11/1/2022

Yeah, but it's bad ux

AntonC11/1/2022

kinda bad anyway

Angius11/1/2022

Oh sure

AntonC11/1/2022

Unhandled exception. System.InvalidOperationException: Action 'fourtynine.StuffApiController.GetStuff (fourtynine)' does not have an attribute route. Action methods on controllers annot
ated with ApiControllerAttribute must be attribute routed.

AntonC11/1/2022

huh

AntonC11/1/2022

I guess it doesn't imply being attribute-routed, you were right

Angius11/1/2022

Looks like I wasn't writing those attributes pointlessly then, yay

AntonC11/1/2022

There's no way it's the right way to do it though, right? I mean, there are tons of repetition

AntonC11/1/2022

The only other way of grouping attributes that I can think of is inheritance, but firstly, inheritance is bad because you can't inherit from some other class, and secondly, it will only work if the attributes have attribute usage inherit set to true

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