In ASP.Net Web API, how do I map multiple http query parameters to a single method parameter - binding

Question

We're using ASP.Net Web API to generate a feed and it includes the ability to do paging.
myfeed.com/afeed?page=2
My boss says "let's also allow users to use 'paged', because that's what WP uses." In addition, we're also using pageIndex in some of our older feeds. So what I'd like to do is accept all three.
myfeed.com/afeed?page=2
myfeed.com/afeed?paged=2
myfeed.com/afeed?pageIndex=2
I'd like to do is be able to write a clean Web API method, such as
public Foo Get(int page = 1)
{
//do some stuff
return foo;
}
without cluttering the method with page 'plumbing'. So I tried creating an ActionFilter
public override void OnActionExecuting(HttpActionContext actionContext)
{
object pageParam = new object(); //query["page"]
if (pageParam == null)
{
var altPageParam = GetPageParamUsingAlternateParams(actionContext);
if (altPageParam != null){}
//SetPageParam here
}
base.OnActionExecuting(actionContext);
}
private object GetPageParamUsingAlternateParams(HttpActionContext actionContext)
{
object result = new object();
object pageIndexParam = new object(); //Query["pageIndex"]
object pagedParam = new object(); ////Query["paged"]
if (pagedParam != null)
result = pagedParam;
else if (pageIndexParam != null)
result = pageIndexParam;
return result;
}
I didn't finish. As I was looking for the best way to get the query params, I stumbled into a big mistake!
OnActionExecuting is executed after int page = 1. Sure, I could override it in an ActionFilter, but that would lead to confusion down the road. I really want to be able to do a simple flow through the URI query parameters that goes from
page -> paged -> pageIndex -> default value in method
I have found a lot of articles on custom binding to a an object. Also, I found articles about "parameter binding", however those dealt with FromUri and FromBody. I didn't find anything that I felt had a direct parallel to what I'm facing.

Answer 1

You could achieve what you want by defining 3 different GET method with parameters matched with the query segment of the Url like the code snippet below:
public class ProductsController : ApiController
{
//Matched api/products?page=1
public IHttpActionResult Get(int page)
{
return GetPagedData(page);
}
//Matched api/products?paged=1
public IHttpActionResult GetPaged(int paged)
{
return GetPagedData(paged);
}
//Matched api/products?pagIndex=1
public IHttpActionResult GetPageIndex(int pageIndex)
{
return GetPagedData(pageIndex);
}
//Do the real paging here
private IHttpActionResult GetPagedData(int page =1)
{
return Ok("Data Pages");
}
}