Orchard cms apicontroller that returns xml - asp.net-mvc

Question

I've been trying to implement David Hayden's Orchard CMS and ASP .NET Web API http://www.davidhayden.me/blog/orchard-cms-and-asp.net-web-api, but I'm running into problems, basically getting a page not found.
This is what I have:
Under my controllers
ContactViewModel.cs
namespace Sunkist.ContactManager.Controllers
{
public class ContactsController : ApiController
{
private readonly IContentManager _contentManager;
public ContactsController(IContentManager contentManager)
{
_contentManager = contentManager;
}
public IEnumerable<ContactViewModel> Get()
{
return _contentManager
.Query(VersionOptions.Published, "Contact")
.List()
.Select(c => new ContactViewModel(c));
}
public ContactViewModel Get(int id)
{
var contact = _contentManager.Get(id);
if (contact == null)
throw new HttpResponseException
(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.NotFound));
return new ContactViewModel(contact);
}
}
}
ViewModel folder
ViewModel.cs
namespace Sunkist.ContactManager.ViewModel
{
public class ContactViewModel
{
private Orchard.ContentManagement.ContentItem c;
public ContactViewModel(Orchard.ContentManagement.ContentItem c)
{
// TODO: Complete member initialization
this.c = c;
}
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
public string City { get; set; }
}
}
and migration
namespace Sunkist.ContactManager {
public class Migrations : DataMigrationImpl {
public int Create() {
// Creating table ContactRecord
SchemaBuilder.CreateTable("ContactRecord", table => table
.ContentPartRecord()
.Column("Name", DbType.String)
.Column("Address", DbType.String)
.Column("City", DbType.String)
);
return 1;
}
}
}
I'm new to both Orchard and .Net MVC, So I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

Double check the name of the module that contains the Web API controller.
Via VS GUI, I created a new web api controller class "TestController.cs" and could not find the correct endpoint url.
That is, until I looked at the Module.txt in the project I added the controller to. The project is "Orchard.Users", but the name in the Module.txt file is just "Users".
I was able to hit the endpoint at "http://example.com/api/users/test".
Noteworthy: I setup a route for this at ".../UsersApi", but the 'auto-magic' URL pattern still works. Code below. Also, I later added a new module to contain my api controller and it would not work until I enabled the module in the dashboard.
TestController.cs
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web.Http;
namespace Orchard.Users.Controllers
{
public class TestController : ApiController
{
// GET api/<controller>
public IEnumerable<string> Get()
{
return new string[] { "value1", "value2" };
}
// GET api/<controller>/5
public string Get(int id)
{
return "value";
}
// POST api/<controller>
public void Post([FromBody]string value)
{
}
// PUT api/<controller>/5
public void Put(int id, [FromBody]string value)
{
}
// DELETE api/<controller>/5
public void Delete(int id)
{
}
}
}
HttpRoutes.cs
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Orchard.Mvc.Routes;
using Orchard.WebApi.Routes;
public class HttpRoutes : IHttpRouteProvider
{
public void GetRoutes(ICollection<RouteDescriptor> routes)
{
foreach (RouteDescriptor routeDescriptor in GetRoutes())
{
routes.Add(routeDescriptor);
}
}
public IEnumerable<RouteDescriptor> GetRoutes()
{
return new[] {
new HttpRouteDescriptor {
Name = "UsersApi",
Priority = -10,
RouteTemplate = "usersapi/{id}",
Defaults = new {
area = "Orchard.Users",
controller = "Test",
id = RouteParameter.Optional
},
}
};
}
}